Since there is very little scientific research about directing children and foremost about directingchildren in professional productions, like Stockholm stadsteater, was my purpose with this bacheloressay to find work methods that directors use when they work with child actors in professionalproductions. With this bachelor essay I wanted to give practitioners in the world of theater tools forhow to work with children in professional theater, as well as increase the interest for furtherresearch in this subject. To accomplish this purpose I have gathered material from the production of Billy Elliot at MalmöOpera, made observations of the same production at Stockholms stadsteater and interviewed thedirector of the production, Ronny Danielsson and director and children ambassador Suzanne Osten.The study is made from a perspective of the post modern child and also from a so called child perspective on the art of directing and working with children in theater. My conclusions from my studies are that when working as a director with child actors you need tothink about motivation and stimulating the children in their development, and support them in theirwork with analyzing the play, as well as give them tools to help them find their emotionalconnection. If the children loose their interest in acting the director need to be there to give thechildren new challenges. It is important to give positive feedback and use a language that thechildren understand and use body language and image work to clarify the directions as well asletting the children have some time for rest and play. This is only one example of how directors work with child actors in professional productions. Frommy interviews, observations and the previous research that I have studied, have I discovered thatdirectors sometimes are in agreement and sometimes not. To further answer my questions moreresearch into the director’s way of working with children would be needed. I therefor hope that Ithrough this essay have contributed with increasing the interest of further research into this subject.

In the spring of 2023, Kungliga Operan in Stockholm, Sweden premiered their production of Stephen Sondheim's famous musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This study aims to analyze this production in regards to Mattias Fhyr's definition of the Gothic. It analyzes what gothic signs and themes are recognizable in the Kungliga Operan production of the musical and how they manifest on stage. The study applies the qualitative method of performance analysis, which uses a combination of semiotics and hermeneutics to analyze live performances. Semiotics is also used as the theoretical foundation of this essay. Fhyr's definition specifies that a gothic text depicts subjective worlds, that lack higher order and is characterized by an atmosphere of decay, destruction, and irresolvability, and that it contains labyrinthine qualities. Earlier research also shows that the Gothic can be found in almost all media, including theater. This study illustrates how this performance of Sweeney Todd contains and expresses the above mentioned themes. It also discusses the gothic genre's relationship with opera and comedy and how they are relevant in the performance. It explores the characters monstrous depictions, and examines different familial relations and themes in the musical, characteristic of the gothic genre. The study concludes that the Gothic can be found in the musical's set design and fictional locations, in the mood and atmosphere mostly created by the score, in the characters and their actions, as well as in the story itself.

”Blessed be those without pretense”: A hermeneutic-semiotic analysis of the institutionally produced storytelling theatre of Västerbotten is a bachelor thesis in Performance Studies. The study aims to examine and define the aesthetic and commonly occurring themes of the institutionally produced storytelling theatre of Västerbotten, and to discuss the representation of the citizens of Västerbotten on stage, which ideals and characteristics are desirable and which are not. The theoretical framework of this study is supported by ethnological and sociological theories about storytelling and the method used is performance analysis based on semiotics and hermeneutics. Seven performances between the years 1998-2021 are deconstructed and analyzed. The results show several reoccurring and common features of the storytelling theatre of Västerbotten, such as the shifting between the storyteller's present moment and the time period of the story, the important role music plays in the telling of the story and the common setting of the farming societies of the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. Other reoccurring themes are those of Christianity, socialism, food, farm animals, and squalor. The ideal characteristics identified were honesty, integrity, and a good work ethic. There is an ambition for cultural preservation present within the genre and a lack of representation of minorities.

Inom det dramapedagogiska fältet är området skapande för skapandets egen skull inte så framträdande i forskningen. Det finns mer forskning kring barn och elever - och drama - jämfört med forskning som beskriver vuxnas deltagande. Undersökningen har som syfte att skapa förståelse för hur vuxna deltagare kan uppleva en kurs i improvisationsteater. Undersökningen har narrativ metod och deltagarna har intervjuats och data samlats in genom deltagarnas skriftliga berättelser. Frågorna som ställts är Vad är improvisationsteater?, Vad händer med dig på improvisationsteatern? och Vilken betydelse kan kursen i improvisationsteater ha för dig i ditt liv i övrigt? Undersökningen är fenomenologisk och hermeneutisk vilket betyder att det är  själva essensen av improvisationsteater som är central - vad kan improvisationsteater vara? Vilken betydelse har improvisationsteatern för deltagarna? Undersökningen är praxisnära och det empiriska materialet får stort utrymme. Kursen beskrivs som en egen verklighet, en oas - där vad som helst kan hända. Deltagarna får vara spontana och agera utan manus - och ett exempel på ett förlopp är ”från en dyster begravningsscen, till en familjemiddag och så kommer plötsligt kungen in och domderar”. Forskningsresultatet visar på en spretig, mångfacetterad - eller rik - bild när det gäller improvisationsteaterns betydelse för deltagarna. Deltagarna tillskriver kursen i improvisationsteater att den är alltifrån kul och en roligt lek till att den bidrar till ”modet att vara som jag är”, att ”släppa oro och stress” eller ”stå ut med vardagen”.

<p>Peterson, E & Andrén, M. (2010). Från ingen idé till färdig föreställning. Ett fokussamtal om den skapande processen. C-uppsats i dramapedagogik, Akademin för utbildning och ekonomi, Högskolan i Gävle.</p><p>Syftet är att utifrån ett ledarperspektiv undersöka och beskriva den skapande processen i ett pedagogiskt föreställningsarbete. Undersökningen har en fenomenologisk utgångspunkt med fokussamtal som metod.  Fem drama-pedagoger som alla har arbetat på kulturskola med föreställningsarbete har gemensamt undersökt den skapande processen. Resultatet redovisas i kategorier utifrån den skapande processens olika faser, gruppens förutsättningar och ledarens pedagogiska överväganden. Vidare är materialet analyserat efter Pirjo Birgerstams indelning av skapande handling utifrån estetisk-intuitiv och rationell-analytisk position. I undersökningen behandlas också den tysta kunskapen och dess betydelse i det dramapedagogiska arbetet. Resultatet visar att den  skapande processen pendlar mellan olika nivåer som kan uttryckas i termer av mythos/logos, formdriften/sinnliga driften, agering/reflexion, estetisk-intuitiv/ rationell-analytisk position och att den pendlar mellan delar och helhet.</p>

Peterson, E &amp; Andrén, M. (2010). Från ingen idé till färdig föreställning. Ett fokussamtal om den skapande processen. C-uppsats i dramapedagogik, Akademin för utbildning och ekonomi, Högskolan i Gävle. Syftet är att utifrån ett ledarperspektiv undersöka och beskriva den skapande processen i ett pedagogiskt föreställningsarbete. Undersökningen har en fenomenologisk utgångspunkt med fokussamtal som metod.  Fem drama-pedagoger som alla har arbetat på kulturskola med föreställningsarbete har gemensamt undersökt den skapande processen. Resultatet redovisas i kategorier utifrån den skapande processens olika faser, gruppens förutsättningar och ledarens pedagogiska överväganden. Vidare är materialet analyserat efter Pirjo Birgerstams indelning av skapande handling utifrån estetisk-intuitiv och rationell-analytisk position. I undersökningen behandlas också den tysta kunskapen och dess betydelse i det dramapedagogiska arbetet. Resultatet visar att den  skapande processen pendlar mellan olika nivåer som kan uttryckas i termer av mythos/logos, formdriften/sinnliga driften, agering/reflexion, estetisk-intuitiv/ rationell-analytisk position och att den pendlar mellan delar och helhet.

Studiens övergripande syfte är att undersöka förutsättningarna för ämnet teater/drama inom kulturskolan. Till grund för uppsatsen ligger tre fokusgruppsamtal med lärare i teater/drama i kulturskolan i en svensk stad samt ett stödjande dokument för kulturskolorna i samma stad och ett styrdokument för Norges kulturskola. Allt material har bearbetats och granskats utifrån en socialkonstruktivistisk ansats genom diskursanalytiska glasögon.  Informanterna är eniga om att ämnet teater/drama i kulturskolan i Staden inte betraktas som en konstform, utan huvudsakligen som verktyg och metod. De beskriver en verksamhet som har knappa resurser att nå konstnärlig höjd och beskriver ett ämne som på grund av okunskap kring praktikens tidskrävande processer är marginaliserat i kulturskolans verksamhet. Det framgår att ämnet är i stort behov av att formuleras verbalt. Det tycks nödvändigt att skapa en gemensam terminologi för att möjliggöra en konstruktiv kommunikation mellan lärare i teater/drama och chefer i syfte att utveckla en hållbar verksamhet.

Things, spaces and people collaborate in order to create an immersive experience. This project investigates this collaboration in order to combine them for an embodied way of tell and perceive stories.  Can a immersive experience help to close the gap between information and the person, the event and the story? In the following essay I am going to analyze the components that are part of the experience. I am interested in the connection between perception, memory, atmosphere and objects. Inquire how they are related and what they represent in order to tell stories with them. I try to question the way we perceive and expand the function of telling and receiving stories to the whole body and everything around us. With these new questions, create my project – Johan’s Room – and experiment with them, trying to connect the audience with the story.

The Swedish professional theatre for children and young audiences is in a constant change, development and renewal due to adulthoods shifting view and understanding of the child and childhood through the ages. The shifting discourse of childhood can be seen both in the various theatre performances for children and young audiences throughout the 20th century, but also in the constant shifting discussions and debates about what sort of performances are appropriate for children. The base of this thesis is a performance analysis of a recorded version of Unga Klara’s För att jag säger det from a gender perspective, with a focus on the stage setting and the mise-en-scène, along with the actors’ performative actions. The purpose is to examine if and how these theatrical signs counteracts or correlates with gender and hetero norms, but also investigate if the complex relationship between childhood and adulthood can be seen in the performance. To do this, I use a combination of hermeneutics, theatre semiotics and phenomenology as my main methodological starting point. Theories about gender performativity and discourse analysis in childhood studies serve as perspectives to the analysis and interpretation of the performance. The analysis starts with a brief introduction to the performance along with a discussion about the dramaturgical structure and the course of events and situations taking place in För att jag säger det. The analysis continues with a discussion about the theatrical space, in particular the stage space in relation to the starting point of the performance, along with the theatrical communication between the actors and the audience. Then, I discuss the theatrical signs that first caught my attention; the actors’ performative bodies and the music and stage sounds, where I analyse my comprehension of the actors’ performative bodies from a gender perspective. The analysis then continues to a more argument based interpretation of the interactions between the actors and the audience, and follows by a discussion of the actors impersonation of childhood and adulthood. In the last part of the analysis I identify and discuss my understanding of various themes and messages in För att jag säger det. The result of the study implies that a few sequences of the staging along with the actors’ performative bodies in För att jag säger det correlates to gender and hetero norms, but mostly the performance discourages normativity in general. The complex relationship between childhood and adulthood are however well established in the performance’s staging, and can be found in how the actors portraits childhood versus adulthood. It is also visible in the interactive communicational parts between the stage and the auditorium, which only occurs under the terms and conditions of the actors.

This essay describes an action research project conducted twice in the same high school with second year students within the subject English. Students are often unwilling or unable to relate to Shakespeare and his language. It is boring, they say. It is difficult, inaccessible and has nothing to do with us, they say. But how is falling in love unrelatable and boring? How are gangs and families far away from today's society? Romeo and Juliet is relatable and as current today as it was 400 years ago.  The subject English in the Swedish curriculum requires different literary time periods and dramatic text as well as living conditions, attitudes, values, traditions, social issues as well as history, politics and culture from the world where English is used should be integrated into the teaching. Which means that Shakespeare is perfect.  Teaching English using drama is a challenge with students who do not see themselves as ‘actors’, the didactic challenges themselves being of interest in this essay. Students are asked to create a modern devised version of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet where they work on character using for example Stanislavsky’s methods and improvisation. The aim is to see which didactic changes need to be made for character work and performance to be effective, run smoothly and be fun. The aim is also to better understand how it feels for the students to take on a character. The results show the importance of relevance for the students, leading them slowly into using drama as a method. The play has to be relatable and have a connection to the students own lives. In conclusion, in-depth character work linked to improvisation and devising is important for the development of character.