Thesis (MTech. degree in Performing Arts) -- Tshwane University of Technology. 2010. / The training of students for the technical side of the Entertainment Industry in South Africa is not something that has been with us for many years. It is only for the last 33 years that an institution, the then Technikon Pretoria, started a course that trains Scenic Artists in South Africa. Not many institutions are training Scenic Artists in South Africa, and the current Department of Entertainment Technology has always been the leader in this field. In the United Kingdom, training students as Scenic Artists has been part of their programmes for the last ninety years. One finds that there is a demand for training Scenic Artists in the United Kingdom, because of the size and complexity of the Entertainment Industry there. During the Apartheid era, South Africa was excluded from the International scene, so the demand did not really exist here for a number of years. Lately, the Entertainment Industry in South Africa has picked up momentum and expanded its borders immensely, and this has created a great demand for trained Scenic Artists in South Africa. Today one can proudly say that one is part of an industry that trains people as Scenic Artists in South Africa that contributes to the global Entertainment Industry. The Scenic Artists who completed their studies at TUT are employed nationally and internationally, and deliver a very high standard of work on the most impressive projects. During the research that was done between the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa and the Rose Bruford College and Guildhall School of Drama and Music, both in the United Kingdom in London, one can see that there are no major differences between the three institutions. Each institution has its own methodology, but at the end, all are working towards one goal, and that is to train the best Scenic Artists possible. The differences that present it are in the course structure, available facilities and the amount of staff allocated to do the training.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1963 W33

published_or_final_version / abstract / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

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This dissertation demonstrates that seventeenth-century dramatists and theatrical practitioners invented a dazzling series of specialized technologies for representing space. I argue that ubiquitous stage technologies, such as doors, props, musical instruments, and curtains, were used to create a dynamic sense of location—both fictional locations within the represented action and the audience’s location within a specific theater structure. Scholarship on the early modern spatial imaginary has tended to focus on broader cultural changes in how English people understood the world around them, in part through the massive growth of London as an urban center, and in part through England’s burgeoning empire and increasing contact with the world beyond its shores. At the same time, theater scholars have increasingly emphasized the material conditions of theatrical production, including the composition of theatrical companies, the features of different theater buildings, and the nature of costumes and cosmetics. My research extends this theater historical work to show how the details of theatrical practice shaped perceptions of space, including the space of the theater itself as well as the rapidly expanding sense of both urban and global space outside the theater’s walls. My chapters are organized around the different tools used to represent particular types of place, while also tracing a chronological development marked by both continuity and change. In part, this means looking back towards the theatrical traditions out of which this drama sprang, as when I show how the disposition of stage doors in Roman New Comedy or the use of props in medieval morality plays were redeployed by playwrights such as Ben Jonson or Thomas Dekker. I also argue for a more complex relationship than we have assumed between the spatial arrangements of the prewar Shakespearean stage and that of the Restoration. While the introduction of painted scenery is typically taken to mark a break in how space was represented onstage, I establish that playwrights in this era continued to experiment with many of the same spatial techniques used by their precursors in the prewar theaters. By carefully tracing how the same spatial tools – the movement of actors in and out of the doors, the management of discovery spaces, and the positioning of musicians and sound machines – continued to be used alongside the painted scenery, I help us see more clearly how those tools were already active in shaping the perception of theatrical space in the pre-1642 theaters.

Illustrative matter in pocket. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

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This dissertation analyses the influence theatre space and the dramatic genre have on the design process, by examining three designs of Greg King: Aladdin (2007), a pantomime presented at the Playhouse Drama Theatre, Oleanna (2008) a drama at the Seabrooke's Theatre, and The Wizard of Oz (2008), a musical presented at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Through a semiotic analysis of the productions, the scenographic choices of King are interrogated to ascertain the ways theatre space and dramatic genre affected his design choices. The theories around sign systems in the theatre of Keir Elam (1980), Martin Esslin (1987), and Elaine Aston and George Savona (1991) are examined and used to decode King's designs. This dissertation theorises that the theatre space has influenced and continues to influence the decisions and choices of the scenographer, and it is this linkage that informs the discussion around the historical development of the proscenium arch theatre and the scenographer. The case studies offered in this dissertation highlight the challenges involved with the physical limitations of the theatre space, as each venue selected differs in size, shape, and the technical equipment available for the designer. The dramatic text provides the primary basis for both the director and the designer to develop a production concept. However, dramatic texts can be divided into many different genres and the following three genres, namely drama, musical and pantomime, provide the focus for this study. As these three genres have evolved from earlier forms, the historical development of the three genres is examined to ascertain how the genre affects the scenographic process. Atheatre production is the result of a collaboration between many specialists and therefore, the relationship between the designer and other member of the production team is examined. A set design is a visual image of an imagined environment and many designers use symbols, consciously or subconsciously, to communicate their ideas. A theatre production is the result of a collaboration between many specialists and therefore, the relationship between the designer and other member of the production team is examined. A set design is a visual image of an imagined environment and many designers use symbols, consciously or subconsciously, to communicate their ideas. The work of three international designers, Josef Svoboda, Ming Cho Lee and Ralph Koltai is examined further to understand the influence theatre space and the dramatic genre have on the design process. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.