In this account of my practise as research into the crisis of masculinity among black males in South Africa, I am concerned with how men oppress and terrorize women and retard the recovery of South Africa from apartheid through crime, violence and transgressive actions. Following Sirkin (1984) in this paper I term this behaviour ‘hypermasculine’ and attribute it to the unfathomable violence inflicted on the black male body and psyche during apartheid while Danieli, (2007) and Goodman’s (2013) ‘transgenerational trauma’ accounts for why the condition persists. Butler’s idea of gender as a ‘performance’ theoretically grounds the hypermasculine body as a ‘mask’ behind which lies either a true and better male self or ‘shadow’– Seriti – or no self at all. Following this premise, I give an account of the creative process and performance of two PaR pieces (Seriti and Metsi) in which I unpack both the process and performances in which my own black male body was the medium for the research. I sketch my objectives of physically inhabiting the hypermasculine ‘performative’ stereotypes familiar to me from childhood township memories as well as in township theatre in order to define and ‘know’ them. Through exercises in weight, tempo and repetition I hoped to re-inscribe the misshapen figure of the black male. I discuss how working with an older black actor in Seriti yielded valuable insights into cultural male hierarchies, while the enactment of hypermasculinity took its toll necessitating mediation through traditional ritual. I recount how, with the need for healing now evoked in my body, and with an obsession in the shape of water, (Metsi) in the second research project I allowed the memory of the positive feminine presences in my past to inflect the male body with a different weight and shape in a disruption of the familiar and a glimpse of the potential of a new shape or self.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-105). / In a developing country such as South Africa, the challenge to locate new, effective methods of social development is key. This study argues that applied theatre has the potential to become a powerful medium for the fulfilment of this aim. The development and performance of this kind of theatre, which occurs outside of conventional theatre settings and deals with social issues in a participatory way with its audience, brings people of different genders, ages, races and classes together. In doing so, a community is formed, dynamic and multidimensional in nature. This is a divergence from conventional understandings of community as a single static, objective entity. Community building practice centres around this reconceptualisation of community, providing an orientation to the ways in which people who identify as members of a shared community engage together in the process of community change.

Magister Artium - MA / Scholarship on theatre in South Africa has shown how under the Apartheid government theatrical practices were divided into different genres such as protest theatre, township theatre, black theatre, mainstream theatre etc. In many ways theatre today presents the same fractures and polarisations: community and mainstream theatre. This study investigates ways in which black theatre artists from marginalised and disadvantaged communities with and without formal training negotiate themselves within theatre spaces in Cape Town. Discussing and analyzing the works and the trajectories of two case-studies: the Ukwanda Puppet and Design Company and the Back Stage Theatre Production Company, I attempt to demonstrate how works of arts that awkwardly sits with labels such as “community” or “mainstream” theatre are emerging more and more in the Cape Town theatre scene.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-56). / In this paper I explore and develop the notion of Citizen Theatre. Chaper 1 sets the contextual background that influenced my theory and practice. I examine the theory of structures of power as expounded by Magaisa (2006), and how it is applicable to Zimbabwe, In this chaper I briefly refer to the history of the liberation struggle and the current situation in Zimbabwe as a way of tracing the development of propaganda that informs the structures the power in Zimbabwe.

This study employs Jean-Paul Sartre’s theories of the ‘analogon’ and the imaging consciousness to develop the relationship between body and object in mask performance (Sartre, 1948:23). I suggest that the idea of the analogon allows for the body to be extended through, or invested into, objects to make new bodies (Shephard 2006: 150). These new bodies can possess multiple functions, when in relation to one another, one of which is to create metaphorical imagery which aids the development of story in the audience’s imaging consciousness. The study proposes that the analogon has the ability to pull the audience’s consciousness into a space that lies between the real and the fantastical, a space that can be defined as the imaginary. Furthermore, the study explores the idea that the combination of the imaging consciousness, the analogon and mask technique, through improvisational play, via negativa and transposition, can be utilized as a methodology towards developing the physical body as a mode of communication. This methodology extends the relationship between bodies and non-bodies (Shephard, 2006: 150) in mask performance, and uses this as a means of generating metaphorical images in order to make the imaginary world (which I refer to as story) come alive in the audience’s imaging consciousness

Includes bibliographical references. / The aim of this enquiry is to deepen the understanding of the author's practice as theatre designer, scenographer and visual dramaturge in a postdramatic milieu. This study creates a theoretical frame for a research-led performance that is especially dependent on the release of 'active energies of imagination' (Lehmann, 2006:16). The performance will take the form of a scenographic event,which does not depend on 'the principles of narration and figuration' (Lehmann, 2006:18). Instead it relies on a 'visual dramaturgy ' in which just as in front of a painting, activates the dynamic capacity of the gaze to produce processes, combinations and rhythms on the basis of the data provided by the stage' (Lehmann, 2006:157). The study proposes that the release of 'active energies of imagination' (2006:16) extends beyond the space of the live event, tracking its origin to the interaction between the designer and the materials of her art.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-41). / My research explicates the process of remix, normally associated with digital media, and contemplates how it could be applied to live performance in order to create a 'theatre remix'. I locate my own subject position as a theatre maker within what is termed the Net Generation and regard remix as part of the Net Generation's creative expression. This paper outlines the characteristics, significance and mindset of the Net Generation to provide context for and to enable a better comprehension of remix as a creative expression for the Net Generation. Remix is regarded as a conscious process used to innovate and create through means of copy, transformation and combination. The possible cultural implications of remix are considered as a challenge to notions of originality, a larger cultural need to celebrate re-appropriation and laying claim to cultural inheritance by making use of popular culture as a source for new creative works. It is acknowledged that we live in a convergence culture (as posited by Henry Jenkins 2006), where content moves between different forms of media. For example an image, song or narrative is transferable across a range of media such as television, cinema, the Internet or theatre. A possibility to converge digital sources with live performance in order to create a 'theatre remix' lies in seeking the similarities between these seemingly different media. I contend that what could possibly be most enticing about remixing digital media with performance is that, due to performance's liveness, it offers something other remixes cannot-presence. Remixes are predominantly digital such as music, remixing clips from movies to create faux trailers for hypothetical movies and setting remixed movie clips to remixed music. Therefore they are mediated and cannot be experienced in the same way one would experience a live event.

In a continent built on competing patriarchal cultures and traditions, the Eurocentric perspective is dominant. The suit/blazer has become a symbol of morality, power, and class that has centred its position via the violent legacy of colonialism and slavery or as Edward Said defines these legacies, via notions of “cultural imperialism”. The purpose of this paper is to inquire whether an aesthetic change from this ideological legacy would ultimately lead to a change in African masculine embodiments. The research identifies and applies multiple references from different applications of embodied resistance: sartorial displays, fashion design, drapery and theories around the gendered body and its relation to clothing for such a purpose – performed hereas „methods of undress‟.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-64). / This dissertation is an enquiry towards creating an environment for 'equal' collaboration between international partners in an applied theatre project. As a direct case study, I used my master's fieldwork project, No-man's land, a theatre project involving performers from South Africa and The Netherlands. The problematics of international exchanges in which people, resources and art works are brought together over long distances, generates issues around power, culture and the performing arts which demand attention from project partners. The term 'No Man's Land' isthe metaphor developed throughout this dissertation in order to conceptualise the space of collaboration, as well as the mentality such a collaboration necessitates. The focus here is on international collaboration projects within the field of applied theatre that have the potential to unite artists from different backgrounds to explore issues of mutual interest through theatre processes and performances.

Includes bibliographical references. / This paper presents: The Frieze, The Anatomy Lecture Theatre and The Security Hut as outcomes of my practice-based research project into strategies of making autotopographical performance. Departing from Gonzalez’s theory of autotopography (1995), which focuses on objects belonging to individuals that are seen to signify their identity, and drawing on Heddon’s (2002; 2008), Bal’s (2002) and Arlander’s (2012) subsequent discussions around the term, I unpack the process of making live art performances in response to a site. During the process of making I examined the relationships between the material landscape, my processes of memory and my sense-of-self.