This thesis seeks to establish how the fifth-century audience’s perception of Aeschylean tragedy was influenced by their prior knowledge of the myths on which the dramas were based. Thus we study references to these myths in earlier epic and lyric sources in an attempt to detect borrowings and deviations from the earlier material on the part of the poet. The earliest surviving tragedy, the Persae, has a historical basis and so mythical knowledge is supplanted by the audience's own first-hand experience of the recent war. We see how foreknowledge of the Greek victory at Salamis will prove a deep influence on the audience s perception of the presentation of the enemy court and how Aeschylus presents the Persians as being utterly devastated by the defeat. Likewise an appreciation of the Seven Against Thebes is greatly enhanced if we remember that from the very beginning of the drama the audience were anticipating the double fratricide from their knowledge of this events in previous versions of the myth. During the Supplices, the audience would have suspected that not only would the Argives accept the supplication of the Danaids but also that these helpless girls would shortly murder their bridegrooms on their wedding-night, and Aeschylus includes many dark hints at this future event during the course of his play. Our study of the myth of Agamemnon will enable us to appreciate the exploitation of audience expectation throughout the Oresteia and their foreknowledge that murder is plotted against Agamemnon on his return and that Orestes will return to exact vengeance proves vital to the tragic effect. In addition we detect certain areas in which Aeschylus may diverge from his inherited material, such as his presentation of Clytemnestra as the sole unaided killer of her husband and his inclusion of a trial of Orestes before the court of the Areopagus. Thus it is hoped that by considering the mythical knowledge shared by both Aeschylus and his audience we are able to gain a fuller appreciation of the effects sought by the poet in the fifth-century theatre.

No description available.

This thesis is an examination of the extent to which contemporary British plays written by women constitute an ideological theatre. It is based upon the premise that there is a relationship of feminist theatre practice to feminist theory, where theory is seen to have informed practice and practice has informed the theory. I argue that an ideological theatre can be understood with reference to first, playstructure and second, the place of the performer in relation to both character and spectator. The implications of these can be seen terms first, of representation and second, of the physical presence of the body of the performer on stage and are therefore seen to be to do with the representation of issues on stage and performance issues to do with the woman performer respectively. Using aspects of a materialist-feminist analysis I examine the ways in which feminist epistemology has brought about a transformation of social relations in so far as these are deployed through representation and specific processes of performance based upon the slogan "the personal is political". This involves looking at the influence of performance issues and acting, especially at power-relations as they are reproduced and represented in selected theatre exercises. Importantly, these strategies for reading are always seen in the context of modem British political theatre; the importance of this emerges through my proposition that an ideological theatre practice is one which both establishes and foregrounds a relationship or resistance to existing theatrical form or genres. This constitutes the first part of my thesis. The second part of the thesis is comprised of three case studies. In these I draw together aspects of representation and the processes of performance established in Part One as a way of understanding selected plays constructed in relation to existing genres. In Chapter Three I look at the plays of Sarah Daniels in relation to melodrama; in Chapter Four I look at the plays of Liz Lochhead in relation to adaptation. Chapter Five is my concluding chapter in which I stress the importance of both foregrounding previous genres and questioning generic expectations by examining the interactions of theatre with stand-up comedy in the work of Claire Dowie.

This thesis is the first full-length study of the experiments in performer training undertaken by Alessandro Fersen in his studio laboratory in Rome between 1957 and 1983 and practiced since then in the codified technique which he calls Mizemodrama ( literally, "a drama of memory"). The purpose of my research is twofold: firstly, to focus on the development of the core technique of mnemodrama which is a theatrical simulation of ritual object manipulation employed by shamans in traditional cultures in order to induce an altered state of consciousness. In Fersen's terms such transic techniques provide the contemporary performer with a psychic training which enables him to explore different aspects of his persona rediscovered from both the autobiographical and archetypal levels of his unconscious. Secondly, the thesis presents a case for viewing Alessandro Fersen as a pioneer of post-war experimental theatre practice, particularly from the standpoint of the interdisciplinary nature of his experiments (theatre combined with anthropology, ethnology and psychology) and his focus on training rather than performance within the confines of a laboratory. The philosophy behind his research, its goals and methodology are therefore compared with those of his more celebrated peers, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Richard Schechner and Eugenio Barba. This thesis combines academic research with two periods of observation of the mnemodrama in performance at Fersen's studio in Rome in 1990 and 1992. Subsequently, I was able to introduce Fersen and his work to British academic theatre professionals for the first time at the international conference on Performance, Ritual and Shamanism organised by the Centre for Performance Research and held in Cardiff in January 1993. Finally, the appendices contain Fersen's essential justification for his research, from which the arguments of this thesis have been developed. The appendices also represent the first substantial translation of Fersen's writings on theatre to appear in the English language.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Abstract This project was in the Dorothy Somerset Studios on the University of British Columbia Campus during the week of April 14th till the 20th, 2008. I was advised by Professor Alison Green and Professor Richard Prince. The project’s title was When I’m in it… . It consisted of three groupings of sculptures set within the black box theatre space (see Illus. 1A, B and C). The Pattern Bubbles sculpture consisted of hollow tissue balls suspended from the ceiling, each containing a small and suspended object. These bubbles were suspended in a line, at different heights, and they were lit from within (see Illus. 2A and B). The entire theatre space was also lit using the lights on the grid in the theatre. A Silhouetted Cast consisted of Styrofoam cutouts shaped like dress forms covered with muslin and padding (see Illus. 3A, B and C). These cutouts were about 4ft X 2ft X 3inches. On one side I had a mixed media collage of imagery pinned to the muslin covering and on the other side were phrases stenciled right onto the muslin. These forms stood on the floor atop actual iron dress form stands. There were eight of these silhouettes, each one representing a character from a theatre production for which I had designed the costumes and the information on each one came from that experience. Costume Aprons, the final sculpture in the space, was also suspended from the ceiling. It had eight aprons made from cottons, silks and burlap hanging from a laundry carousel. The aprons were hung from the lines with silver bulldog stationary clips. I had hand-embroidered words on the aprons using embroidery threads of many different colors. In the pocket of each of the aprons was the title page from a script on blue paper (see Illus. 4A, B, C, and D). The black curtains were drawn around the square perimeter of the theatre stage, and you could still see the audience seating and the theatre booth. There was a soundtrack playing constantly within the space.