Abstract In many parts of the world, theatre has been used to educate, socialise, indoctrinate and raise consciousness. In contemporary Africa, theatre practitioners have lamented the fragmentation of human life and the erosion of peace as a result of human rights abuses, income inequality, poverty, lack of access to services, crime and wars. The aim of this paper is to examine how African theatre practitioners have used theatre as a cultural tool to create awareness and educate their audiences about the need for peaceful co-existence in their communities. The discussions examine selected plays and applied theatre projects from West and southern Africa. They conclude in the finding that the applied theatre form is more effective than conventional literary theatre in promoting peace education and local development initiatives in Africa.

No description available.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Boston University.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

This overview, in partnership with the physical portfolio, chronicles my work as Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, 1990 - 2000 and demonstrates how I invented, created and developed a young people's and emerging artists' policy and strategy in this regional theatre over a ten year period. In 1990 I was appointed to the post to create and develop the Sherman Theatre as Wales' premiere pioneering theatre for young people. Within this paper I will describe my practice over the ten year period, but I will also examine in detail my own artistic work in the year 1999-2000 with the aim of demonstrating how this period of work had particular relevance to young people. Within the study I will also investigate and explain some of my own personal working methods with artists when creating a theatre production. In the late 1980s the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) in partnership with the (then) South Glamorgan County Council (SGCC), the two main funders of the theatre, and the theatre's Board of Trustees employed Adrian Trickey, an independent arts consultant to prepare and present a feasibility study that investigated the possibility of the Sherman Theatre refocusing its policy and becoming a Young People's Theatre for Cardiff with an all Wales remit. His findings and proposals were positive and his recommendations accepted. I was appointed in 1990 to spearhead the development and translate the theoretical recommendations into positive practice. In 1999 I, in partnership with the senior management of the Sherman, recognised that the current funding levels of the theatre were far too low to sustain its artistic programme and the capital infrastructure of the building. We employed Peter Boyden, an independent arts consultant to work with us and advise the team in preparing a document for the Sherman's Board of Trustees, the ACW and Cardiff County Council (current funders) that clearly stated that the status quo operation at that time was not an option for sustainability of the Sherman Theatre. This overview records and examines the years between the Trickey and Boyden reports (1990-2000). This is a portfolio submission to the University of Glamorgan. The physical portfolio that accompanies this paper includes examples of artistic and administrative policy developments and practice. This submission is therefore a personal investigation and records the creation, development and sustainability of a Young People's Theatre and Emerging Artists Strategy within a regional theatre (Sherman Theatre) 1990-2000, and how it practically applied to a generation arising of young people and emerging artists.

This thesis establishes groundwork for producing an aesthetic language for theatre technology by creating and testing a model for looking at theatre technologies in a critical manner. This model has several functions: Firstly it identifies theatre technology as something which can have a specific or a psycho-plastic scenographic effect. Through processes of re-invigoration and diversification the model allows a device to be regarded in its own context while historiologically allowing for precedent technologies to be acknowledged and compared. Lastly, because the model is ouroboric, self-consuming, it accounts for theatre technologies to be able to interpolate (and be interpolated by) other technologies whilst maintaining its own aesthetic integrity. This allows a critic to treat technology as a text rather than as a medium, and therefore enables it to be closely "read" as a text of the stage affording the technology a content of its own. Through problematising this model against theories of media and remediation, the thesis observes that the common critical position in theatre and performance studies is to treat theatre technology merely as a theatrical technē -- a tool or craft of the art. The arguments presented in the thesis reposition theatre technology from the position of craft to a position of art -- as alētheia, an artistic truth revealed through poiētic means. In the repositioning of attitudes towards technology, and by identifying theatre technologies as separate alētheuein, this thesis is then able to investigate theatre technologies aesthetically. Examining the contexts of technologies through the ouroboric model, and then critically studying their content, usage and meaning textually, this thesis is able to take a theatrical technological effect and begin to identify its affect. It posits that technology as an art in its own right can be aesthetically criticised and awarded meaning of equal weight to other elements of performance and theatre art.

The aim of this thesis is to engage with current debates surrounding contemporary performance, queer theory and the body, which proffer a number of complex and contentious questions. How does queer theory work in practice, and does performance provide the ideal context for such deliberation? How do the subjective essentialisms of performance conflict with ideas of queer performativity and the deconstruction of sexual identity? Drawing upon corporeal and ontological theories of the body in conflict with queer strategic critiques, an attempt is made to articulate a problematically "essential" form of queer subjectivity in performance. By exploring the potential "origins" of a preceding queer practice in the works of Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht and Jean Genet, the work proposes that their approach to theatre and performance articulated and deployed a particularly "deviant" form of expression and aesthetic. They established an approach to theatre and performance, which has continued to inspire and influence anti-essentialist and political forms of queer performance in the new millennium. From the early struggles of lesbian and gay theatre in the politically volatile context of the seventies and early eighties, the thesis foregrounds a liberating yet problematic attempt at enabling a "transformation" in British and North American theatre in response to queer critical paradigms in the nineties. Critical paradigms that are consistently promoted as the unique "product" of a postmodem deconstructive culture, and yet derive much from the works of the early avant-garde, the experiments of the sixties and the subversive texts of post-war British theatre. The nineties have witnessed a proliferation of gay/queer-oriented performance "break through" into the populist mainstream, and the "heteronormative" culture in general. The concluding section focuses upon ideas of a queer corporeality that seeks to remap the significatory potential of the live body in performance, in conflict with discursive inscriptions that attempt to fix and regulate categories of gender and sexuality. Yet, what role does the spectator/audience play in relation to this "activated" queer form of performance? How is the gaze/reception problematised, or does it subvert the very efficacy of queer theory itself?

This research proposes a new conceptual framework combining ideas of witnessing (observing) and change to understand possibilities for participatory theatre practice (PT) to impact vulnerable youth. This thesis was arrived at after longitudinal studies investigating the possibilities for change offered by responsive participatory theatre projects designed in collaboration with and for vulnerable groups at Kids Company. The findings emerging from the enquiry are the importance of humanising the facilitator, the necessarily temporary nature of participant performances of change in volatile settings, ‘witnessing change’ as a new type of impact relevant to vulnerable youth and the risks involved for vulnerable youth performing change in unresponsive or counter-responsive institutional settings. This research suggests that further enquiries are needed to investigate the concept of witnessing change as a new type of ‘impact’ which is necessarily temporary and multi-layered. Current perspectives of impact and impact assessment place value on achieving measurable outcomes. This research argues that current models of impact assessment should value temporary change even if it is confined to the workshop space where participants witness change in one another and the facilitator witnesses change in participants. This research is positioned within a framework incorporating ideas of witnessing, change and impact. The research is contextualised within the current socio-economic climate. The projects took place with vulnerable youth who accessed Kids Company’s support in South-East London. The urgency of this research is discussed in relation to the aftermath of the August 2011 UK riots. The research investigates the possibilities of using PT as a tool to expose and challenge constructs and found that PT can provide opportunities for impact and value to be witnessed as a way of sustaining change. The methodology of this research combined ethnographic and practice-based approaches to capture a plurality of voices to understand multiple readings of impact. It was important to include multiple voices to triangulate findings and address key challenges that arose due to the collaborative nature of this research conducted with Kids Company. Balancing a fair representation of Kids Company with critical readings of the provisions provided by the charity was one of the challenges within this research. A reflexive approach to the enquiry was employed to note researcher subjectivity and multiple perspectives were included to capture the complexity of Kids Company settings. The research will contribute a new holistic approach for practice in the field of PT, where PT is used as a process of humanisation. The research will also contribute new strategies of facilitation for practitioners working with vulnerable youth in similar contexts. In addition, the research may also contribute to the fields of child development and social change strategies through the concept of witnessing change as a new approach to understanding the impact of participatory theatre.