What does it mean to have aesthetic experience? Is it something we are all capable of? Or is our capacity for aesthetic pleasure something we develop, like a skill? What do we mean when we declare something ‘beautiful’, or when we dismiss a performance because it is ‘not to our taste’? Is taste something we possess, concerned with our own personal likes and dislikes? Or is taste part of aesthetic experience, something that happens? Indeed, what is aesthetic experience? And what is the place, in theatre and performance, for the aesthetic qua aesthetic? In this thesis I explore and develop the Kantian notion of aesthetic experience by taking three terms central to the Critique of Judgment – taste, beauty, sublime – and considering their value in the experience and analysis of contemporary performance. In exploring these ideas, the thesis centres on a range of works from the early avant-garde, including extended analyses of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (1896) and Edward Gordon Craig’s Dido and Æneas. The contemporary works central to the thesis are Proto-type Theater’s Virtuoso (working title) (2009), 3rd Person (redux)(2010) and Whisper (2008). The study also looks at contemporary work from Reckless Sleepers, Station House Opera, and Societas Raffaello Sanzio. The primary theoretical framework is drawn from the field of philosophical aesthetics, and, specifically, the works of Immanuel Kant. In the post-Kantian era, the works of Arthur Schopenhauer, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Wendy Steiner, Jean-Luc Marion, Arnold Berleant, and Christian H. Wenzel provide a connection to the world of post-Enlightenment aesthetics and interconnect Kantian philosophy with developments in performance and aesthetics. In aiming to uncover the value of the aesthetic as such, the thesis looks to reflect on taste, beauty, and the sublime in a way that offers a fresh and vital perspective on the experience of performance.

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From the establishment of the English Stage Company at The Royal Court Theatre in 1956 through to the late 1960s, the Court was widely viewed as a champion of theatrical freedoms and progressive ideals, playing a decisive role in the abolition of censorship as exercised by the Lord Chamberlain until 1968. Narratives of the ensuing 1968-1975 period tend to recount an era when the Court was out of step with contemporary developments in theatre and blame is frequently placed on intergenerational tensions between the Court's established management and a band of emerging English male playwrights who claim to have been unsupported by the theatre at this time. This study goes against the received scholarly grain concerning these years at the Court, and maps an alternative reading of this narrative. This thesis provides evidence that the Court of the early 1970s experienced a time of significant seed-sowing, that these were years in which the Sloane Square institution experimented with alternative theatre and enthusiastically programmed subaltern and female playwrights, and that this was a move instep with contemporaneous international trends in theatre. By revealing this understanding of events, the thesis contends that the artistic directorship of Oscar Lewenstein (1972-1975) was a direct reaction against an elitist culture at the Court and an institutional habitus which was rooted in and informed by the decline of the British Empire and a related fear of the foreign. This thesis proposes that the subsequent occlusion of this version of events is due in great part to the consistent and ongoing privileging of negative accounts of the period by the emerging young white English male playwrights of the era, over the more positive commentary provided by their subaltern and female counterparts who were empowered under Lewenstein's aegis.

This thesis examines space within the context of scenography and investigates its presence as a theme exposing the unstable condition of identity. It does this by examining how 'national' identity has been presented through the medium of design on the stages of the UK's National Theatre during an era where identity is being used as a political tool. The 'new ideologies' of regionalism,multiculturalism and globalisation are identified as provocative catalysts that are expressed within selected designs and are seen as challenging fixed notions of identity. Influenced by Henri Lefebvre's Production of Space, the production of scenography is examined within this thesis by combining three perspectives. It sets up a dialogue which looks to reveal a 'code', which explains the space produced on stage, by considering the following: The three different Artistic Directors operating during this period (Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner) and their intentions for the relevance of the institution. This is considered by comparing each Artistic Director's public mission statement about their direction for the institution with selected productions that they have personally directed when in this role Through interview with the designers who produced the scenography for these selected shows. And by re-examining reviewer reactions to the shows produced, where the selected productions are seen to be either challenging or reflecting national meaning. The criticism levelled at design is particularly focused upon within these reviews. Space is considered as a key theme within scenography as it has been identified by the scenographer Jaroslav Malina as a significant constant within this art form. The thesis concludes that design, the production of space on stage, is under acknowledged in wider theatre criticism but is nevertheless shown to be a significant aspect in the reading and composition of conveying 'national' identity upon the National Theatre's stages.

This thesis discusses the acting techniques employed by actors for tragedy of the Greek stage during the twentieth century. It argues that there were two main acting schools - 'school' here meaning an established unified style of acting shared by a group of actors and directors. The first, starting with the 1936 production of Electra by Sophocles directed by Dimitris Rontiris's at the National Theatre of Greece and running through roughly to the late 1970s, developed from a vocal/rhetorical/text-based approach. The second, established by Karolos Koun's Art Theatre in 1942 and which can be said to have ended with his death in 1987, was based on a bodily/physical one. The thesis examines the ways in which these two schools combined and influenced acting, creating new tendencies in the last three decades of the twentieth century. The focus here is on tragedy because this genre is presented on the Greek stage regularly, and, therefore, it is an eloquent example of the evolution of acting in Greece. Sophocles's Electra has been chosen as a case study not only because the play was frequently staged throughout the twentieth century, but primarily because it was acted and directed by important actors and directors who occupied quite different positions within the Greek theatre field. Thus it is a play that provides the most potent example of the development of the acting schools in question. This thesis is an empirical study using Greek actors and directors as its primary source. In giving them a strong voice, it follows their creative process and their perception of their roles and productions. At the same time, it provides a historical context for understanding the conditions of Greek theatre life and their impact on Greek actors and their work.

Live performance lacks the durability of art practices such as photography, film and painting, and so definitions of ‘live’ acts have traditionally been formulated in terms of ‘transience’ and ‘disappearance’. In this context the archive and archival documents are often described as the antithesis of performance’s ontology. An archive’s primary function is to preserve material for future, undetermined uses, whereas a live event is temporary and cannot endure as ‘itself’ outside of the temporal-spatial zone it unfolds in before an audience. Yet archival documents are intimately imbricated in the creation of live acts. This can be seen in all performance practices, from written plays in the dramatic theatre, to the assemblage of materials used in devised performance, to the ways sites are framed as sources of historical knowledge in performance reenactments. By examining the role documents play in performance practice I argue that archival materials have the potential to act as the genesis for live acts. The archive’s generative function makes performance a potential method of historical research, where documents can help engender an interactive reciprocity between spectators and the past. The archival mode of performance practice I advocate in this thesis requires spectators to become participants inside the performance sphere, just as historians participate in the writing of historical discourses in the archive. There are several practice-as-research components to my project. These include the Audience as Document events and two workshops. The primary practice-as-research event is a participatory site-specific performance Voices from the Village. The Olympic Village in Stratford, East London, is framed as a type of authoritative historical document that works as a meta-narrative of London’s past. The Olympic Legacy anchors the memories of East London’s residents to a time they are encouraged to re-live in their everyday lives. At the centre of contemporary urban regeneration projects is a firm conviction that the future can be built in the here-andnow. Participants are guided through the Village and by two tour guides who attempt to inculcate them into the Legacy Project – a new type of citizenry based upon the neoliberal hegemony. In the third part participants explore what would happen if the neighbouring Hackney Wick estate was ‘regenerated’ in the future. My practice 4 examines how documents in performance can act as interlocutors between a site’s past(s) and a participant’s ‘live’ experience. The enduring form of digital documents creates a manifold afterlife for performance on the Web, which is the home of an evolving network of people who connect to each other through their re-interpretation of the Olympic Legacy. I am arguing that the life of a performance does not end over a fixed duration, but is instead a dialogic process with a multitude of access points.

Includes bibliographical references. / This dissertation focuses on the use of drama as a method of fostering inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers living in host communities. It examines two theatrically based studies simultaneously facilitated over a six month period between July and December of 2012 and explores the two programs from the stage of conception to conclusions regarding their effectiveness in tackling issues related to social exclusion, xenophobic sentiment and violence.The study approaches the topic from three social perspectives considering the position of refugee, host and facilitator and parallels these positions in order to highlight relationship structures which both prevent and assist in the fostering of inclusion and/or coexistence. The study further examines how the interactions help to develop the programs and how the use of theatre can bridge societal gaps; with a unique focus on environments where host and refugee find themselves in a non-encounter position due to the potential for violence. The research methodology stems primarily from grounded theory and brings together elements of symbolic interactionism, pedagogy, sociology, psychology and applied theatre. The method looks at increasing and facilitating communication about and between host and refugee through exploration in applied theatre and intends to increase social understanding between the parties by challenging participant’s stereotypes of the other.

This dissertation examines the theatre making process of a youth theatre group in Khayelitsha called Qina n Divas. It considers why and how this theatre making process is a youth development tool within the ambit of applied theatre. The study is partly driven by my memories and experiences of growing up in a township, as well as applied theatre aims, which are to use theatre to address social issues and honor the participants’ ways of using theatre to address their issues. I examine how the Qina n Divas young people, who are growing up in an environment that challenges their development, use theatre making as a way of reviewing and revaluing their lives. I identify and examine the various systems that influence the youth’s lives and that limit their use of theatre as a liberation tool in that the theatre making is a rehearsal of their issues rather than becoming a means of interrogating the issues. As I am immersed in the township context I also reflect on my involvement and how I unintentionally became part of the problem, which limits the youth’s development. My position of being an applied theatre practitioner and researcher is informed by my Xhosa cultural identity, my Zulu schooling and my English-speaking higher education, which also influenced my relationship with the youth. In the research process, the young people and I exchanged several theatre making methods. The theatre making explored themes of bullying, rape, environmental issues, parental love and abandonment, which revealed the youth’s emotions and thoughts about these themes. In spite of the above-mentioned limitations, I propose that theatre making allows the youth to use their imaginations to construct their identity in a partly secure space and to journey beyond the township to the Cape Town suburbs. The theatre practice induces a sense of hope amongst the youth and allows them to voice the issues that matter to them.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-62). / This dissertation examines the process of creating Jingle Dreams with the youth in Clanwilliam. It aims to ascertain whether the processes of Community Theatre drama create opportunities for the individuals in the identified community to explore a social identity influenced by historical legacy, heritage, memory (or absence thereof) and socio-economic environment. The intention of the dissertation is influenced by the Applied Drama mission to benefit individuals, communities and societies through artistic forms of intervention such as dramatic activities, theatre directing, mediation and discussions. I will examine how the processes and the performative qualities of drama and theatre have the potential to transform individuals and society. Community Theatre creates the space for young people to share and question common experiences of life. This ensures that marginalised voices are heard which has psychological and social benefits for the participants. The dissertation proposes to interrogate how young people revealed their social identity through the narrative structure, dialogue, stereotypes and symbols in Jingle Dreams. I have been strongly motivated by the work of Augusto Boal which was the source of a large part of the dramatic processes. In the research process, the young people belonging to The Community Networking Creative Arts Group were encouraged to find their own forms of artistic, cultural and theatrical expression. During the rehearsal process, the group improvised and developed many scenes which reflected issues such as alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence and intergenerational tension. The narrative of the performance was based both on their stories and on stories from their community. It reflected their circumstances, their struggles, their hopes and their dreams. Theatre devised in community situations reflects concern with the representation of memory, and participants are invited to recognise that autobiographical narratives have social, communitarian and historical significance, as well as personal relevance. Performers drew on their own experiences to devise the scenes. This process often emphasised how the boundaries between truth and fiction are blurred. The lack of a clear distinction between fact and art facilitated the revelation, exploration and contestation of social identity.