Includes bibliographical references. / Inspired by the performativity of Xhosa cultural belief systems, my study aims to develop dignified theatrical roles for African women. This essay explores the potential of perceptions of Xhosa cultural women, configured in oral storytelling, as a means towards developing a base for Nguni theatre. This explication speaks to the capacities of African women models in re-shaping an ancient storytelling tradition for the development of South African theatre. The focus is on the recordings of a late matriarch, Nongenile Masithathu Zenani's storytelling sessions in Xhosa and the possibilities these present for a post-apartheid and postcolonial South African theatre stage. This research traces the boundaries set by the Xhosa culture, first on women, and secondly on performance. It unlocks the meaning and the significance of traditional song and dance, space, audience and stage properties, and the actual and potential uses of each of these aspects in making an Nguni classical theatre. The explication develops a vocabulary for theatrical performance derived from a rural South African perspective and explored in an urban setting. It establishes commonalities between the stories - narrated and performed - and the audience, concerning issues pertaining to (Xhosa) womanhood in post-apartheid South Africa.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-57). / My MA in theatre and performance investigates the relationship between the body and space, with a view to using it to generate content and choreography for dance theatre productions. I draw my research from the theories of Rudolph Laban and the Bauhaus movement. Laban's view of space as a living entity governs my investigation. From his theories regarding space and its impact on the movement that the body produces, I have discovered the categories within space, which are useful to combine, in order that they can stimulate content and choreography. The theories of the Bauhaus movement influence my approach to the composition phase of productions.

Includes bibliographical references. / The focus of this research relates to finding praxis for making theatre within a contemporary feminist framework with specific emphasis on writing for the theatre. It explores ways of opening up the possibility of feminist conversations beginning with the written text and how playwriting may problematise the representations of women on stage. This essay is a supporting document to my script, Free Falling Bird, as well as a supplement to the full production of the script in partial fulfillment of my MA degree in Theatre and Performance with a focus on playwriting. Firstly, I will establish a context by tracing the history and evolution of feminist performance practice, focusing especially on process, form and purpose, and introduce Sue-Ellen Case’s notion of contiguity as well as recent developments in post-feminism from theorists Elizabeth Wright and Elin Diamond. I will use the work of Roland Barthes, Richard Schechner, Hans-Thiess Lehmann and Catherine Bouko to trace parallel developments in the field of post dramatic theatre, especially with regards to the ‘death of the author’ and the decentralisation of the playwright as the maker of meaning. Finally, I will introduce Simone Benmussa and Helene Cixous’ term ‘spheres of disturbance’, as adopted by Elaine Aston, to propose how feminist playwriting may offer an intervention which disturbs the representations of women on stage. Secondly, I explore a practical model for creating and staging theatre which is located in the ‘sphere of disturbance’. Using a scheme proposed by Aston, I will offer an analysis of my own text and look at Diamond’s writing on narrative interventions in order to offer ways that the feminist text may be ‘ activated’ in performance. Finally, I return to the post dramatic, focusing on Hans-Thiess Lehmann’s notion of independent auditory semiotics, Liz Mills’ writing on acoustic spaces and Bouko’s ideas around the jazz body of the performer to investigate how the silenced female can articulate, speak and sound herself. I will lastly discuss how the combination of theory and practice articulated in this essay will feed into my own process as I work towards staging work which embodies and gives voice to the female experience.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 35-39). / This study proceeds from the belief that the female voice is silent or is seemingly absent in theatre and explores the possibility of the presence of a female vocality. The term 'female vocality' is used to refer to multiple aspects of the voice(s) of women in theatre; as performers, as playwrights and as theatre makers. It refers to both the sound of the voice and the structural elements of performance and text. The term is also intentionally used to uncover the uniqueness of the female voice and of that which is specific to women and arguably less defined by logocentric or patriarchal structures. A further distinction is made with the use of the term, in a more symbolic and generic sense, to denote the public and political voice of women. It is not only the sound of the voice that is examined but also how that sound is received or heard. The voices of women have not necessarily been absent or silent but 'seemingly absent' because the receiver was not actively present, or possibly, the listener chose not to hear. Part One: By searching the silences for the sound of the female voice, it is not only the voice that is uncovered, but features of identity and subjectivity. It traces the path of a trajectory of feminist critical theory in the late twentieth century that impacted profoundly on theatre practice and this notion of silence or absence of the female voice. In theI980's, Sue-Ellen Case (1988) suggested that feminist critics adopt the term a 'new poetics' to describe their attempts to embrace new forms of language and dramatic structure in feminist theatre. This new form defines the re-positioning of woman as subject and calls for a re-construction of language and text to reflect the female voice more accurately. It also explores the work of performance artists and the influence of the writing of post-structuralist Helene Cixous in their attempts to foreground themselves as subject and the body as text. Part Two: By appropriating Raymond Williams' term 'structures of feeling' I posit a re-framing of a feminine theatrical aesthetic that expresses the lived experience of women. I am drawn to the use of the term because of its implicit understanding of the qualities of particular types of experience that are intangible or 'unspeakable' which is similar to the elusive qualities inherent in the description of female vocality. To articulate these qualities more lucidly I refer to Kristeva's 'semiotic' and Barthes 'grain of the voice.' Part Three: I examine how the voice is at times not heard and how this aspect of selective hearing can be developed by the listener or audience. Related to this is how in the development of western thought and philosophy the voice has been separated from the speaker and relegated to insignificance. Italian feminist philosopher Adriana Cavarero terms this 'the de-vocalization of logos' (2005: 33) which is useful in understanding how women's voices have seemingly been ignored. I review my own practice and the challenges it presented in uncovering alternative theatrical means to foreground female vocality. I search for possible ways of re -considering the use of language and in this regard, I refer to playwrights Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane and their respective innovative use of dramatic and dialogic structure which deconstructed the more traditional (patriarchal) forms. Aspects of the post-dramatic theatre are considered in an endeavour to propose structural and dramaturgical devices that may create new vocal landscapes which would enhance the potential of the multi-faceted aspects of female vocality in an attempt to define a 'new poetics' for the twenty-first century. By mapping the possibilities inherent in female vocality for theatre the findings reveal that there are rich resources available. These concepts and examples can be used and crafted towards creating a dynamic feminine theatrical aesthetic where the voices of women can be experienced and heard.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-92). / In this paper, I investigate contemporary alternative staging strategies that critically and creatively explore representations of women in South African theatre. I interrogate representations of the female body of' difference' and the theatrical interpretation of complex identity in South Africa. Imperative questions are raised around the renegotiation of perceptions of division and stereotype (especially regarding women) in performance in South Africa. I raise crucial questions regarding the empowerment of representations of difference on the stage. Theatre of Difference requires representations that are as critically interrogatory of the socio-political circumstances of female identity as they are intimately concerned with the personal processes of the psyches of individual women.

The play is set in an all-girls academy in contemporary South Africa.

Includes bibliographical references. / The area of research the author of this written submission has investigated is directing comedy theatre. The research problem dealt with in the research was the use of Keith Johnstone's concept of 'Circles of Expectation' and Vogler's generic story structure as directorial aids in comedy theatre. The method with which the research problem was explored was through writing and directing a comedy with UCT Drama Students entitled Image! The play opened at The Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown on 1 June 2000 and later opened at The Arena Theatre in Cape Town on 18 June 2000. The following written submission contains two parts. The first part of the written submission is a theoretical explication of the creative method applied in directing Image! The second part contains the script of lmage! In the first chapter of the theoretical explication the author examines the theory of the creative method, which was applied in directing Image!, which views actor-director communication as improvisation. In the second chapter of the theoretical explication the author examines a theory of laughter, based on Arthur Koestler's The Act of Creation (1971) and explains how Koestler's theory of laughter informs the author's creative method of actor-director communication in comedy theatre. In the third chapter the author outlines the theories underlying Vogler's generic story structure and Johnstone's concept of 'Circles of Expectation' and how these were used as directorial aids in the process of directing Image! The author examines how these theories were used as methods of script development and how they were used to inform the comic specifics of the performance.

Bibliography: leaves 34-35. / The present study is a written explication of the production Kwasukasukela created and staged by the author in September 2001. The production involved a practical exploration of the impact of the Nguni storytelling tradition on contemporary physical form of storytelling for theatre. In the introduction, the terms of the study: the Nguni storytelling tradition and contemporary physical forms of storytelling, are defined. The theoretical proposal is then laid out, followed by a performance historical context for the study focusing on the works of Herbert Dhlomo, Mbongeni Ngema and Gcina Mhlophe. The final section provides a discussion of the creative methods employed and the discoveries made through the process of creating and staging Kwasukasukela. The study concludes that the bringing together of the Nguni storytelling tradition and contemporary physical forms of storytelling, in the context of a theatrical production, causes changes in both forms, giving rise to a hybrid third form which provides opportunities for the creation of new subject position in theatre practice in South Africa for more critical representations of identity and history.

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.