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.

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.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-55). / The major research behind this written explication was the creation of a play about tea-cups and doing the washing. This production was devised, directed, designed and written with several UCT drama students, other selected performers and musicians and played at The Little Theatre, Orange St, Cape Town, in October 2004. I wanted to make a piece of 'home - grown' theatre, a term I have developed to describe a primarily visual art-form that focuses on recognising beauty in everyday existence. Home-grown theatre is concerned with the profound importance of very commonplace things and the complexity and density contained within this mundane terrain. This paper explains the concepts and principles that surround home-grown theatre to provide a context for the thinking and the motivation behind it. This paper explicates both the theory that informed my ideas for its conception and the philosophies of art and science that inspired my style for making the play. It investigates the work and writings of artists, philosophers, scientists, playwrights and theatre practitioners, who all identify elements in their fields, which link them to my home-grown theatre.

The study utilizes the practitioner/researcher’s own artistic process as a laboratory, if you will, to conduct a broader inquiry into how theatre masks work and a facilitator’s role within the process of "bringing them to life."

This study attempts to ‘re-member' the post-slave South African female body through personal performance practice. It addresses re-membering both as an embodied activity of Recalling erased memory and as a recuperation of the dis-membered post-slave female body. Through reflecting on two examples of personal performance practice, What the Water Gave Me (2000) and Spice Root (2005), I use my own post-slave body as the locus of Intersection between the private and the political, the biological and the historical. The transmission of cultural memory through performance is traced through Joseph Roach's (1996) ‘surrogation' and Diana Taylor's (2003) ‘Repertoire'. Specifically, I employ a syncretic spirituality and objects of cultural memory to re-member a diasporic narrative continuity and recuperate embodied feminine agency. Gabeba Baderoon's (2014) perspective on the Indian Ocean as site of colonial slavery and cultural memory across diaspora and Raissa De Smet Trumbull's (2010) monograph on ‘Oceanic liquidity' inspire a figuration of the Ocean as an embodied, affective, anti-colonial presence. These modalities also inflect the style of writing in my inquiry, thus privileging the material/maternal, cyclical, leaky and excessive qualities of water a counter-hegemonic practice.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-69). / This paper explores the convergence and cusp of colliding realities in private and public identities in performative contexts. It draws heavily on a Socio-Anthropological system of the self and fictive personas within these constructs - as well as the perscnlpersonalpersonality trichotomy inherent in self~presentation and preservation. It is written in subservience and supplication to the practical component of the University of Cape Town's MA in Theatre and Performance (Theatre Making) which is also documented and archived with supplementary photographs as part of the research. The paper addresses notions of collective identity (such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, socio-economic and socio-political group clusters) with a peripheral focus on the South African, middle-class, Caucasian identity and a particular focus on a female, hetero-normative orientation (as it forms the premise of many concerns presented in the practice of the inquiry: the artist as still iife, the subject as object). It suggests a methodology towards aligning the research and its actualisation in performance through a series of installation-based works presented on and around Hiddingh Campus, Cape Town between May 2008 and September 2009. At the time of publication, the culminating project of the degree was in its pre-production phase.