CHASM: the spaces between is a live performance that exposes physical, visual, and aural intersections of liminality. My solo dance, alongside the work of acoustic collaborators Shawn Pinchbeck and Ian Crutchley, projectionist Patrick Arès-Pilon, and scenographer Guido Tondino, delves within the spaces between sight and sound, silence and stillness, performance and life, and embodiment and technology. In the process, I improvise within a scored structure, attempting to unravel, through practice, current theories of reception, including somaesthetics, meditative states, kinaesthesia, and Japanese theories of mind-body and ma. The piece was presented at Timms‘ Second Playing Space at the University of Alberta on April 27th and 28th, 2012. The purpose of this thesis is to reveal the process, intentions, and discoveries that I made as a dance practitioner, while demonstrating how CHASM: the spaces between relates to the larger art world and to cross-disciplinary literature that addresses the problem of the boundaries of knowledge. Chasm is the term I use for these edges, boundaries, and intersections, and I wish to show how important chasms are not only for creativity in contemporary performance, but also for thought in a non-linear, globalized world.

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As current precarious ecological conditions require urgent and multi-scalar responses, performance has an opportunity to creatively respond to the ecological situation, opening up new ways of thinking and engaging the public’s imagination. Problematising differentiating practices that divide humans from ‘nature’, I suggest performance may highlight the interconnectedness of humans and the more-than-human world by theorising, revealing and critiquing ecological relationships. My research into an ecological performance aesthetic takes up this opportunity and conceives of new ways of critically thinking about performance. I engage a range of ecological philosophy, combined with ecodramaturgical analysis of performance, to theorise the intersection of performance and ecology. Ecodramaturgy (May 2010) combines ecocritical and applied approaches to performance with ecological ways of performance-making, and represents a critical extension to the discipline of performance studies. Drawing on the ecomaterialism of Bennett (2010), Latour (2004), Alaimo (2013) and Barad (2012), I theorise ‘nature’ as a set of interconnected relationships, which disrupts the binaries between urban/nature, nature/culture, human/nonhuman. I coin the neologism the bio-urban to reflect the vibrancy and material agency of ecological relationships in urban settings. The focus on urban-based practice resists the rural bias present in much ecological writing (Harvey 1993b) and addresses a gap in scholarship around urban ecology in relation to performance. This research centres on a wide variety of illustrative, broadly site-based performance events, including urban gardening performances (and my own practice), walking and cycling performances, installation, live art, theatre pieces and work in places such as streets, mountains, (urban) meadows, cemeteries and rivers. I consider the way in which performance engages with the world, through the interrelated and overlapping discourses of postcolonial ecology, human geography and urban ecology. An ecological performance aesthetic informs modes of practice, presentation and reception, within current ecological conditions. From the provocation of the bio-urban, I theorise immersion and ‘environmental participation’, drawing on the corporeality of our relationship to the space around us, following ecological phenomenology. I then examine oikos as (earthy or planetary) home and consider it in relation to dwelling, suggesting that ecological performance opens up a space for critiquing these ideas. The complex relationship between the local and global is characterised in performance through eco-cosmopolitanism (Heise 2008). Finally, I suggest a non-anthropocentric paradigm for performance, one that employs an ‘ecological anthropomorphism’ that accounts for the material agency of the more-than- human, as well as the human as a geophysical force (Chakrabarty 2012). The aim of the research is to articulate an ecological performance aesthetic, extending and developing the field of performance and ecology.

When Amy comes to work at the Festival on the Grand, she enters a world in which feminism has disappeared. Without a way to access feminism, the Festival staff: Judith, Poppy, James, Lisa, and Amy endure the patriarchal rule of Artistic Director, Nick Noble. Tempo captures the Festival in the week leading up to its prestigious 40th anniversary opening night: the Berlioz Requiem and concludes by asking the audience to consider our current treatment of feminism. The afterword that accompanies the script is part personal reflection, part critical analysis. The reflection includes the process of developing, writing, and workshopping the script as well as how the play conveys feminism in form, content, and inspiration. The analysis considers the notion of post-feminism and the dangers of blindly embracing it. This project aims to encourage an audience to be critical of post-feminism and revive feminism in creative and useful ways.

Notre recherche est d’abord motivée par une nécessité pratique d’amélioration de l’enseignement/apprentissage du français oral à l’université en Chine. La problématique permet de rechercher la possibilité et l’utilité d’intégrer la pratique théâtrale dans l’enseignement du français en milieu universitaire chinois, en offrant à nos apprenants un nouvel accès esthétique à la parole, qui réponde à l’acquisition de compétences diverses. Nous espérons que la pratique théâtrale constituera désormais un nouvel outil didactique du FLE en Chine, et que la mise en œuvre d’une approche esthétique et interculturelle deviendra une voie privilégiée dans le programme d’enseignement. La méthode de recherche est une exploitation de l’enquête, destinée aux étudiants chinois et aux professeurs, menée dans les départements de français de la faculté des langues étrangères dans trois universités, au sud et au nord, durant l’année universitaire 2014-2015. Ce travail s’inscrit dans le contexte d’une recherche didactique et linguistique portant sur l’analyse des stratégies d’apprentissage et des problèmes rencontrés par les apprenants chinois qui ont un niveau débutant et intermédiaire en FLE. / Our research is primarily motivated by the necessity of improving teaching level and learning efficiency of the oral French education in Chinese universities. First, our work proposes to find the opportunity and the requirement to introduce the theatre practice of teaching French language into Chinese universities by offering our students a new access to speech. So, we hope the theatre practice in foreign language will be a new teaching method of oral French in China and the implementation of an esthetic and intercultural approach and become a privileged way to develop this skill. Our research method is to conduct a survey for students and teachers in the higher education system in China. This survey is conducted in the French departments of three universities in the south and north of China during the academic year 2014-2015. Our research aimed to analyze the learning strategies and problems faced by these beginning-intermediate level's Chinese young learners of French. Our research method is to conduct a questionnaire survey for students and teachers in the higher education system in China. This survey is conducted in the French departments of three universities in the south and north of China during the academic year 2014-2015. In the didactic and linguistic context, our objective is to analyze the learning strategies and problems faced by these Chinese young learners who have the primary and intermediate level in leaning French.

A presente dissertação tem por base estabelecer reflexões acerca do trabalho desenvolvido nas práticas de teatro na sala de aula com alunos do Programa EJA - Educação de Jovens e Adultos da Escola Municipal Arthur Ostermann, no Município de São Leopoldo, na região do Vale dos Sinos, Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Procuro estabelecer conexões dessas práticas com a Pedagogia do Oprimido de Paulo Freire e o conceito de Tempos Líquidos, de Zygmunt Bauman. As atividades foram realizadas através de jogos espontâneos e protagonizados, visando o desenvolvimento dos potenciais criativos dos alunos, e a reflexão sobre os potenciais destrutivos da sociedade. As práticas são divididas em duas ramificações: o Teatro Jornal, de Augusto Boal e o exercício de escrita dramática a partir da contextualização das tragédias gregas. Uma tem ligação com a outra, tendo em vista que a partir das improvisações teatrais surgiram necessidades de discutir os fatos vigentes. Estes fatos, a maioria publicados em jornais, foram considerados pelos alunos como tragédias, o que despertou em alguns a pesquisa a partir dos textos trágicos do teatro grego, que consistiu na leitura em específico das peças Édipo Rei e Antígona, de Sófocles, desencadeando assim uma contextualização de determinadas obras. / This thesis is based on established ideas about the work practices of theater in the classroom with students of adult education program - Youth and Adult Education of the School of Arthur Ostermann, in São Leopoldo, in the Vale of Sinos, Rio Grande do Sul. Looking for connections of these practices with the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and the concept of Liquid Times of Zygmunt Bauman. The activities were conducted through games and spontaneous protagonists, to develop the creative potential of students, and reflection on the destructive potential of society. The practices are divided into two branches: the Newspaper theater of Augusto Boal and the pursuit of dramatic writing from the background of Greek tragedies. One is linked to another in order that emerged from the improvisational theater needs to discuss current events. These facts, most published in newspapers, were considered by students as tragedy, which sparked some research from the texts tragic of Greek drama, which consisted of reading in specific parts of Édipo Rei and Antigona by Sófocles. Thus triggering a contextualization of certain works.

A presente dissertação tem por base estabelecer reflexões acerca do trabalho desenvolvido nas práticas de teatro na sala de aula com alunos do Programa EJA - Educação de Jovens e Adultos da Escola Municipal Arthur Ostermann, no Município de São Leopoldo, na região do Vale dos Sinos, Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Procuro estabelecer conexões dessas práticas com a Pedagogia do Oprimido de Paulo Freire e o conceito de Tempos Líquidos, de Zygmunt Bauman. As atividades foram realizadas através de jogos espontâneos e protagonizados, visando o desenvolvimento dos potenciais criativos dos alunos, e a reflexão sobre os potenciais destrutivos da sociedade. As práticas são divididas em duas ramificações: o Teatro Jornal, de Augusto Boal e o exercício de escrita dramática a partir da contextualização das tragédias gregas. Uma tem ligação com a outra, tendo em vista que a partir das improvisações teatrais surgiram necessidades de discutir os fatos vigentes. Estes fatos, a maioria publicados em jornais, foram considerados pelos alunos como tragédias, o que despertou em alguns a pesquisa a partir dos textos trágicos do teatro grego, que consistiu na leitura em específico das peças Édipo Rei e Antígona, de Sófocles, desencadeando assim uma contextualização de determinadas obras. / This thesis is based on established ideas about the work practices of theater in the classroom with students of adult education program - Youth and Adult Education of the School of Arthur Ostermann, in São Leopoldo, in the Vale of Sinos, Rio Grande do Sul. Looking for connections of these practices with the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and the concept of Liquid Times of Zygmunt Bauman. The activities were conducted through games and spontaneous protagonists, to develop the creative potential of students, and reflection on the destructive potential of society. The practices are divided into two branches: the Newspaper theater of Augusto Boal and the pursuit of dramatic writing from the background of Greek tragedies. One is linked to another in order that emerged from the improvisational theater needs to discuss current events. These facts, most published in newspapers, were considered by students as tragedy, which sparked some research from the texts tragic of Greek drama, which consisted of reading in specific parts of Édipo Rei and Antigona by Sófocles. Thus triggering a contextualization of certain works.

A presente dissertação tem por base estabelecer reflexões acerca do trabalho desenvolvido nas práticas de teatro na sala de aula com alunos do Programa EJA - Educação de Jovens e Adultos da Escola Municipal Arthur Ostermann, no Município de São Leopoldo, na região do Vale dos Sinos, Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Procuro estabelecer conexões dessas práticas com a Pedagogia do Oprimido de Paulo Freire e o conceito de Tempos Líquidos, de Zygmunt Bauman. As atividades foram realizadas através de jogos espontâneos e protagonizados, visando o desenvolvimento dos potenciais criativos dos alunos, e a reflexão sobre os potenciais destrutivos da sociedade. As práticas são divididas em duas ramificações: o Teatro Jornal, de Augusto Boal e o exercício de escrita dramática a partir da contextualização das tragédias gregas. Uma tem ligação com a outra, tendo em vista que a partir das improvisações teatrais surgiram necessidades de discutir os fatos vigentes. Estes fatos, a maioria publicados em jornais, foram considerados pelos alunos como tragédias, o que despertou em alguns a pesquisa a partir dos textos trágicos do teatro grego, que consistiu na leitura em específico das peças Édipo Rei e Antígona, de Sófocles, desencadeando assim uma contextualização de determinadas obras. / This thesis is based on established ideas about the work practices of theater in the classroom with students of adult education program - Youth and Adult Education of the School of Arthur Ostermann, in São Leopoldo, in the Vale of Sinos, Rio Grande do Sul. Looking for connections of these practices with the Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and the concept of Liquid Times of Zygmunt Bauman. The activities were conducted through games and spontaneous protagonists, to develop the creative potential of students, and reflection on the destructive potential of society. The practices are divided into two branches: the Newspaper theater of Augusto Boal and the pursuit of dramatic writing from the background of Greek tragedies. One is linked to another in order that emerged from the improvisational theater needs to discuss current events. These facts, most published in newspapers, were considered by students as tragedy, which sparked some research from the texts tragic of Greek drama, which consisted of reading in specific parts of Édipo Rei and Antigona by Sófocles. Thus triggering a contextualization of certain works.

This thesis investigates the expertise of applied theatre practitioners and proposes a concept of 'responsivity' to define their skills, knowledge, qualities and understanding. Practice-responsive research methods were devised to analyse how artists make decisions in-action in a range of applied theatre practice in community, education and health contexts. Research included the use of reflective dialogues following observations of practice, stimulated by joint researcher-practitioner reflection on a video recording of the observed session. Working from detailed analysis of this observed practice and dialogic reflection, new vocabularies are introduced and developed, with the aim of better articulating particular skills and approaches. The role of applied theatre practitioners is multi-faceted and primarily focussed on facilitating positive outcomes for the participants. Planning activity is informed by projected outcomes for the work and the context of practice, such as environment, nature of the participants, individual identities, etc. Practitioner skills build on art form knowledge and the ability to guide activity to create performance outcomes, alongside a concern for aesthetic and ethical issues of the work, as well as social and political awareness of the context. Adaptations to moment-by-moment activity reflect their ability to facilitate engagement and nurture interactive exchange. I suggest that, to manage these multiple demands, practitioners demonstrate heightened attendance to issues of inter-subjectivity and empathy, thereby developing an enhanced expertise in response to the work and the people and contexts involved in that work. The thesis proposes that responsive approaches are common to practitioners and enable her/him to make good choices within the moments of practice. Applied theatre's responsive-ness is indicative of a prioritisation of participant experience, however, the research also revealed the way in which a responsive ethos impacted and enriched the practitioners through supporting their own generative engagement with the work. The critical framework of responsivity proposed in this thesis acknowledges the importance of impact for all participants, including the artists. Whilst the methods and outcomes of applied theatre have received scholarly attention, this research focusses on how practitioners themselves define their expertise, embracing a consideration of skills learning and development. The concepts of response and dialogue informed this investigation in a number of significant ways, and as a result responsivity is proposed as a key methodological imperative for applied theatre research as well as the substantive focus of my thesis. This mode of operating as artists and researchers is particular to applied theatre's overarching aims to be socially responsive, politically engaged, ethically considerate and emancipatory. Responsivity is offered as a way to distinguish applied theatre practice from other performance participation and as an underpinning ethos for understanding the expertise of applied theatre practitioners.

As a Rogerian mental health therapist, a personal journey was taken that establishes my practice ethics as an applied theatre practitioner. What was undertaken was the unpacking of a practice ethics gained through my training as an actor and therapist. This thesis examines the role of codes or standards of practice in humanistic counselling, applied theatre and a synthesized practice between both. Standards of practice shape these practices through the specific ideologies relevant within the institutional cultures in which the practice is applied. This is especially problematic when the institutional setting understands care delivery as practice shaped by problem identification, interventions and expected outcome goals. Further, the ideology that underpins the standard, becomes self-reinforcing and tends to exert influence over what type of practice is culturally relevant or considered best practice within the institutional setting. This is of concern for practitioners who practice from a different or multiple ideological base from the institutional setting in which they work. A shaping goal of the research was to test-out, through critical evaluation, if the American Counseling Association's (ACA's) standards of practice was relevant and applicable to a synthesized practice between humanistic counselling practice and applied theatre practice. The results posed by the critical evaluation suggest that the ACAs standard is not applicable because it promotes empirical, or rather, evidenced-based models of practice over humanist ones. Because of its limited scope of application, the ACAs model is not applicable to synthesized or dual practices that bridge particular fields. Through lines of valuing within bridged fields, usually represent multiple ideological drivers. It was found that as a standard of practice the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP) standard is a better fit. It is compatible with social construction. Within the research Carl Rogers' humanistic, client-centered and non-directive therapy is contrasted with Joseph Chaikin's brand of experimental theatre exemplified in his The Presence of the Actor. Chaikin's book is used as a tool to reconstruct examples of what I came to understand as ethical practice while attending drama school in the UK. The understandings gleaned by the juxtaposition impacts how I understand the ACAs utility as a practitioner.