Thesis advisor: Rena A. Syska Lamparska / This dissertation presents a new analysis of theatrical improvisation, not as a theatrical practice but as a condition of the creative process; the focus is on the processes of the actor as signifier and site (producer) of a complex system of exchange. It explores the actor as creator of a macro-text that consists of the fixed element of the script and its variable interactions with the other actors and the audience. I demonstrate that improvisation is the condition that allows the actor to establish non-linear relationships between the text and the spectators through parallel subtexts that he creates ex novo. Such relationships happen in virtue of a ‘complexisation’ of the text that enriches its literal meaning. I observed the Spanish director José S. Sinisterra’s work in which he trained his actors to develop parallel subtexts in order to improve their ability to make a text complex. He argued that the actor’s expression of the text needed to provoke the spectator, through chaos and order. I then, studied the creativity process from a scientific point of view in order to understand in which way chaos and order work inside the mechanisms of performance. Thanks to the application of the chaos and complexity theory to the theatrical processes, attempted here for the first time, I consider the actor and the performance as ‘complex dynamic systems’ like a cell, a human being or life itself, in which, paradoxically, order and chaos coexist and maintain the system in balance; the continuous passages from chaos to order and vice versa, create the necessary tension and energy that put the spectator in the condition of building his own meanings. This study intends to define the fields of action of order and chaos, in both actuation and reception of text, as well as to identify fixed and variable determinant factors which could alter the components of the actor and the whole play’s system, to the and of increasing the necessary tension for complexity. Important theories on semiotic aspects of theatre and reception processes are taken in consideration like those by Iser, Eco, Ubersfeld and De Marinis as well as those by the mayor theatre directors of the Twentieth century, from Stanislavski to Mejerch’old, Kantor, Grotowski. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Romance Languages and Literatures.

Inaug. Diss.--Köln.

This thesis aims to study the development of Thai theatre in the 1990s by focusing on productions adapted from traditional literary works. The study examines how traditional literary pieces are reinvented and how the characteristics of theatrical presentation are developing. Before the 1990s, Thai theatre practitioners made a few attempts to use traditional literature as a source for modern stage drama. Among them, the prominent productions were Rak thi To 'ng Mantra and Lo'dilokrat, both of which were based on the same novel, Rak thi To 'ng Mantra, adapted from the classic Lilit Phra La '. As a result of the promotion of Thainess and Thai culture in the 1990s, along with the movement of "decolonised theatre" in South East Asia, Thai theatre practitioners turned to their cultural roots in order to make their productions communicate with popular audiences. The transposition of traditional literature into modern stage drama became a dominant form in Thai theatre during the 1990s. The reinvention of traditional literature can be considered as "mythopoeia" or mythmaking, in which theatre practitioners managed to adjust the ancient contents to suit the modern social context. While the productions that merely modernised the traditional stories are regarded as modern mythmaking, those revised so as to address radical ideas are revisionist mythmaking. In reworking traditional literature to comment on contemporary issues, some female theatre practitioners looked into the texts from a feminist perspective, whereas some dramatists employed the traditional works to educate grass-roots spectators about social problems, such as drugs and AIDS. Additionally, the transposition of traditional literature also encouraged the theatre practitioners to revive traditional theatrical elements in creating the atmosphere of the stories. The juxtaposition of traditional and modern elements was a distinctive feature of these productions derived from traditional literary sources, as can be seen in costume and set designs, music and songs, as well as in dance styles. Hence, the transposition of traditional literature during the 1990s is a watershed in the development of Thai theatre.

No description available.

The purpose of this project was to create an original production scheme which will prove acceptable to the American audience. The production of Don Pasquale adhered to the following guidelines: (1) the production was adapted in terms of the American audience for which it was being performed, it was sung in English and all allusions to the opera's European origin were either omitted or altered to conform to the American stylization, (2) the adaptation of the opera centered around an American historical perspective, a point in American history with which the audience could nostalgically identify.

In this thesis I define theatrical healing as using theater to practice healing. I focus on the creative impulse for and process of two plays: Scavenger Heart and The Chronicles of Bad Ass Women. In order to define these texts within the framework of theatrical healing I start at the beginning, when and why I first came to theater, and move from there to the development and productions of these two experiments. I explain how the design of these plays was driven by a conscious, and sometimes unconscious, ambition to heal very specific afflictions. I hope this delineation places Scavenger Heart and Chronicles on two points along a trajectory of my practice in theatrical healing. / text

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.