This report is a summary of my work and research during my three years at The University of Texas at Austin. I engage the city's impressive urban parks and new urbanist developments through my own practice of descriptive and interpretive landscape painting. Through continuous exploration of the city, research into the history of landscape painting and into the strategies of modern landscape architecture, I have learned to see more clearly the role that the visual history of depicted landscape plays in contemporary practices of landscape design and construction. This has reinforced my interest in understanding how painting as a medium plays a role in our cultural understandings of how landscapes should look and act. By experimenting with new formats and materials I continue to adapt my work to articulate a new, dynamic understanding of landscape in flux and inextricable from its human inhabitants. / text

In this thesis, I explore applied theatre and site-specific performance workshops as methods for public participation in city planning. “The Ghosts of Waller Creek” program worked to foster interest in and facilitate dialogue around the redevelopment of an abandoned urban creek area in Austin, TX. I explore three guiding questions: How does an applied theatre practitioner foster collaboration with non-theatre artists on a creative project that achieves common goals? How can applied theatre and site-specific performance workshops and events foster place attachment and engage citizens in city planning? How does an applied theatre practitioner translate participatory, applied theatre workshops into an artifact that is useful to city planners? Using reflective practitioner research processes and qualitative coding methods, I examine these questions through an analysis of surveys, interviews, performances, discussions, field notes, and observations. I first explore the role that goals, communication, and reflection played in my partnership with an urban designer. I then use place attachment theory to examine how the workshops and events shifted participants’ interest in, and engagement with, Waller Creek and city planning. Next, I investigate how performative artifacts such as audio maps and interactive performances can communicate participants’ opinions about Waller Creek to city planners and to the general public. Finally I discuss how the project situates in the field of arts-based civic dialogue and address guidelines for future projects. This thesis invites applied theatre practitioners to consider how their work can contribute to arts-based civic dialogue in their own communities. / text