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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.

This thesis is constructed between a double argument. The first is a feminist argument that the female body may be viewed as a tool for cultural reinscription against dominant structures of subjectivity and representation that have rendered women the common flesh of art, without recourse to their own representational economy. Secondly, it is argued that the female body can never be recuperated as an essential, original form. That is, there is no essential female body or nature to be represented. In this sense, the body is artificial, or not natural, and so can be re-presented, specifically in feminist performance art, in order to rework radically the relationship between language, subjectivity and desire. The research undertaken is genealogical and also looks towards the future: deconstructing the historical imperatives that have produced 'the female body' and suggesting ways in which feminist performance art may redefine the ways in which female flesh is represented. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

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Text in English, with abstracts and keywords in English and Xhosa / The study delves into traumatic memories rooted in the unconscious mind and the modalities of expression of traumatic memories of childhood. Specific reference is made to the trauma studies of Cathy Caruth and Bessel van der Kolk. Using a framework of contemporary trauma theory, I argue that trauma manifests through childhood sexual abuse (CSA) manifests in trauma and that a number of artworks by myself, Penny Siopis and Nathani Lüneberg, reflect such trauma. The research is conducted as practice-led research and focuses on interpretations of selected artworks as well as a theoretical component. The body of large-scale digital paintings plays a significant role in the research process, which implies that theory leads practice and vice versa. The work encompasses the visual exploration of CSA and it is specifically analysed according to my interpretation of symbols such as the naked female body and intimate scenes which illustrate, vulnerabilty, curtains that metaphorically represent a view into my unconscious mind. The symbol of the uterus or the womb, where a foetus or unborn baby develops and grows, is a symbol of nurturing and protection. The artworks are primarily considered according to notions of CSA that cause betrayal and traumatic associations with sex, angst and psychological fragility in children. The exhibition portrays the psychobiological and psyhoanalytical aspects of childhood trauma resulting from CSA. The creative work consists of four digital paintings and seven photographic artworks. The artworks in The Silent Wound Series portray CSA, childhood trauma, and traumatic memories in the unconscious. Dealing with the understanding and representation of childhood trauma such as CSA, these themes are continuously embodied in my artworks. As the portrayal of the fragile girl child’s body as a signifier in the artworks relates to my personal situation, I choose an empathic view of childhood trauma within the study, portraying traumatic events and the memories thereof in the unconscious. The aim of the study is to recognise how digital painting and photography enable the representation and understanding of CSA and traumatic memories and how the silenced and abused child’s voice can be expressed through the affective and transactive quality of art. The main study objective is to investigate if traumatic memories occur in victims of CSA. / Uphononongo lungena nzulu kwiinkumbulo ezoyikisayo ezendele kwingqondo eleleyo kunye neendlela zokubonisa iinkumbulo ezibuhlungu zobuntwana. Ngokukhethekileyo kujoliswe kuphando olwenziwe kwizifundo zomothuko zikaCathy Caruth noBessel van der Kolk. Ndisebenzisa isakhelo sethiyori yanamhlanje, ndivakalisa ukuba umothuko wokuxhatshazwa ngokwesondo ebuntwaneni (i-CSA) bubonakala kuloyiko kwaye eminye yemisebenzi yam yobugcisa, uPenny Siopis kunye noNathani Lüneberg, ibonisa uloyiko olunjalo. Uphando lwenziwa njengophando olukhokelwa kukuziqhelanisa kwaye lujolise kutoliko lwemisebenzi yobugcisa ekhethiweyo kunye nenxalenye yethiyori. Uvimba wemizobo emikhulu yedijithali idlala indima ebalulekileyo kwinkqubo yophando, oko kuthetha ukuba ithiyori ikhokelela ekusebenzeni kwaye nangokuphendulelekileyo. Umsebenzi uquka uphando olubonakalayo kwe-CSA kwaye ucazululwa ngokukodwa ngokokutolika kwam iisimboli ezinje ngomzimba wabasetyhini ehamba ze kunye nemiboniso esondeleleneyo ebonisa, ukuba sesichengeni, iikhethini ngokukwekwayo ezimele imbono kwingqondo yam eleleyo. Uphawu lwesibeleko okanye isibeleko, apho umbungu okanye usana olungekazalwa lukhula khona kwaye lukhule, siluphawu lokondla nokukhusela. Imisebenzi yobugcisa iqwalaselwa ikakhulu ngokwemibono ye-CSA ebangela ukungcatshwa kunye nomanyano oludakumbisayo ngezesondo, ixhala kunye nobu-ethe-ethe ngokwengqondo ebantwaneni. Umboniso uzoba iimeko zengqondo ephilayo kunye nohlalutyo lwengqondo elimeleyo yobuntwana ebangelwe yi-CSA. Umsebenzi wobugcisa unemizobo emine yedijithali kunye neefoto zobugcisa esixhenxe. Imisebenzi yobugcisa kwi-Silent Wound Series izoba i-CSA, umothuko wobuntwana, kunye neenkumbulo ezibuhlungu ezikwingqondo eleleyo. Ukusebenza nokuqonda nokutolika ukwenzakaliswa kobuntwana okufana ne-CSA, le mixholo ihlala iyinxalenye kwimisebenzi yam yobugcisa.Njengoko ukwenza uzobo lomzimba o-ethe-ethe womntwana oyintombazana njengomboniso kwimisebenzi yobugcisa kunxulumene nemeko yam yobuqu, ndikhetha umbono onovelwano wokwenzakala kobuntwana kolu phononongo, ndibonisa iziganeko ezihlasimlis 'umzimba kunye neenkumbulo zazo ezingqondweni ezileleyo. Injongo yophando kukufuna ukuqonda ukuba imizobo ngedijithali kunye nokufota kukwenza njani ukumelwa kunye nokuqondwa kwe-CSA neenkumbulo ezenzakalisayo nokuba ilizwi elithulisiweyo nempatho-mbi yomntwana linokuvakaliswa njani ngokomgangatho ochaphazelayo notshintshayo wobugcisa. Eyona njongo iphambili yophando kukuphanda ukuba iinkumbulo ezibuhlungu ziyenzeka kumaxhoba e-CSA. / Arts and Music / M.V.A.