Magister Artium - MA / Scholarship on theatre in South Africa has shown how under the Apartheid government theatrical practices were divided into different genres such as protest theatre, township theatre, black theatre, mainstream theatre etc. In many ways theatre today presents the same fractures and polarisations: community and mainstream theatre. This study investigates ways in which black theatre artists from marginalised and disadvantaged communities with and without formal training negotiate themselves within theatre spaces in Cape Town. Discussing and analyzing the works and the trajectories of two case-studies: the Ukwanda Puppet and Design Company and the Back Stage Theatre Production Company, I attempt to demonstrate how works of arts that awkwardly sits with labels such as “community” or “mainstream” theatre are emerging more and more in the Cape Town theatre scene.

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This investigation was based on a production performed by the Irving, Texas, Community Theatre in March, 1978, directed by the author of this thesis. The paper concerned the problems of producing a play under adverse conditions, such as lack of money, inadequate technical equipment, and a small stage. Chapter I included an investigation of the reviews of the original production in order to establish criteria by which to judge the Irving production. Chapters II and III dealth with varied technical aspects and their application under the adverse conditions. Examples of the technical factors were included in Chapter IV, with a scene synopsis. Chapter V contained a primarily favorable analysis based on the critic's and the audience's judgments, indicating most production elements to be successful.

The goal of this paper is to examine the practice of Applied Theatre in order to better define the genre and make a case for its legitimization and inclusion in higher theatre education. By looking at the theatre practitioners of the 20th century who paved the way for its existence as well as modern practitioners, a definition will be distilled down to five core characteristics of the practice with several case studies illustrating those characteristics. Once a clear distinction has been made between Applied Theatre and other similar genres, the case will be made for why the field should be considered mainstream. Additionally, it will be revealed how underserved the genre is in higher education and why its inclusion is important in college theatre programs.

@　「社區發展」（community development ）一詞，最先是由聯合國所 出的，其原始意義為：「一種經由全區人民積極參加與充分發揮其創造 量，以促進經濟、社會進步情況的過程。」（United Nations,1955 ）C 但一般的社區發展，多半是以科層組織為基本架構來推行，雖然較具效v ，但往往也流於繁複或保守。部分倡導傳播「文化中心論」（culture- entered theory）的學者建議以經驗共享、創造個人意義、建立社區價 □茖□N科層組織的運作。在此情況下，傳播媒介便負擔了促進資源、經 蟡甈y及共享的功能。@ 社區發展過程中所運用的傳播方式往往是多元的 ，而且無論是其形式 B內容或功能，都和主流媒介有明顯的不同。社區劇 場是社區發展的一個Ф膚峖﹛A也有其特定的角色及功能。但台灣遲至一 九九二年三月才出現釧T定場所、建制人員的社區劇場──台北市民生社 區的「民心劇場」，洏x灣劇場運動在九○年代初產生了另一種新形態。 它除了有其文化的角漵M功能外，也附帶或隱合社區傳播的功能，因為劇 場在社會中具有促進為吨峆堨葹茪H與社會連帶關係的功能，因此似乎應 該更關切它在整個社|的傳播網路中所扮演的角色，及存在位置的意義。@ 其次，我們亦可從「另類媒介」（alternative media），探討社區 @ 場的意義。除了相對於主流媒介外，另類媒介還有幾個值得注意的特徵 A 例如：它們是社區行動和組織的使用工具，它們本身就是行動者，並期瘥 鈳迣y改變；另類媒介的設立便是要草根性的投入，故歡迎民眾參與；早 怢膃野蒆鶪]賦有使命，其目的在促成社會改革。就此觀點而言，社區劇 場是是透過表演藝術的形態來進行社會改革的幫炰梒插A由於表演藝術所 具有的凝聚力及感染力，使它們和所處的社區 c成一種動態的生態關係， 只要他們基於這幾個特徵運作，自然會在經驗嬤氶B意見交流、資訊傳佈 、意義建構等層面上扮演某種特定的角色。 @ 以國內現有的研究成果來 看，對於社區傳播的研究似乎少有人涉獵， t類媒介的研究也有待開發， 而社區劇場是九二年才出現的文化現象，尚憐足鬲膍s者注目的焦點。但 上述三者之間，卻隱約有個脈絡可將其予以窸s，那便是：在社區內，透 過某種形式的媒介來進行社會連帶，可促使懋|變革。若將此一論述具體 化，便是：在社區內，透過社區劇場這種另□C介，可以促進社區發展。 故本研究試圖由這個角度出發，將社區劇場欓陞t類傳播媒介，探討其在 社區傳播中的角色、功能、及定位。

This thesis investigates the representation, positioning, and valuing of young people and youth-specific performance in the field of cultural production in Australia in the 1990s. Using specific case-studies, this thesis argues that young people and youth-specific performance are being represented, positioned, and valued in a variety of contradictory ways as a result of a number of significant contemporary factors: namely, a prevalence of 'new generation' discourse and an attendant generationalism, a growing critical recognition of young people's 'grounded aesthetics', and existing anxieties surrounding the economic future of Australia's arts industry. This is an unstable situation for youth-specific performance, contrasting from earlier periods in Australia's theatre history when young people were positioned principally in terms of their need for 'development' (education and training) or their potential contribution to ongoing 'progression'. This thesis considers this contemporary situation in relation to issues of access and power for young people in the changed social and cultural conditions of the 1990s. The introductory chapter provides a critical background to the main issues presented in the thesis: the concepts of 'youth' and 'culture', the social and cultural characteristics of young people's lives in the 1990s, the rise of generationalist discourse, and the anxious state of the Australian arts industry. The 'institutional' site of state theatre is then taken as a beginning case study to examine the positioning of young people and youth-specific programs in 'official' cultural environments. It argues that anxious plans for the future survival of state 'flagship' companies are positioning young people and youth-specific programs in predominantly generationalist ways, using 'new generation' discourse to mask often conservative approaches. Chapter One begins with a history of Magpie Theatre (a former youth-specific company attached to the State Theatre Company of South Australia) which reflects some of the major priorities of youth-specific theatre of the last twenty years. By way of contrast, the Sydney Theatre Company's recent attempts to reposition young people and youth-specific work in the 1990s are discussed in Chapter Two. This chapter shows how the company's developmental aims and processing of new work are achieved in 'new generation' programs that strictly control young people's contribution to the company's future. Both chapters help to demonstrate the main conceptual shift in youth-specific theatre in the 1990s from 'developmentalism' to 'difference' (with reference to the concomitant growth of drama-in-education in schools), while at the same time alluding to its varying effect. Chapter Three argues that festivals, as volatile sites of cultural production, magnify the wider cultural field's 'stake of struggles': particularly, the struggles to equitably value young people's diverse contributions to developments in the cultural field, both as cultural 'innovators' and cultural 'preservers'. Centred on an interrelated critique of access, this chapter discusses the various motives and priorities of three recent youth-specific arts festivals in terms of their representation and valuing of young people and their work: the Take Over 97 National Festival for Young People, the Stage X Event, and the Loud National Media Festival of Youth Culture and the Arts. Chapter Four considers a site primarily and explicitly concerned with issues of access, representation, and value. This chapter examines in detail the 'self-narratives' of two youth-specific community-based performances, whereby young people's access to 'grounded' modes of cultural expression resulted in innovative cultural performance and signalled a regenerated social politics of community theatre. The chapter examines how Skate Girl Space by the Hereford Sisters and Zen Che by the Ningi Connection utilised young people's 'grounded aesthetics' of video performance to address young people's necessary negotiation with risk and individualisation in the late 1990s. Both projects counteracted public generationalist discourses, and challenged and reinscribed the conventions of gender performance and 'youth'. The final chapter considers the positioning of young people and youth-specific arts in Australian cultural policy, arguing that youth-specific cultural production rarely fits into the characteristic modes of arts production valorised by statistical frameworks for arts industry evaluation. The chapter calls for more open approaches whereby practice might inform policy which recognises the interconnected social, cultural and economic regimes of value that youth-specific work engages in. This thesis draws from theatre and performance studies, sociology, youth studies, cultural studies, and cultural policy studies.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of North Texas, May, 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Theatre, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-78).

abstract: This dissertation is a qualitative study based on the experiences of five high schoolers and five college-aged students who grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, and participated in theatrical productions within their schools, churches, the Erie Playhouse Youtheatre, and other community theatres. The author begins with an introduction of the theatrical scene in Erie and explains the options available to these youth during the times they performed, so the reader will have a better understanding of the background of these young people. The author then explores the current literature dealing with youth participants in a youth theatre setting. In his research, he notes that there were few scholarly books or articles that directly dealt with youth who participate in youth theatre. Most of the books dealt with youth who are part of theatrical programs in school settings, and few researchers utilized the youth's voice as part of the process. The author interviewed ten participants about their theatrical experiences asking them about aspects such as: positive and negative experiences, why they performed, and what they learned from doing theatre. After transcribing the interviews, the author analyzed the participants' responses for values, attitudes, and beliefs about theatre. From this analysis, the author found six themes emerged focusing on: fun, friendship, family, personal growth, commitment to productions, and negative experiences in the theatrical process. Throughout the document, the author utilized the youths' voices and kept their words and thoughts as the basis for all findings constructed and discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Theatre 2014