This inquiry is concerned with realistic representations of violence on stage within a South African context. Inside this broad frame I focus on why this directorial approach is a problem and I propose a possible solution in a directorial intervention with mise-en-scène, which attempts to regulate the audience's emotional immersion and distance through theatre apparatus. This notion is supported both by Psychological research into the problem of violence in South Africa, and by Theatre and Performance studies, with author Lilie Chouliaraki (2013) arguing for the "in-between" of theatre as a means to approaching violence. Conceptually, I propose working with theatre apparatus in a spatial triad, which is located within Peter Brook's ideas around an "empty space", the post-Brechtian according to David Bennett, which is concerned with both distance and emotional immersion, and the spatial trialectics of Henri Lefebvre and Edward Soja, who argue for the insertion of a "thirdspace" in order to counter the limited workings of binaries. This conceptual frame translates into praxis in the form of theatre apparatus such as interruption and disruption of the narrative, working with metaphor and gesture, "playing" with time, duration and repetition and working towards moments of extreme intensity before a pause is inserted into the action. I propose these apparatus as the findings of a series of Practice as Research projects which formed part of this study, and as the tools for my final Thesis Production. This project will take place in November, 2015 in the form of an adaptation of a novel, where my objective will be to create a rhythm of emotional audience involvement. My aim is to test whether the apparatus I have discovered in this study are able to regulate the emotional proximity of the audience to the violence on stage, hopefully providing an alternative approach to working with violence in an already violent society.

This dissertation proffers argument which attempts to suggest that the consideration of both spontaneity and structure is paramount in the creation, rehearsal and performance of clown theatre. In my view, the Whiteface and Auguste clown partnership arguably represents a break in the tradition of circus clowns towards a more modern way of understanding and thinking about clowning informed by ideas around spontaneity and structure. The characteristics of their partnership are examined as possibly containing valuable insights around these concepts which may enhance our understanding of clown theatre. The dissertation is divided into three chapters. The first relies on theoretical enquiry informing my ideas around definitions and the history of the Whiteface and Auguste clowns. In the second chapter I discuss rehearsing and training for clown theatre where I engage with the contrasting clown methodologies of two practitioners, Phillipe Gaulier and Ira Seidenstein, whose clown courses I attended and whose notions I use as the framework informing my research. In the third chapter my research methodology relies heavily on practice as research conducted through three different practical projects over the two year research period. Through practical and theoretical research, the study clarifies the predominance of the Auguste clown as a way of understanding modern clowning. It aims to illuminate the way in which clowning is detrimentally emphasised as a purely spontaneous form, avoiding critical examination, and how this understanding of the clown results in an emphasis on spontaneity and games in the teaching and learning of clowning. The study argues for the significance of the Whiteface clown with regards to order, form, rules, preparation and critical enquiry. These findings both in practice and theory have provided clarity and a strong theoretical foundation from which I can attempt to create and perform in clown theatre performances where there is possibly a balance of qualities representing both the Auguste and the Whiteface figures: both structure and spontaneity.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / The ubiquity of technology enables unprecedented contact between people, yet it neglects essential face-to-face communion; e-mail, text-messaging and even social media strip away the metadata of our interpersonal communications; the emotional cues and clues that are a necessary part of everyday social interaction. At the same time, the relentless densification of urban populations enforces proximity among strangers, with routine encounters increasingly bereft of emotional nourishment. The affective numbing that ensues shares many characteristics of post-traumatic stress disorder. The current study explores how exposure to theatre may help to maintain the emotional health of individuals alienated by the stresses of 21st century urban living; moreover, it examines how performance is able to facilitate emotional and social healing in post-conflict communities.

At the centre of my research, in the light of my homecoming and notions of home, there is a question: might I find a place where dimensions of shamanism might intersect with modes of performance, in the creation of theatre for the 21st Century? In this liminal hybrid moment, a place between the present and the future, I suggest that art is actually necessary and that it is essential for artists to build a counter-narrative, both locally and globally, to terror, suffering and denial. Art and social change can be a trend for certain nations, societies, even artists and theorists. In my view, however, which is my point of departure, it is particularly in an era of self reference, modernity, post modern and post colonial rupture and fragmentation that an informed coherence between the inexplicable terror of unsettling major social upheaval and the individual, may be able to be sketched once again and with certainty, by and through art and performance; if not actual transformation; then a witnessing, an acknowledgement and an end to the pain of denial. This explication begins with an overview of current socio-political dilemmas, and looks at the role of theatre in impacting change. My exploration continues with an examination of the role of shamanism as a tool to assist the theatre maker, the actor and even the audience in the pursuit of a transforming experience where one might initiate a shift in perceptions, thought and consciousness. In my observation of current theatre makers in South Africa, I am finding that this is already taking place. The object of this paper is to frame and make more specific, the role of shamanism as it connects to interdisciplinary techniques and technologies for performance. In my practical research, which will include my culminating production, Passages (provisional title), I attempt to tease out these methodologies in order to expand my work and be a part of the development of theory and practice in theatre making in these significant and urgent times, for my 21st Century homes. The primary theorists that I have referenced, contained in my theoretical framework, are Ashraf Jamal, Sarah Nuttall, Achille Mbembe, Homi Bhabha, Breyten Breytenbach, Iain Chambers and Hamid Naficy. In my research for my praxis, I have worked predominantly with the findings of Richard Schechner, Victor Turner, Antonin Artaud, Peter Sellars, Jerzy Grotowski, Alison Oddey and Rachel Karafistan.

This study examines and investigates the relation of scientific thought to changing notions of time, space and character in twentieth†century drama. The aim of the study is to illustrate the influence scientific thought had on the zeitgeist of the twentieth†century and how this in turn is reflected through the drama in the treatment of the dramatic elements of time, space and character. The focus of the study rests on three case studies, each of which can be seen as a precursor to the following in a linear timeline of the development of twentieth†century drama. The analysis of the three texts, namely Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Go dot and Richard Foreman's Bad Boy Nietzsche, will show how the philosophical notions of the twentieth†century, namely relativity, uncertainty, ambiguity, paradox, complexity and causality (which stemmed from the changing worldview offered by the theory of relativity) is reflected in the dramatists' handling of the notions of time, space and character.

Includes bibliographical references. / Includes abstract. / In this thesis I explore my obsession with teaching the physical theatre body over the past twenty-five years.Two sets of questions are proposed: How does the teaching of physical theatre respond to violence and the violated body; and how does pedagogy change when it moves from one context to another? Firstly, I argue that the pedagogy developed by Jacques Lecoq in Paris responded like a pendulum to the extreme violence perpetrated on bodies during the Second World War. I argue that my own practice, influenced by my two years of study at École Jacques Lecoq (1984-1986), continued this tradition by responding to what, I propose, existed as a ‘culture of violence’ in South Africa from the period of colonialism through the apartheid era and into the present. I analyse the impact of violence on the body by focusing on three consequences - stillness, erasure and rupture - and come to an understanding of how the teaching of physical theatre, as per Lecoq and myself, counters all three with a focus on the moving, articulate, individuated body capable of transformation. Secondly, I propose that pedagogy responds to geographic, philosophical and historical contexts and is subject to modification when context changes. The methodology has included conventional research, a comparative analysis of the two contexts, and an analysis of my own experiences - from notebooks that I have kept - as a student and teacher.

The following dissertation analyses teaching as a performance and argues that teachers "enrole" or "put on their teaching face" when in front of their learners (Whatman, 1997:182; Dobson, 2005:334). The dissertation investigates the benefit to teachers of learning the skills of an actor such as voice, breathing and relaxation techniques, movement and use of space, presence and mindfulness and improvisation. The research argues that actor training may lead to increased effective communication with an 'audience' of learners in order to transmit and transact information. The research process involved observation and analysis of 14 teachers in government schools in Cape Town, using 'performance' as an analytical framework for a total of 36 hours over the course of a month. Questions around the use of acting and drama training are explored, and ethnographic observation and auto-ethnography are used to further the analysis. Trends and patterns were noted in the field using observational research methods such as video-recordings, field notes and interviews with participants. The writer's position as researcher was adapted from outsider (interpretive ethnography) to insider (autoethnography) due to unforeseen circumstances. Findings included the recognition of the predominant teaching style in schools, namely the transmissive approach, the emphasis on content learning, the lack of self-reflexive practice and acute stress due to the pressures of the job. The difficulties teachers are confronted with in their day to day operations became apparent, resulting in possible disinterest in, and lack of time, for professional development. The researcher's position as reflective practitioner and the ethnographic observations of teachers in schools confirmed and reinforced that teachers would benefit from actor and drama training skills such as voice, movement, improvisations and role-play.

Summary in English. / Bibliography: leaves 146-155. / This study analyses the role of theatrical discourse in the relationship between patriarchal ideology and gendered subjectivity. It explores ways in which theatre might be used to encourage the social transgression of patriarchal gender norms and investigates the problems associated with the practical realisation of these strategies for gender subversion. The study is structured in two parts. Part I lays the theoretical foundation of the discussion. It argues, in Chapter One, that the concept of gender identity as a natural, inherent facet of human nature is an ideological construct and that gender is not, therefore, an innate aspect of all human beings, but rather a learnt behaviour. In Chapter Two, the connection between the social and theatrical performances of gender is made and the role of theatre in teaching the social performance of gender is examined. Part I concludes with an exploration into possible strategies for gender subversion within the paradigm of theatre. Part II concentrates on the application of the theory discussed in Part I to the practice of theatre. Chapters Four and Five focus respectively on the author's experiences of producing and receiving performance texts from a gender-subversive perspective. In conclusion, this study argues that there are particular problems associated with attempting gender-subversion through theatrical performance texts, due to the extent to which patriarchal ideology is entrenched within the cultural practice of theatre. It also argues, however, that theatre offers unique potential for intervening in the interpellation of gendered subjects and as such, all attempts to use it to this end should be encouraged and supported.

This research project seeks to understand myself and my position within South Africa. The position of a young, white, Afrikaner woman. This is a position that, one could argue, inherently carries a sense of a tragedy within it. The project seeks to understand how the elements of tragedy, such as conflict and transgression, in turn, can be employed in my performance-making practice to question the very identity I hold. The research recounts the histories and narratives that have been constructed around the white, Afrikaner woman in South Africa, specifically with regards to a paradoxical positionality in the white, Afrikaner woman's ‘role' in the construction of the white, Afrikaner identity. Furthermore, it seeks to understand how narratives and histories embed themselves within nostalgic objects that centralise around the white, Afrikaner woman. Utilising the very narratives and objects that have constructed the white, Afrikaner woman, I create performances that seek to use these objects, including the Afrikaans language itself, and my own body, to transgress and abject the notions of the border, my body, and subjectto-object and object-to-subject relationality within this very identity I hold. During these performances and moments of transgression and abjection, I argue that liminal moments in which I can re-imagine myself are encountered and experienced. These moments are often fleeting and exist as attempts at re-imagining myself, but so too hold the ability to affect and shift something within my own understanding of self. Finally, the research seeks to understand how these very positionalities and performances are related to the tragic and tragedy; catastrophe and the notion of the wreckage, as theorised by Walter Benjamin (1968), Hans-Thies Lehmann (2016) and Nelson Maldonado-Torres (2016) and how these theories might speak to an understanding of my identity and positionality in South Africa, my understanding of self.

My proposal was to produce a series of paintings as a response to a sense of dislocation in the South African social fabric. The body of paintings is entitled Domestic Baggage and consists collectively of paintings on canvas and preliminary works entitled The Grids. Thematically consistent, the works and the accompanying research document emphasize the disturbed and marginalized dimensions of fragmented society. A significant frame of reference is the claustrophobic, persistent presence of increasing violence and loss of life arising from the dislocation ethos. lconographically, a strategy of allusion has been adopted, allowing for the interaction of figurative, gestural and material referents. Dependence on overtly illustrative or purely narrative modes of representation has been deferred. An extensive background essay highlights the appropriately identified specifics of the backdrop against which the series of paintings has been developed. A detailed art historical contextualization foregrounds those precedents most pertinent to the formal and conceptual processes informing the Domestic Baggage series.