My work as a queer, feminist playwright is centered around reimagining the presentation of women and other marginalized people on stage. I write highly theatrical comedies meant to highlight and satirize aspects of presentation and representation related to gender, race and power. This play is titled The Age of Innocence, like the Edith Wharton novel which I have never read. I learned from the internet that Wharton wrote the novel in 1920 when she was 50 years old and thinking about her childhood days in New York City in the 1870’s long before the horrors of WWI. The novel is about the forbidden love and extramarital affair between very wealthy white people who cannot deny their love but are afraid of any impropriety that could threaten their wealth and social status. My play of the same title is inspired by Wharton’s novel and also by the very public breakup announcement made by famous television writer-director Jill Soloway and famous poet Eileen Myles. Soloway and Myles announced their breakup at a museum lecture that was supposed to be about queer media and queer literature. They decided to use the public speaking opportunity to publicly announce their breakup and process details of their relationship with the audience. My play is a comedy that borrows the premise of the Soloway Myles breakup announcement and a little of the structure of Wharton’s novel to examine gender presentation, race, privilege, romance and age.

Communication, involves the skill and craftsmanship of an aspiring artist to investigate the possibilities within. Interaction and communion with the world is amplified by practice of breathing in, during multiple circumstances. Acting is reacting to the world and the multiple microcosms in it. But why is this important, why is this necessary, why is there a need to act, to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances? This University is a place that has given me the opportunity to investigate these curiosities. Not everyone has the opportunity to commit to the investigation of what it means to breathe in the atmosphere in a specific context and to respond with impulse in forms of both sound and movement. This process is investigating what it means to find truth in oneself in response to the space, time, and people. The investigating is of what it means to be, rather than to manipulate a world that caters to the ego, in truth the ego must dissipate. I came here with ideas and determinations, but all of this anticipatory preparation is what I had to let go of in pursuance of truth and the development of a craft. I used to believe my time here was an end point that would lead me to a goal. It is not; it is an introduction to the rest of my life. I am a student now and forever. I encourage the reader to take one thing, consider what it means to be a life long learner.

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There was Vietnam in books. And this war and that war. And is war just? And is justice fair? And is there poetry there? Anywhere? In pockets, around certain corners? On buses? In gardens? On Sundays? And there where? And there why? And says who? And--we should talk about it more. Why don't we talk about war?

Surrendering to what is the nature of compassion, the power of silence, a true commitment to the character, a complete freedom of the imagination, and the will, at any given moment, to let go of who we think we are in order to become who we are meant to be - has been the greatest teacher of all. .-Eckhart Tolle

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The mass of words written about the German poet and prose writer Heinrich Heine (1?97-1856) is intimidating. He is considered to be one of the most controversial and paradoxical authors of the Western literature, an enigmatic figure among German writers, and the only German writer between Goethe and Thomas Mann to achieve during his lifetime a reputation beyond the bounds of German-speaking countries. He has been termed "the pioneer of radical political literature, an eccentric poet." His works became a milestone of German thought.

This thesis examines the politics of twenty-first century ???guerrilla??? performance. It historicises site-specific, political performance by examining ???guerrilla??? art forms from the 1960s to the present. It argues that recent community-based, site-specific performance events can be seen as a ???new??? type of guerrilla work, as they utilise techniques which challenge public space, authorship and control without resorting to traditional guerrilla forms of didactic street protest. The author establishes two main political tactics of the community-based guerrilla artist. The first is the utilisation of a problematised definition of ???community??? and the second is an understanding of physical, conceptual and experiential ???space??? as open to intervention. Community-based performance and site-specific art practices are investigated and space and community are placed into critical theoretical frameworks using post-structural and spatiality theory. The author then argues that post-structured communities which are based on an ethics of difference can trouble and create site, conceptual space and place (site/concept/place) through contemporary guerrilla performance events. Three examples of community-based guerrilla performance in Australia are examined. The first case study explores Western Sydney based Urban Theatre Projects and their 1997 performance event TrackWork. The second focuses on community-based hip-hop artist Morganics and his facilitation of two hip-hop tracks Down River and The Block in 2001. The third considers US theatre director Peter Sellars??? problematic curation of the 2002 Adelaide Festival of the Arts. In all three case studies, guerrilla artists are shown working with post-structured communities to challenge and trouble site/concept/place in order to improve the lives of their participants and audiences. This thesis proposes new post-structural frameworks for the powerful presence of community and site in performance events, thus contributing to performance and cultural studies and to the emerging field of community-based performance scholarship.

University of Technology, Sydney.Faculty of Business. / Organisations depend on teams to implement its strategies and enables organisations to be flexible and responsive in the competitive global environment. Teams contribute to the organisation while at the same time providing opportunities to team members to develop relationships within team. Teams are viewed as a major source of ‘environmental forces’ that help shape team members (McGrath and Kravitz, 1982). Previous research by Taggard and Brown (2001) shows that there is a statistically significant relationship between team members’ behaviour and team performance (e.g., participation and involving others, goal setting, feedback, team commitment, reaction to conflict, addressing conflict, averting conflict and communication). There is noticeably a lack of research on team behaviours in Malaysia. The first objective of this thesis is to explore the relationships between team performance and ‘behavioural’ characteristics in the Manufacturing and Telecommunication industries in Malaysia. Past findings suggest that ‘behavioural’ characteristics of well developed team tend to possess certain ‘behavioural’ characteristics (e.g., Wheelan and Hochberger, 1996; Woodcock and Francis, 1996). The literature (e.g., Hoigaard, et. al., 2006; Stevens and Champion, 1994) has shown that that ‘behavioural’ characteristics such as role clarity, role satisfaction, liking, goal agreement, openness to change and differences, participative leadership style, division of task into sub-teams, informal leadership role, effective handling of intra-team conflict and inter-team conflict are critical in team performance. The second objective seeks to investigate the relationship between team ‘structural’ factors (such as team size, team types, organisation size) and team behaviours. Team structure is viewed as ‘inputs’ to team behaviour (Gist et al., 1987). Goal contribution by teams (e.g., Hoegl and Parboteeah, 2003), customers (e.g., Kaczynski and Ott, 2004) and management (e.g., Samson and Daft (2003) were also included in the study. The third objective seeks to investigate the relationship between team members’ demographic variables (such as gender, ethnicity, age and education) and team behaviour and team performance. Scholars suggest that there is a link between team’s demography and team performance (e.g., Eisenhardt and Schoonhoven, 1990; Michael and Hambrick, 1992). Questionnaire data were collected from 59 work teams comprising of 137 individual team members) from both small and large organisations located in four regions in Malaysia (Penang, Kuala Lumpur Seremban and Malacca). The respondents were mainly Malay (52.9 percent), followed by Chinese (31.4 percent), and Indian (15.7 percent). Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlations and one way analysis of variance. The findings suggest that ‘behavioural’ characteristics such as role clarity, role satisfaction and division of task into sub-teams are critical for all aspects of team performance. Goal agreement, role clarity, role satisfaction and division of task into sub-teams and participative leadership style correlate with the team performance indicator of downtime reduction. Role satisfaction and division of tasks into sub-teams correlates positively with waste reduction. The findings indicate that team type and organisation size correlates with team performance. The findings suggest that involvement from team members drawn from cross-functional areas complement each other and these teams tend to have less conflict in task performance. Team members from large organisations seem to have a majority of effective team behaviours such as cohesiveness, liking for each other, goal agreement, role clarity, and openness to differences. These teams also have a preference for structured activities such as division of tasks into sub-teams, participative leadership style and are motivated to achieve team goals. Goal contribution by teams and customers are critical for team performance. Celebrations of team success provide opportunities for reinforcing team values and bonding team members to one another, thus creating a cohesive team. However, team size does not impact team performance. The findings show that teams with a majority of Malay members tend to be more cohesive, like each other more, agree to team goals, open to change and accept each other’s differences. They also tend to prefer structured activities such as the division of tasks into sub-teams and participative leadership style. Teams with a majority of Chinese and Indian members tend to have higher inter-team conflict and tend to focus on the team’s outcome. The findings have important practical implication for managers and supervisors who need to be sensitive to the differences and needs of the multi-ethnic race team. Intra-team and inter-team conflict could be minimised by providing interpersonal training and conflict resolution skills for team members to communicate positively and build rapport. The findings show that there is a strong relationship between team performance and team type, and team membership composition. Therefore, teams need to be labelled accurately according to the different team expectations and needs of the team (e.g., training, supervision, motivation). The findings found that team involvement in team goals is associated with team performance. This finding suggests that managers need to involve team members in setting reachable goals which provide a sense of direction to teams. In conclusion, the study found that there is a relationship between team ‘behavioural’ characteristics such as role clarity, role satisfaction and division of task into sub-teams and team performance in the Malaysian context. Ethnic values and cultural differences also influence team members’ behaviour. The study suggests that goal contribution by team and customer provide a sense of direction to teams in achieving the teams’ outcomes. Celebration of team success and team participation in convention enhances team performance.