This thesis argues that American experimental theatre practice was one key factor in the development of an important phase in the history of the alternative theatre movement in Britain during the period 1956-1980. The data for this thesis has been collected through interviews, archival work and a review of existing literature on post-war British theatre including the alternative theatre movement. The theoretical superstructure and modes of analysis build upon key concepts and theories in the work of Elizabeth Burns (1972) and Baz Kershaw (1992, 1999). The main historical developments or phenomena referred to are the activities of the experimental theatre groups associated with Jim Haynes, Charles Marowitz, Nancy Meckler and Ed Berman, four expatriate American theatre practitioners living in Britain during the time period 1956 1980. In addition this thesis examines important American based groups, Living Theatre (1947), Open Theatre (1964), La MaMa (1960) and Bread and Puppet (1965), which performed in Britain and which made an impact during the same period. The study also examines a wide range of indigenous British groups, Pip Simmons (1968), Foco Novo (1972-1989), Joint Stock (1974- 1989), as well as institutions, RSC (1961), Royal Court (1956) and individuals such as Max Stafford-Clark, Thelma Holt, John Arden, Anne Jellicoe and the Portable playwrights (1968- 1972) which in one way or another were influenced by American exemplars. It is important to state clearly that this study does not claim that American experimental theatre and performance practices were the only influence on this important phase in the history of alternative theatre in Britain. This study simply claims that prevailing themes as well as American experimental theatre groups and performance practices had a key impact which has not been properly acknowledged or examined by scholars. Such an examination will contribute to a more comprehensive and dynamic understanding of the forces which shaped the alternative theatre movement in Britain.

This thesis explores the figure of the expert in a range of contemporary performance practices. Much has been written in recent years about the rise of education, pedagogy and research as both curatorial strategies and modes for making art (see below for cited texts). The significance of theatre and performance within these practices has also been asserted (see, for instance, Shannon Jackson’s Social Works). I argue, however, that the specific use of the figure of the expert within the conjunction of pedagogy, research and performance has not been fully addressed. I further argue that looking at the expert in performance practices provides valuable insight into the broader contemporary dynamic of knowledge and power, as well as telling us much about the current state of performance itself. This is clearly a broad topic, with many possibilities for analysis. In this introduction, therefore, I will outline the rationale behind my choices of practices and critical resources, and I will discuss the rationale behind the geographical and temporal limits that I have chosen. I will also define my key terms, while noting that all of them are both contested and subject to change. I will discuss my methodology, including the various ways I have accessed the performance events and documentation that are included in this thesis, and my approach to the interdisciplinarity that necessarily underpins a project with such potentially broad scope as this one. Finally, I will briefly outline the six chapters which form the body of this study, again indicating reasons for the choices I have made, as well as drawing a few initial connections between practices and ideas.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the very significant problem of State bank nonperforming loan (NPL) in China. NPLs undermine the stability of China's banking system and the efficient operation of its markets. This thesis will make recommendations for developing better workout procedures to deal with existing NPLs and explore the role of banking regulation and supervision in NPL prevention, as well as in avoiding impacts of NPLs on the stability of banking system, drawing on experiences at national, regional and international levels. The accumulation of NPLs in China has been caused by the dominant role of State banks in China's financial markets, policy loans to state owned enterprises (SOEs), unnecessary administrative controls on banks' lending activities, weak internal controls within State banks and inappropriate banking regulation and supervision. All these have seriously ruined the conditions of market discipline in China and resulted not only in large amount of NPL stock, but also the constant creation of new NPLs on State banks' balance sheets. The NPL problem in China is not limited to individual banks. It is a systemic problem closely connected to the SOE problem. The existing bank NPLs cannot be worked out without debt and enterprise restructuring. The balance sheets of banks and firms must be cleaned up by, first, recapitalizing banks to write off and make provision for existing NPLs, and, second, setting up independent asset management companies to purchase and manage bank NPLs. To prevent the increasing accumulation of new NPLs, unnecessary administrative controls on banks must be removed; prudential banking regulation and supervision much be enhanced; appropriate internal control systems must be promoted within banks, especially with regard to the proper risk evaluation systems and internal decision-taking structures. To avoid the damaging impacts of NPL problem on the stability of the banking system, ' an explicit limited deposit insurance system should be introduced; the central bank's lender of last resort facilities must be properly defined; bank insolvency resolution mechanisms must be put in place. In a word, the proper functioning of market discipline must be restored in China.

This dissertation theorizes expressive sound in piano performance. It views the act of obtaining a desired sound as an act of subtly adjusting to continually changing conditions of sound production. It takes a performer's perspective, focusing on the personal experience of sound, as it is being created in performance. The sound of a piano performance is continually evolving, contingent on the acoustic environment, the characteristics of an instrument, and other circumstantial factors with which a pianist works in performance. Although the focus is on real-time performing experience, in the act of any particular performance, a pianist relies on robust previous experience. This dissertation particularly considers the dynamic, interactive loop of the conception, the making, and the hearing of sound in piano performance. The continued re-enaction of this loop is considered as grounding a specifically pianistic cognitive ability which draws on both the haptic and auditory experience of sound at the piano. My approach to piano playing is rooted in work in critical ethnography as well as theories of cognitive function. These two seemingly disparate areas of enquiry share important common ground in their treatment of conceptualization and experience as mutually definitive. An underlying theme throughout this research is the dynamic interplay between theoretical understanding and lived experience. The focus, however, is consistently on piano playing, seen as the act of engendering artistically charged sound through the interaction with a complex and versatile musical instrument, the acoustics of sound and space, and the expressive possibilities of personal experience.

The performance of Shakespeare represents a distinct challenge for actors versed in the naturalistic approach to acting as influenced by Stanislavsky. As John Barton suggests, this tradition is not readily compatible with the language-based tradition of Elizabethan players. He states that playing Shakespeare constitutes a collision of 'the Two Traditions' (1984, p. 3). The current training-based literature provides many guidelines on analysing and speaking dramatic verse by Shakespeare and others, but few texts include practical ways for contemporary performers to embrace both traditions specifically in a rehearsal context. This research seeks to develop a new actor-centred rehearsal methodology to help modern theatre artists create performances that balance the spontaneity and psychological insight that can be gained from a Stanislavsky-based approach with the textual clarity necessary for Shakespearean drama, and a physical rigour which, I will argue, helps root the voice within the body. The thesis establishes what practitioner Patsy Rodenburg (2005, p. 3) refers to as the need for words, or the impulse to respond to events primarily through language, as the key challenge that contemporary performers steeped in textual naturalism confront when approaching Shakespeare and other classical playwrights. The research offers a rehearsal methodology to meet this challenge. The methodology synthesises Stanislavsky's late-career extension of the 'system' referred to as Active Analysis, and Viewpoints, a technique of movement improvisation derived from contemporary dance by choreographer Mary Overlie and further adapted by directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau. Active Analysis is an innovative method of textual analysis that centres on a series of improvisations, or études, which serve as successive blueprints toward performance. Viewpoints is a technique that offers a clear and accessible vocabulary related to principles of time and space as a way to create and evaluate stage movement. My study illustrates how these two techniques might be used in tandem to invite actors to discover the need for words in a rehearsal context. This combined methodology was developed through a series of three practical research laboratories related to The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It, and Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. A fourth laboratory served to extend the combined methodology to a pre-Shakespearean classical text by focusing on the unattributed medieval morality play Mankind. Accounts of these laboratories are used to illustrate a 'director's anatomy' of the development and implementation of the methodology. The thesis concludes with my proposal for an integrated rehearsal practice that can help contemporary actors experience the language-based performance tradition related to Shakespeare and other classical playwrights. The research contributes to the current literature on playing Shakespeare and others by offering a set of principles and a responsive rehearsal model informed by those principles, whilst also providing illustrations of how they might be employed in the production process. The methodology can be utilised in both educational and professional settings. My deep engagement with Active Analysis and Viewpoints means that I am able to contribute to practice, training and scholarship related to each, extending previous enquiries into these systems. The findings can also be applied more generally to the literature and practice of acting, directing and textual analysis.

<p> The lives and careers of the three women composers Marion Bauer (1882-1955), Miriam Gideon (1906-1996), and Vivian Fine (1913-2000) spanned more than a century. Each wrote works for viola and piano, including Bauer's Sonata for Viola and Piano, op. 22, Gideon's Sonata for Viola and Piano, and Fine's <i> Lieder for Viola and Piano.</i> Together, these composers' careers encompass a number of important trends in the professional development of the twentieth century woman composer in the United States. </p><p> Women composers were hindered in their advancement and acknowledgement for a number of reasons. One of these was a lack of "female tradition", the absence of an existing community of successful women composers to look to as examples. Another was the "female affiliation complex", the idea that female professionals struggle to look toward their predecessors as models because the female tradition is devalued. First, this document will explore the lives and influences of Marion Bauer, Miriam Gideon, and Vivian Fine, aiming to contribute to a better understanding of how "female tradition" and the "female affiliation complex" affected these composers' lives. Second, each work for viola and piano will undergo theoretical analysis focusing on goal-directed linearity. Goal-directed linearity is an issue of interest to performers and will encourage a deeper understanding of the works in question, fostering their further performance and dissemination.</p><p>

PhD / In Australia, like most countries, circus has been an element, at times a very important element, in the mosaic that constitutes its popular culture. An outgrowth of the circus as recast in a modern form in London in the 18th century, an Australian circus profession has existed almost continuously since 1847. Australia’s circus entrepreneurs took the principal features of English, and later American, circus arts and management and reworked these features to suit their new antipodean context. The athletic, intellectually undemanding nature of its equestrian-based entertainments harmonised with the emerging patterns of modern Australia’s way of life. In time, Australia produced renowned circus artists of its own, even artists capable of reinvigorating the concept of circus in the very countries from which their art had been derived. Since their transience and labours, indeed their very existence, were somehow tangential and inconsequential to mainstream Australian society, Australia’s circus people did not attract tokens of recognition in story and verse as did shearers, drovers, diggers and other identities of the Australian outback. Their contribution to Australia’s social, economic and cultural development has been largely overlooked. Despite its pervasive role in Australia’s cultural life over more than 150 years, examples of academically grounded research into Australian circus are few. The primary aim of this study is to demonstrate the major themes evident in Australia’s circus history, in terms of society, enterprise and culture, between 1847 and 2006. None of these areas, of course, is exclusive of the others, especially the first and last named. These deliberations are framed within the broader influences and events apparent in Australian society and history. Implicit within this demonstration is the notion that circus, whatever its characteristics and merits as an artform, has been, and continues to be, a ‘barometer’ of social, economic and cultural change in Australia.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes special report study entitled: Edge park in an urban environment. Added title page title: Stages and workshops for amateur drama. Includes bibliographical references.

<p> My thesis paper examines the process of capturing and studying the sounds that surround us through three case-studies involving audio recording, the subtext beneath the sound, and bringing documentation of real life situations into a performance atmosphere. Each topic will be discussed through the examination of the personal processes and compositional methods of three composers who use environmental sound recordings in very different ways. With specific reference to my own piece Within a Soundscape&mdash;Scorned Confusion, I will present compositional concerns in relationship to the particular issues discussed with each composer.</p>

<p> How does Martha Graham conceptualize and then give expression to information delivered by Psyche through her body and the choreographic process? This is a study of the relationship of Psyche and Soma considered through examination of Graham's choreographies as expression of their union. This study seeks to participate in discourse on the process of melding the Unconscious and the body through the art of choreography. Three choreographies of Graham as text in the symbolic form--offered through the aesthetic movement phraseology presented by the choreographer--are introduced and interpreted, opening doors that invite discourse upon the subject. Hermeneutics--a methodological approach in which interpretation of text is used to gather insight into the meaning of the text--is utilized to foster engagement in Graham's choreographies. To explore meaningful forms in dance as text, the research creates a frame through which to cultivate, interpret, and integrate information from Graham's choreography. What becomes evident is the complementarity of artistic processes and the unfolding of qualitative research practices and the interpretive activities fostered. Interpretation becomes a deep connectedness with the research material, in this instance the dance methodology, movement language and range of Graham and the manner in which she utilizes aesthetic movement as a path into the Unconscious. The choreographies Errand Into the Maze (1984), Lamentation (1930), and Light--Part 1 (2010) demonstrate how, as the dancer weaves the choreographic sequences into the performance, the Body becomes expressive of Psyche and is ultimately moved and informed by Psyche. Graham invites the onlooker to peer into the pathways leading her to thematic content and subject matter of Psyche, which she then fashions into choreography. Graham's systematic approach to setting emotion into motion on stage becomes evident. The implication of this study for Depth Psychology entails an invitation to include Soma in the study of Psyche. An exploration of Graham's choreographic repertoire reveals a profound range of self-expression, not bound merely to the spoken word. Hers--articulation and manifestation of subjective information derived from the Unconscious, performed through choreographic ventures--is a sensory-integrative and self-expressive experience.</p>