This thesis is a personal journey examining the applications of Ritual Poetic Drama Within the African Continuum as developed by my mentor Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, to the profession of the dramatic artist whether they are actor, director, educator or producer, to the training of the dramatic artist as a means of empowering generative, self defined, self validating artists, and as a means of developing community specific dramas in the hopes of facilitating individual and personal revelation. Using the author’s personal experiences as evidence, it intends to affirm Ritual Poetic Drama Within the African Continuum as an emergent methodology for theatrical practitioners.

L’objet de notre étude est l’analyse du discours didascalique du poète et dramaturge espagnol, Federico García Lorca. Trois pièces constituent notre champ d’investigation : Bodas de sangre, Yerma et La casa de Bernarda Alba. Les didascalies, en tant que discours émanant de la voix auctoriale, ont fait l’objet de nombreuses recherches et publications depuis l’essor de la linguistique de l’énonciation et de l’analyse du discours dramatique. Ce travail propose une poétique singulière des didascalies et démontre qu’elles forment un code sémiotique particulier, stratégique et poétique au sein du discours théâtral lorquien : loin de ne constituer qu’un péritexte fonctionnel qui se limite à accompagner et à préciser les conditions de mise en scène du discours entre personnages, elles représentent le véritable centre névralgique du théâtre poétique de Lorca. Elles participent pleinement de la construction du sens profond de l’œuvre et livrent des clés interprétatives essentielles fonctionnant à différents niveaux de lecture et de réception théâtrale. La lecture de certaines didascalies représente un véritable plaisir pour le spectalecteur. Elles peuvent être considérées dans une perspective poétique et interprétées dans la matérialité même de leur signe linguistique comme des supports textuels et phoniques. Elles demeurent dans la plupart des cas l’apanage du lecteur car, renversement paradoxal, le metteur en scène est souvent dans l’impossibilité de les représenter totalement sur scène. Ces didascalies correspondent à la première phase de ce travail et sont nommées didascalire. D’autres didascalies concernent d’une façon plus concrète et pratique les détails de la future mise en scène et possèdent une fonction performative et conative. Elles ne sont plus textuelles : le message originel se transforme en d’autres systèmes de signes. Elles font l’objet de la seconde phase de cette étude et sont appelées didascascène. Les parties liminaires (titres – sous-titres et dramatis personae par exemples), les nuances chromatiques et les indications spatio-temporelles, sont revêtues d’une valeur prophétique et d’une portée métathéâtrale : elles portent en germe tous les éléments de l’œuvre et élaborent une réflexion sur le théâtre lui-même. Lorca, dans cette partition didascalique compose une poétique du silence révélant les sentiments profonds des différents personnages de la trilogie. Les didascalies sont le souffle et la respiration du texte qui prend corps et vie devant nos yeux : leur déchiffrement permet d’accéder aux arcanes de l’œuvre. / The aim of this study is to analyse Garcia Lorca's poetic and dramatic use of stage directions with special reference to three plays : Bodas de Sangre , Yerma and La casa de Bernada Alba .There is no denying that since the birth of enunciative linguistics and drama speech analysis, a lot of in-depth research publications have been devoted to stage directions as reverberations of the author's voice . This study will offer a poetic reading of Lorca's stage directions and aim at demonstrating that the latter contribute to creating a specific semiotic code with both a strategic and poetic intent within Lorca's dramatic speech. Far from being a mere functional peritext only meant to organise and set up the staging of discourse between the characters, Lorca's stage directions embody the nerve centre of his poetic drama. They play an active part in building up the innermost meaning of his works, and offer essential keys for interpretation at various levels of reading and theatrical reception. Reading some of these stage directions is a source of enjoyment for the viewer-reader . If we consider them as mere linguistic signs, they can indeed be interpreted in a poetical perspective as text aids through their sound effects when spoken aloud. Yet ,they are restricted to the reader's exclusive benefit as , paradoxically enough, the stage director is very often unable to stage them in their entirety , even by summoning all the senses . These stage directions, analysed in the first phase of this study, can be labelled as 'reading directions '. The other kind of stage directions consists of the more concrete and physical details that can help organise the futur staging of the play. They have an action-inducing and conative function and , as such, are not textual - the author's original message being coded into another system of signs - These 'staging directions' are the focus of the second part of this study. The preliminary parts ( titles, subtitles and dramatis personae for instance), the varied hues, space and time indications are endowed with a metadrama and prophetical value. Indeed, they carry the seeds of all the main characteristics of Lorca's works and weave thoughts about the very essence of drama. By turning his stage directions into a real musical score, Lorca composes a poetry of silence revealing the innermost feelings of the various characters present in the trilogy. The stage directions breathe life into the text , which takes on flesh and blood under our eyes. Deciphering them enables the reader to lift the veil on the mysteries of Lorca's works.

THE VOICE OF RITUAL: AN EXPLORATION TEACHING BODY AND BREATH USING THE PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF RITUAL POETIC DRAMA WITHIN THE AFRICAN CONTINUUM By Jacquelynn Rae Camden, MFA Candidate A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts Theatre Pedagogy: Voice and Speech & Ritual Poetic Drama Within the African Continuum at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012 Major Director: Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Theatre The focus of my undergraduate training and the concentration of my graduate work have been specifically in two areas: Ritual Poetic Drama Within the African Continuum under the tutelage of Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, and Voice and Speech with Janet B. Rodgers. I spent my undergraduate years learning and absorbing the material and philosophy of both Rodgers and Pettiford-Wates, and in my first year of graduate work, I was able to study their teaching principles and methodologies within the classroom as a teaching assistant. I was also fortunate enough to study the teaching principles of fellow graduate students within both concentrations: Ritual Poetic Drama Within the African Continuum and Voice & Speech. It is my intention with this thesis, to explain how and why I decided to integrate some of the teaching methodologies of RPDWTAC into the Second Year Voice & Speech course I taught in the fall of 2010, which focused on body and breath. It is my belief that these particular practices of Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum as applied to the Junior Acting Studio are also beneficial in the pedagogy of Voice and Speech in the classroom, because such practices create an environment that encourages the building of an artistic community, personal responsibility, and the freeing of the artist’s body, mind, and spirit, resulting in the freeing of the voice as well.

艾略特經常被視為高蹈派的現代主義作家,他的主要任務是捍衛精英藝術的純粹性,以對抗大眾文化的入侵。這樣的看法加深現代精英藝術和通俗大眾文化之間的分野。將艾略特歸類於屬於現代精英藝術作家的陣營,簡化了其作品的深刻性。在後現代的年代中, 精英藝術和大眾文化之間的分野逐漸糢糊。採後現代主義的觀點來閱讀艾略特的作品,批評家發現艾略特熱愛大眾文化的一面。跟隨前人研究的腳步,本論文主要工作之一,即是探討艾略特兩部詩劇--史威尼論爭與家園重聚中大眾文化的成份。 巴赫汀是二十世紀重要的文學理論及評論家。對於文學中,尤其是小說這個文類中,對話與嘉年華的現象的研究,論述豐富,為此派理論與批評的大師。採用他的嘉年華理論作為本論文的研究方法,目的在闡釋艾略特的作品,其實遵循了嘉年華的文類傳統。而透過艾略特的努力,此一文類傳統的語言不僅更加豐富,同時也得到新生。在本論文中,史威尼論爭與家園重聚中的多音性與嘉年華的現象為研究的主題所在。 另外,以巴赫汀對怪誕的現實主義的描述為範本,這兩部詩劇當中的市場語言,節慶的形式或醜怪的意象也予以探究。這些研究結果發現,史威尼論爭與家園重聚中大眾文化的成份,以及嘉年華的精神是不容忽視的。 Table of Contents Chinese Abstract English Abstract Abbreviations Introduction------------------------------------------------1 Chapter 1: T. S. Eliot’s Poetic Drama and M. M. Bakhtin’s Theory of Carnivaliztion-----------------------------------18 Chapter 2: Carnivalization in Sweeney Agonistes------------39 Chapter 3: Carnivalization in The Family Reunion-----------66 Conclusion-------------------------------------------------93 Bibliography-----------------------------------------------96 / T. S. Eliot is usually considered by critics as a representative of the high modernist writer whose mission is to protect the purity of high art from the contamination of the popular culture. Such an opinion is to underpin the dichotomy between high modernist art and low popular culture. By taking Eliot on the side of high modernism, critics tend to simplify the profundity of Eliot’s works. In our postmodern age, that the phenomenon of the increasing blurred boundaries between high art and popular culture is quite obvious. David Chinitz applies such a postmodern vantage point to read Eliot’s works and shows us that Eliot is a lover of popular culture. Following Chinitz’s study, I intend to examine the elements of popular culture in Eliot’s two poetic drama – Sweeney Agonistes and The Family Reunion. M. M. Bakhtin is an important theorist and literary critic in the twentieth century. His achievement on the theories of dialogism and carnivalization is significant. Applying his theory of carnivalization to read Sweeney Agonistes and The Family Reunion, I hope to argue that Eliot, be it consciously or unconsciously, follows the genre tradition of carnivalization. Moreover, he enriches and perfects the language of this genre tradition and thus makes this genre tradition reborn and renewed. In this thesis, I argue that Sweeney Agonistes and The Family Reunion are constructed under the principles of polyphony and carnivalization. Besides, based on the material bodily principle of grotesque realism, an analysis of the grotesque elements in these two works, such as marketplace languages, or popular-festive forms and images, or banquet images or images of bodily low stratum, is given in this thesis. To a conclusion, through this Bakhtinian reading, the elements of popular culture and the carnivalistic spirits in Sweeney Agonistes and The Family Reunion are revealed.

“The Ground On Which I Stand” Healing Queer Trauma through Performance: Crafting a Solo Performance through the investigation of Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum. By: Ashley W. Grantham A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Performance Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University April 16th, 2019 Thesis Adjudicator: Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates Committee: Dr. Keith Byron Kirk, Director of Graduate Studies and Karen Kopryanski, Head of Voice and Speech How does this method of Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum, by extension, solo performance, uncover, heal queer trauma through witnessing and performance practice? How do these methods give us an intersectional approach to talking about race, identity, gender and bridge those divides? How does this devised work of solo performance allow the author as practitioner to claim the ground on which they stand and surrender to their own healing? This thesis attempts excavation of the foundational theories in regard to performance structure, and to discover how healing trauma through theoretical techniques achieves liberation through their enacted practice. This is an allowance of ourselves as artists and facilitators to claim our traumatic bodies as worthy sites of invention.