As the cultural upheaval of the `60s fought its way into the `70s, Bill Talen began his career first as a poet, hitchhiking the interstate highways from the Midwest to the Coasts eagerly engaging the literary, intellectual, and artistic opportunities offered by those cultural venues. He settled in San Francisco where he earned an M.A. in Theatre Arts and joined with friends to open a theatre, "Life on the Water." Here Talen met Sydney Lanier, a minister, who became his lifelong mentor and champion. Lanier recognized in Talen a bold presence which accompanies successful preachers and elevates their sermons. He promoted and supported Talen's move to New York City where Talen fully embraced his role as Reverend Billy and directed the full might of his talents against consumerism--especially Michael Bloomberg's socio-economic goals for the City. Eventually, Talen's critique came to challenge foreign policies that promote corporatism, environmental decline, and the global homogenization of culture. Talen's body of work is extensive and two strong threads run through it that are exemplary. One evidences a complete and purposeful disregard for any artistic borders, especially the edgy land between acting and not-acting, including the tiny gradients as one merges into the other. Talen's recognition of the porosity of borders likely facilitated his willing assimilation of his character, Reverend Billy, into his own daily life and persona, until the two merged, endowing Talen, the performance artist, with the skills and insights of a spiritual leader. The second thread is simply Talen's life's journey from reluctant performer of a religious role, to the willing engagement of that role, and finally the adoption of spiritual responsibility, eventually forming a church and a religion based on activism and a strong commitment to environmental causes. The performance artist became Reverend; the Reverend was born to act. This merging of talents, goals, and dreams created a character who would run for public office. It created a performance artist who would wed lovers, baptize new congregants, and console the grieving.

The Rev. Edmund Jones (1702-1793), the 'Old Prophet' of the Transh, Pontypool, is a fascinating character for many reasons, not least of which is his writing on apparitions, spirits, fairies, and magic in his Geographical, Historical, and Religious Account of the Parish of Aberystruth (1779) and Relation of Apparitions of Spirits in the Principality of Wales (1780). These works were not merely written for an antiquarian purpose, but rather present a defence of Jones's deep-seated belief in these spirits' existence. On the surface, such a belief, professed so late in the eighteenth century, may seem 'unenlightened' or atavistic, but far from it, Jones's belief was consistent with his overarching cultural worldview which was set within and influenced by the environment in which he lived. This study examines that environment in an attempt to understand the contexts and formation of Jones beliefs and writings. It begins by examining the socio-economic changes occurring in eighteenth-century north-western Monmouthshire, focusing on changes in transport and communication, industry and social composition, literacy and the availability of printed word, the medical industry, and systems of charity and welfare; and the impact of these different social elements on the way in which the supernatural was conceptualized in local culture. The second section focuses on Jones's role as a religious figure involved in the eighteenth-century religious Revival and the state of religion in the area before turning to Jones's theology and how this impacted on his conceptualization of spirits and their interaction with the mundane realm. The study then turns to the intellectual environment in which Jones wrote and how his works fit with contemporary intellectual trends. Finally, the thesis examines the folkloric content of Jones's works and the ways in which all of the disparate environmental elements discussed throughout demonstrate themselves in his writings.

The Morleyville Methodist Mission located near Morley, Alberta, was occupied from 1873 to 1921 (approximate date of abandonment). The Reverend George McDougall and his son John were responsible for the establishment of the mission. Both men were prominent figures in the history of the settlement and development of Alberta and the Canadian northwest. John was a major participant in the settlement of Treaty 7 and the arrival of the N.W.M.P. in the west.<p> The mission site was excavated over two field seasons in 1984-85 by Dr. Margaret A. Kennedy, now of the University of Saskatchewan. The resultant artifact assemblage contains in excess of 25,000 items, largely in a fragmentary state. Of this number approximately 3,000 artifacts were considered for analysis.<p> The focus of this current research is an examination of the mission's domestic sphere, specifically as it applied to women and Methodism. For the purpose of this research only the categories of "Ceramics", "Other Glass",and "Bottles and Jars" were considered. Though the Morleyville Mission was occupied during the Victorian era, historic literature and documents tell us little of the reality of the domestic sphere at a frontier site. The domestic elaboration of the Victorian era has been well documented. However, whether such elaboration was the case at the mission site was open to some speculation.<p> Therefore, these categories were assessed as providing the most accurate reflection of the domestic life of the mission households. It is believed that the presence and absence of specific ceramic waretypes and the identification of patterned sets will help illuminate this issue. It was hoped that, by using these categories to examine the domestic life of these middle-class Victorian Methodists a more accurate picture of the domestic life of the inhabitants of a mission on the northwest frontier of Canada could be developed.<p> However, it is with caution that I put forth my conclusions for the Morleyville Mission. Though the Archeological evidence does not support my initial objectives, this thesis has succeed in providing important information regarding the domestic lifestyle at the Morleyville Mission and indicates that other factors were active at the site.

The Morleyville Methodist Mission located near Morley, Alberta, was occupied from 1873 to 1921 (approximate date of abandonment). The Reverend George McDougall and his son John were responsible for the establishment of the mission. Both men were prominent figures in the history of the settlement and development of Alberta and the Canadian northwest. John was a major participant in the settlement of Treaty 7 and the arrival of the N.W.M.P. in the west.<p> The mission site was excavated over two field seasons in 1984-85 by Dr. Margaret A. Kennedy, now of the University of Saskatchewan. The resultant artifact assemblage contains in excess of 25,000 items, largely in a fragmentary state. Of this number approximately 3,000 artifacts were considered for analysis.<p> The focus of this current research is an examination of the mission's domestic sphere, specifically as it applied to women and Methodism. For the purpose of this research only the categories of "Ceramics", "Other Glass",and "Bottles and Jars" were considered. Though the Morleyville Mission was occupied during the Victorian era, historic literature and documents tell us little of the reality of the domestic sphere at a frontier site. The domestic elaboration of the Victorian era has been well documented. However, whether such elaboration was the case at the mission site was open to some speculation.<p> Therefore, these categories were assessed as providing the most accurate reflection of the domestic life of the mission households. It is believed that the presence and absence of specific ceramic waretypes and the identification of patterned sets will help illuminate this issue. It was hoped that, by using these categories to examine the domestic life of these middle-class Victorian Methodists a more accurate picture of the domestic life of the inhabitants of a mission on the northwest frontier of Canada could be developed.<p> However, it is with caution that I put forth my conclusions for the Morleyville Mission. Though the Archeological evidence does not support my initial objectives, this thesis has succeed in providing important information regarding the domestic lifestyle at the Morleyville Mission and indicates that other factors were active at the site.

This thesis gauges the contemporary landscape of political theatre at a time in which everything, and consequently nothing, is political. That is, almost all theatres today proclaim a politics, and yet there is widespread resignation regarding the inevitability of capitalism. This thesis proposes a theory of political action via the theatre: radical theatre today must employ a strategy of "moving targets". Theatrical actions must be adaptable and mobile to seek out the moving targets of capital and track down target audiences as they move through public space. In addition, political theatre must become a moving target to avoid amalgamation into the capitalist system of exchange. I approached this topic through four case studies. Two of the case studies, Reverend Billy's Church of Stop Shopping and the Critical Art Ensemble, are based in the United States. I studied their work via materials - books, essays, videos, websites, interviews, and more - but not in person. The other two case studies are lifted from my own experience with the Christchurch Free Theatre: an original production of Christmas Shopping and a devised production of Karl Kraus' play The Last Days of Mankind. These latter two case studies served as laboratory experiments through which I was able to test ideas and problematics of political theatre that arose through my research. These case studies led to the determination that creating aesthetic experiences and actions - as opposed to having explicitly political content - can be a strategy or foundation for a radical political theatre that resists, undermines, and at times transcends the seeming inevitability of consumer capitalism. In an age in which any political intervention is seen as senseless disruption, a form of pointless violence, this theatre has adopted the strategies of terrorist actions to have a disruptive effect without positing a specific alternative social structure.

This study explored the development of the Federal Communications Commission's Fairness Doctrine policy from its beginnings in the 1920's until the FCC eliminated most of its requirements in 1987. The chapters discuss the Reverend Carl D. McIntire's battle with the FCC concerning the policy's impact on free speech in broadcasting. McIntire lost his battle with the FCC and became the first broadcaster to lose his license for Fairness Doctrine violations. The problem in this study focused on the difficulty of reconciling government regulation of broadcasting with the rights of licensees to speak freely and be heard by their listeners. The study concluded that today the FCC advocates First Amendment protection for broadcasters but it remains questionable whether present policy will continue.