Includes bibliographical references. / The present study investigates the field of theatre practice that I have chosen to call alternative Zimbabwean theatre through a detailed study of four plays and reference to several others all first performed and written between 1980 and 1996. The study interrogates the interweaving and juxtaposition of divergent performance forms and styles on stage created by the contact between western dramatic theatre, indigenous theatre and cultural performances. This contact results in the formation of a third space for theatre which is a creative area of ambivalence, sameness, difference, conflict, struggle, mocking and celebration. The study specifically scrutinises this intersecting area as it obtains in alternative theatre and examines the forces at work in producing the nature and identity of syncretic theatre. Between 1980 and 1996, the nature and identity of alternative theatre changed significantly. This thesis investigates these changes, movements, shifts, conflicts and appropriations and the context within which they took place.

The aim of this thesis is to explore through historical and practical research, the use of gymnastics-based practices for contemporary performer training. This thesis addresses the following key questions: What are gymnastics-based practices? How have gymnastics-based practices already influenced performer training, particularly in the work of François Delsarte, Rudolph Laban, and Jacques Lecoq? How can gymnastics-based practices be understood, applied, and developed in order to contribute to performance/performer training? The practical investigation employs the use of gymnastics-based practices in a series of three studio-based projects which focus on the development of the training. Project 1 explores gymnastics-based practices in relation to my own process as a performer. In Project 2, I apply gymnastics-based practices to the facilitation of a group-devised performance. Project 3 uses gymnastics-based practices to facilitate the actor in character development, vocal work, and performance of a naturalistic text. In this manner, this thesis has developed a set of exercises, workshops, and frameworks which draw on gymnastics-based practices to activate the performer in several different contexts.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Theatre, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 74-78).

This thesis examines the figure of the oral storyteller as depicted in various Old Norse literary sources written down during the High Middle Ages, the majority in Iceland, between the mid-twelfth and early fourteenth centuries. It comprises a literary-critical discussion of how storytellers and the art of storytelling are imagined, interpreted and represented within these texts. Where possible, connections are drawn between genres, and across considerable temporal and geographical distances, in order to illustrate the strength and endurance of cultural preoccupations with disguise, narrative structure and the role of intermediaries in different historical and creative contexts. The central contention is that the eddic poets and saga authors shared a common and profound sensitivity to the metatextual dimension of the storytelling endeavour in which they were engaged, and that this sensitivity manifested itself in strikingly similar ways across the whole period. The thesis is structured thematically, rather than chronologically, in order to foreground enduring cultural trends. The first chapter discusses the metatextual tendencies of the eddic poets, noting their recurring interest in disguise and the assertion (or appropriation) of an identity by characters who feature in their stories. It also includes an analysis of Vǫluspá which suggests that the poem lends itself to recitation by multiple performers. Chapter Two analyses depictions of public storytelling in the sagas and the relationship between writer and oral reciter as presented in the prologues and epilogues composed to ‘frame’ a number of these texts. Chapters Three and Four contain close readings of passages from the Sagas of Icelanders and eddic poetry, which demonstrate how certain characters, often of low social status, temporarily take on the mantle of a storyteller and perform their accounts of events so as to illuminate the texts' broader interest in the mechanics of literary narrative.

The topic of this master thesis is an analysis of the multimedia project GOLEM, which has carried out two following results: theatrical one (GOLEM Štvanice) and audio-visual one (GOLEM Cube). The first part is focused on the specifics of the immersive theatre phenomenon, which was introduced in the Czech theatrical milieu for the very first time, and on the production procedure within the confines of the Prague theatre stage. The second part deals with audio-visual recording of a theatre peace, which takes place in an unconventional space, and then focuses on a technical method development for all movie-making fields with great emphasis on keeping the theatrical authenticity. It also deals with the specific system of installation within the particular space. Based on this case study of an immersive theatre performance and methodical approach to its audio-visual preservation this work develops some basic requirements that should lead to the successful results of similar future projects pointing out some possible application in other fields of practice.

In this dissertation, I foreground local elders’ epistemology and ontology embedded in sea rituals and traditional fishing methods in a typhoon-battered community in the Philippines. I do this through the practice of applied theatre to explore agency, relationality, and creativity in the aftermath of a disaster. By locating this dissertation within the intercultural, interdisciplinary, and intersectional applied theatre, I mobilize local disaster narratives by using auto-ethnography, Practice-as-Research, and Participatory Action Research towards the co-creation of local/transnational community-based-theatre performances. These applied theatre performances underscore the solidarity and collective creativity of community members, elders, local government officials, local artists in the Philippines and diasporic Filipinos in Canada. The dissertation engages in personal narrative inquiry, reflective memoir, oral stories, ritual performances, collective creations, archives, and in reclaimed objects to address the existing colonial mode of theorizing theatre and organized post-disaster recovery programs in a local island community decimated by Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan). Cognizant of the complex networks of post-disaster reconstruction, recovery, and planning in local and international spheres of development work, I formulate an applied theatre performance method as a post-disaster mitigative approach stemming from the specter of Super Typhoon Yolanda and other disastrous events wrought by climate crises. This collective and emancipative method emerges from an affective, hybrid, and cross-cultural mode of inquiry to tackle climate change and bring Indigenous ways of knowing into the center of the climate change conversation. I use this method in co-creating performances on local climate crises that critically examines coloniality and cultural misappropriation in an intercultural milieu. I discuss Indigenous ecological epistemology against the backdrop of climate change processes through autoethnographic inquiry and multi-narrative discourse on agentic, performative, and collective performance creations. I argue that Indigenizing the performance method mobilizes a decolonial theatre that broadens, equalizes, and diversifies the climate change dialogue. Informed by the vernacular concepts of affective and intersubjective criticality (Abat), relational collaboration (Pakiki-pagpulso, Pakiki-pagkapwa, Pagmamalasakit), and shared improvisation (Pintigan), this performance method deploys emancipative subjectivities and considers possible futures. By using applied theatre as a practice of post-disaster recovery, I channel its artistic practice and tools in engaging the local and transnational communities in collective acts of re-centering marginalized narratives and peripheralized bodies of knowledge. Stemming from the wounding memories of disasters, traumatic stories of a super typhoon, and political disjuncture, my collaborators and I mobilized communities, deployed diverse voices, and engaged with non-human subjectivities in sites with histories of environmental destruction and colonization both in local and diasporic communities. Driven by principles of decolonial theatre and emancipated dramaturgy, I aim to offer an ethical inquiry and practice of applied theatre that tackles climate crises in sites with a long history of disasters. These performance principles valorize the Indigenization of theatre’s capacity for social, political, and cultural intervention to re-future climate crises. Finally, this dissertation emphasizes the persistence of Indigenous knowledge, social relationality, and local creativity beyond the incursion of modernity and colonialism. / Graduate

The diploma thesis "Development of the methodology of correct posture and its verification in drama lessons within the school educational program" connects the correct posture with the teaching of dramatic education. In the area of posture, however, it is not as a theoretical discourse of what is known to every teacher, as is proved by this quote dating back over four decades: "The positive influence of proper body posture on healthy growth and development of all organs and the development of their functions is stated by medical literature and confirmed by everyday experience." The aim of the thesis is to examine the problems through practice, in particular by connecting with the already established subject and also the way of teaching in other subjects - dramatic education. The theoretical part is divided into two areas: correct posture and dramatic education. Both of them are first defined and put into context, then I deal with selected aspects that are relevant to this work. In the practical part I define the circumstances and conditions of creation and verification of the methodology of correct posture verified in drama lessons. The ensemble then combines methodological validation and rehearsing the fairytale The Princess and the Pea and the poems A Short Fairytale on Beet and Gingerbread...

This thesis examines the new theatrical form of cyberformance (live performance by remote players using internet technologies) and contextualises it within the broader fields of networked performance, digital performance and theatre. Poststructuralist theories that contest the binary distinction between reality and representation provide the analytical foundation for the thesis. A critical reflexive methodological approach is undertaken in order to highlight three themes. First, the essential qualities and criteria of cyberformance are identified, and illustrated with examples from the early 1990s to the present day. Second, two cyberformance groups – the Plaintext Players and Avatar Body Collision – and UpStage, a purpose-built application for cyberformance, are examined in more detailed case studies. Third, the specifics of the cyberformance audience are explored and commonalities are identified between theatre and online culture. In conclusion, this thesis suggests that theatre and the internet have much to offer each other in this current global state of transition, and that cyberformance offers one means by which to facilitate the incorporation of new technologies into our lives.

This thesis explores representations of the First World War in English theatre, Theatre in Education (TIE), and Living History between 2014 and 2015. By employing an interdisciplinary approach it evaluates these performance genres in relation to responses sought from Key Stage 3 History pupils. The beginning of the centenary created a cultural outpouring and provided opportunities for secondary schools to include field trips and creative learning about the war. Examination of this commemorative period is contextualised by examining pupils’ interaction with cultural works since 1914, showing that the centenary moment stemmed from a tradition of creatively remembering and teaching the conflict. This perspective highlights long-standing complexities in the relationship between creative practitioners, teachers and education authorities. It also confronts the divide that has grown between some creative practitioners and revisionist historians of the First World War. Revisionist historians’ reassessment of the conduct and necessity of the war has led some to harshly judge cultural works, such as performances, for misleading audiences. Yet little research has been conducted into twenty-first century productions about the war and their reception by school audiences. An investigation of these performances problematizes scholarly notions about how and who has the authority to communicate the First World War to the next generation. Whilst the providers, gatekeepers, and critics of learning through performance are of central consideration, this thesis also values the pupil’s voice. Ten Key Stage 3 cohorts are used as case studies, providing a snapshot of the creative activities and field trips employed by schools in 2014 and 2015. Interviews and questionnaires provide pupils’ feedback on what they thought and how they felt about studying history through performance. Observations of History lessons and performances also remove the debate from the hypothetical to the realities of history teaching. They reveal that pupils’ cultural backgrounds, schooling, and exposure to cultural works shaped their responses to performances about the First World War. Pupils also assigned the performances varying degrees of historical authority, some viewed them as merely entertainment, others as educational sources and several as a mixture of the two. Performances brought immediacy and life to the historical topic and provoked an empathetic response from many pupils. Yet some struggled with the symbolism of theatre and others feared the participation that came with TIE and Living History. Consequently, this thesis explores pupil’s critical, personal and emotional engagement with performances, raising questions about what criteria should be used to evaluate the success of such non-formal learning on the war.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:00:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FelipeHMO_DISSERT.pdf: 3354962 bytes, checksum: a758acb9f2bb7a31cde2e3bc40a8bacb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-04 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The dissertation intends to develop an investigation on the artistic existence in human beings with different bodies in society at different historical moments. In this regard and based on this scenario, the study develops a description of the stigmas production and how they are established, spread and interfere with the sociability among human beings regarded as normal and those with different bodies. Regarding the scenic arts, the text describes about the participation of artists with different bodies in the scene, specifically the freak show and postdramatic theater. The text also investigates aspects of the biography and the work of mexican artist Frida Kahlo, which underpin methodological proceedings and produce contribution to the creative process of performance Kahlo em mim Eu e(m) Kahlo , which is to investigate the practice of the scene in this dissertation / A disserta??o tem como objetivo realizar uma averigua??o sobre o fazer art?stico na exist?ncia dos seres humanos com corpos diferenciados na sociedade, em diferentes momentos hist?ricos. Neste sentido e com base neste panorama, o estudo elabora uma descri??o sobre a produ??o de estigmas e a forma como eles se instauram, se propagam e interferem na sociabilidade entre os seres humanos considerados normais e os com corpos diferenciados. No que tange as artes c?nicas, o texto faz uma descri??o acerca da participa??o dos artistas com corpos diferenciados na cena, especificamente do freak show e no teatro p?s-dram?tico. O texto tamb?m investiga aspectos da biografia e da obra da artista pl?stica mexicana Frida Kahlo, os quais fundamentam os procedimentos metodol?gicos e produzem aportes para o processo criativo da performance Kahlo em mim Eu e(m) Kahlo , que consiste na investiga??o da pr?tica da cena na disserta??o