Abstract In Australia during the 1990s increased attention was paid to regional, rural and remote communities and, in terms of arts and culture, the establishment of regional arts umbrella organisations, at both national and state levels, stimulated interest in, and development of, the arts in those communities. Discourses around the notion of the civil society and the ways in which social and cultural capital can be acquired and transferred, have led to renewed interest in the economic and social functions of the voluntary, not-for-profit sector of Australian society. This thesis aims to advance the critical study of regional cultural development. It examines the role and function of the performing arts within regional communities through a case study of the city of Bunbury, Western Australia. Regional performing arts are often trivialised or marginalised by metropolitan practitioners, critics and academics, particularly as they are almost entirely, in Australia, a volunteer/amateur pursuit. However volunteer performing arts groups provide physical and social spaces that encourage networks of civil engagement that have implications for the functioning of the broader community; and, in the case of Bunbury, a degree of independence from the bureaucratic requirements of arts funding bodies. The thesis proposes that volunteer, not-for-profit (amateur) theatre has a stronger claim on the title ‘community theatre’ than the state-funded community theatre movement of the 1970s and 1980s. The thesis also examines the strong community affiliations that have been generated by the community-owned, professionally-managed Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre. It situates this discussion in the context of the rapidly changing urban landscape in which the Entertainment Centre is placed and its affiliations with local, regional, state and national funding, networking and touring structures. It argues that considerable social and cultural capital is generated through the active involvement of citizens at many levels of the performing arts in a regional community such as Bunbury. Although for most, the involvement is voluntary and recreational, it also has direct economic outcomes in terms of the developing creative industries of the region. A major contribution of the thesis is the provision of a model for the function and impact of regional community performing arts as it theorises the tensions between governmental (funding) models and self-generated regional arts practices through case study and detailed analysis. In doing so the thesis contributes to key debates in two significant ways, firstly by providing an important historical/cultural document and secondly, by highlighting new ways of thinking and speaking about the role of the performing arts in regional communities.

Queer Youth, or young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning, is a demographic with an increasing presence in contemporary society. Along with this increased presence has come an increase in support groups available to these youths that range from Gay-Straight Alliances at their schools, community groups from their local gay and lesbian center to, most recently, theater companies that have begun to offer workshops and performance opportunities within the Queer Youth Theatre genre. Queer Youth Theatre is an emerging form of topical theatre that deals with issues and situations queer youth may face in their daily lives. Few scripts exist that deal with topics related to LGBT youth, and most theatre groups that offer LGBT youth programs, such as the Pride Players from the Omaha Theater Company for Children and Young People in Omaha, Nebraska, rely on devising works for live performance. The Pride Players independently publish a “Best of” anthology for use by other groups wishing to use their devised material (Guehring2). Though these opportunities may be beneficial to the youths involved, there is still a need for scripted works to be available for queer youth to explore. This thesis project looks at two steps necessary to beginning the process of adapting LGBT young adult novels for the stage. First, an adaptation rubric must be created for use as a guide for identifying source material for translation to the stage. Second, the young adult novels Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan and Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez are evaluated for their strength as adaptations by applying the rubric with a directorial lens.

This thesis interrogates the historical, philosophical, and existential implications of the Black Arts Movement and its major artists on the recurring themes of social injustice, Western hegemony, and the fight for aesthetic authenticity to reimagine fairy tales for the youth Black Aesthetic. As a personal reflection and foundational document for a larger project, this work weaves these implications through the practical application of the varied stages of program development for youth artists. This project also is a handbook that encompasses scholarly research, reflective analysis and anecdotal journal evidence. The subsequent chapters explore the theological and theatre pedagogical educational influences that informed the phases of inception through completion of the 2015 Courage Summer Workshop (a six-week devised theatre workshop for middle school students) to include its two-year program history, curriculum design, and weekly program overviews.

This thesis investigates the representation, positioning, and valuing of young people and youth-specific performance in the field of cultural production in Australia in the 1990s. Using specific case-studies, this thesis argues that young people and youth-specific performance are being represented, positioned, and valued in a variety of contradictory ways as a result of a number of significant contemporary factors: namely, a prevalence of 'new generation' discourse and an attendant generationalism, a growing critical recognition of young people's 'grounded aesthetics', and existing anxieties surrounding the economic future of Australia's arts industry. This is an unstable situation for youth-specific performance, contrasting from earlier periods in Australia's theatre history when young people were positioned principally in terms of their need for 'development' (education and training) or their potential contribution to ongoing 'progression'. This thesis considers this contemporary situation in relation to issues of access and power for young people in the changed social and cultural conditions of the 1990s. The introductory chapter provides a critical background to the main issues presented in the thesis: the concepts of 'youth' and 'culture', the social and cultural characteristics of young people's lives in the 1990s, the rise of generationalist discourse, and the anxious state of the Australian arts industry. The 'institutional' site of state theatre is then taken as a beginning case study to examine the positioning of young people and youth-specific programs in 'official' cultural environments. It argues that anxious plans for the future survival of state 'flagship' companies are positioning young people and youth-specific programs in predominantly generationalist ways, using 'new generation' discourse to mask often conservative approaches. Chapter One begins with a history of Magpie Theatre (a former youth-specific company attached to the State Theatre Company of South Australia) which reflects some of the major priorities of youth-specific theatre of the last twenty years. By way of contrast, the Sydney Theatre Company's recent attempts to reposition young people and youth-specific work in the 1990s are discussed in Chapter Two. This chapter shows how the company's developmental aims and processing of new work are achieved in 'new generation' programs that strictly control young people's contribution to the company's future. Both chapters help to demonstrate the main conceptual shift in youth-specific theatre in the 1990s from 'developmentalism' to 'difference' (with reference to the concomitant growth of drama-in-education in schools), while at the same time alluding to its varying effect. Chapter Three argues that festivals, as volatile sites of cultural production, magnify the wider cultural field's 'stake of struggles': particularly, the struggles to equitably value young people's diverse contributions to developments in the cultural field, both as cultural 'innovators' and cultural 'preservers'. Centred on an interrelated critique of access, this chapter discusses the various motives and priorities of three recent youth-specific arts festivals in terms of their representation and valuing of young people and their work: the Take Over 97 National Festival for Young People, the Stage X Event, and the Loud National Media Festival of Youth Culture and the Arts. Chapter Four considers a site primarily and explicitly concerned with issues of access, representation, and value. This chapter examines in detail the 'self-narratives' of two youth-specific community-based performances, whereby young people's access to 'grounded' modes of cultural expression resulted in innovative cultural performance and signalled a regenerated social politics of community theatre. The chapter examines how Skate Girl Space by the Hereford Sisters and Zen Che by the Ningi Connection utilised young people's 'grounded aesthetics' of video performance to address young people's necessary negotiation with risk and individualisation in the late 1990s. Both projects counteracted public generationalist discourses, and challenged and reinscribed the conventions of gender performance and 'youth'. The final chapter considers the positioning of young people and youth-specific arts in Australian cultural policy, arguing that youth-specific cultural production rarely fits into the characteristic modes of arts production valorised by statistical frameworks for arts industry evaluation. The chapter calls for more open approaches whereby practice might inform policy which recognises the interconnected social, cultural and economic regimes of value that youth-specific work engages in. This thesis draws from theatre and performance studies, sociology, youth studies, cultural studies, and cultural policy studies.

abstract: This dissertation is a qualitative study based on the experiences of five high schoolers and five college-aged students who grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, and participated in theatrical productions within their schools, churches, the Erie Playhouse Youtheatre, and other community theatres. The author begins with an introduction of the theatrical scene in Erie and explains the options available to these youth during the times they performed, so the reader will have a better understanding of the background of these young people. The author then explores the current literature dealing with youth participants in a youth theatre setting. In his research, he notes that there were few scholarly books or articles that directly dealt with youth who participate in youth theatre. Most of the books dealt with youth who are part of theatrical programs in school settings, and few researchers utilized the youth's voice as part of the process. The author interviewed ten participants about their theatrical experiences asking them about aspects such as: positive and negative experiences, why they performed, and what they learned from doing theatre. After transcribing the interviews, the author analyzed the participants' responses for values, attitudes, and beliefs about theatre. From this analysis, the author found six themes emerged focusing on: fun, friendship, family, personal growth, commitment to productions, and negative experiences in the theatrical process. Throughout the document, the author utilized the youths' voices and kept their words and thoughts as the basis for all findings constructed and discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Theatre 2014

An actor seeking to improve his craft can find numerous sources containing countless tips and techniques on the art of acting. However, the majority of these books target the adult actor often leaving young performers struggling to understand complex acting theory. With the goals of creating a nurturing learning environment and quality performance work within a compact rehearsal schedule, this thesis project created and evaluated a new synthesis of modern acting theory for directors to use when working with young performers. This technique adapted and coalesced several perspectives on foundational acting theory-specifically looking at the use of a character's wants and actions as described by Bruder et al., Caldarone & Lloyd-Williams, Cohen, Jory, Mamet, and Stanislavski. I tested the developed technique using an independent production of The Cat Who Ran by Naoko Kudo performed by a group of seventh through tenth grade actors. This thesis shares the process of creating this rehearsal tool with its readers. This process included researching and synthesizing the technique, documenting my process as director and acting coach for The Cat Who Ran, testing the technique throughout the production of The Cat Who Ran, evaluating the effectiveness of the technique through qualitative observation from production team and audience members, and theorizing the potential effectiveness for other scripts. The documentation of the project includes surveys, worksheets, text analysis, and production photos.

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Theatre for social change is a term used to describe a wide range of theatre-based techniques and methods. Through implementation of performance techniques, participants are encouraged to creatively explore and communicate various ideas with the specific intention of eliciting a societal or political shift within a given community. Through this thesis, I will explore the impact of applying theatre for social change in a youth-centered environment. I will discuss my journey as creator, facilitator, and project director of interACTionZ, a queer youth theatre program in Orlando, FL formed through a partnership between Theatre UCF at the University of Central Florida and the Zebra Coalition®. I will give specific focus throughout this project to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+) youth and straight advocates for the LGBTQ+ community.

This is an exploration of the director's role in autobiographical theatre. The director is in a unique position when storytelling on a personal level is being executed theatrically. I explored this topic over the course of directing three plays, each of which contained a strong personal storytelling element, which broadened my perspective of the director's role. The three plays were Slashtipher Coleman’s The Neon Man and Me, Birth by Karen Brody, and Will Power to Youth Richmond presents: William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Traditionally, the director’s role includes a myriad of tasks. These tasks can include and are not limited to creating pictures on stage that reflect the story being told, coaching actors in their craft specific to the production, vocal and movement coaching, viii creating a concept, interpreting and translating the action, and being the intermediary amongst the creative team in reaching the overall artistic vision. However, when the director is presented with personal stories to shape and mold, this role changes; no longer can the director wear a traditional hat and assume that the story will tell itself through a series of pictures, but now the director dons different hats and accesses other skills that more closely reflect those of mentor, spiritual leader, psychologist, teacher, and friend. This thesis is a narrative of the explorative process that one director experienced when staging these three prototypes of autobiographical theatre.

No description available.