Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humantities, Dramatic Arts, 2012 / This creative practice-based research report explores a phenomenological approach to the
body as a sensorially, audibly, visibly and viscerally present entity. The research argues for an
experience of embodiment that highlights the primacy of the body within the context of the
HIV and AIDS pandemic in South Africa. It addresses theoretical and methodological concerns
of theatre making as a creative practice for interrogating the body’s lived experience of HIV
and AIDS. The study argues that theatre has tended to describe the surface experience of the
trauma of HIV and AIDS and that it has failed to speak to the lived body experience of HIV and
AIDS. In so doing, this report excavates the innovation of a theatre making process that helps
illuminate complex human experience through performance.
This research report is written in a way that allows the reader access to the process that was
developed by the researcher/theatre maker/writer. Through a facilitated process of theatre
making, this study focuses on the four co-researchers/performers lived experiences of HIV and AIDS and how through the use of stimuli (visual art and elements of nature) and the use of the
combination of somatic play, movement and sound, they evoked and exhumed their bodies
living memory. The accounts that were made in the exploration are presented in this report
and in the performance and recording (DVD) of Stains Inner.
This research posits the body as a knowing entity in the era of HIV and AIDS in South Africa
and highlights the process of on-flow in theatre making as a fluid dynamic process through
which the body can viscerally access the latent lived experiences associated with the
pandemic. It is a powerful process that enhances the body aesthetic in theatre. The study
concludes that this form of theatre making has the capacity to create a transformative
experience for the performer and audience. The study also puts forth recommendations that
would possibly shift the landscape of HIV and AIDS discourse.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/12454 |
| Date | 20 February 2013 |
| Creators | Phala, Phala Ookeditse Koketso |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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