The Silent Majority: an Exploration of the Integration of Voting Software within Theatre in Education programmes

I wanted to explore whether traditional Forum Theatre approaches can be enhanced by the use of integrated voting software to empower young people. My research is based on two of a series of widening participation interactive TiE programmes focused on the decisions young people make on educational progression. I worked as a director alongside students studying Drama and Performance at The University of Worcester and the programmes have toured widely to schools across Worcestershire and Herefordshire. ‘It’s Up to You!’ (2013 – 2014) was aimed at years 8 and 9 choosing their GCSE options and ‘Move on Up!’ (2014 - 2015) looked at the hopes and fears of year 6 pupils about to go up to secondary school. Finding a voice in Boal’s framework as a ‘specactor’ does not always appeal to a pupil who does not want to stand out from the crowd or is not familiar with a classroom where drama conventions are practised or understood. The anonymity of the voting software with results of decisions made appearing instantly on screen is certainly appealing to some pupils: ‘I also loved the keypads they gave us so that we could answer the questions without having to put our hand up and wait..’ This paper aims to interrogate the idea that empowering needs to not simply be about giving voice to a few confident group members but allowing the silent majority to be able to experiment with decision making in an educational and social context.

'Stepping out' with Gargantua : learning new research practices in the educational theatre of absurdity

Access to new forms, conduct and practices of educational research remain elusive providing researchers stay within the narrow theoretical constructs-the static, single vista ofconventional research models. This dissertation presents the findings of an experimental study that aims to extend the discourse of educational research through a 'performative ethnographic analysis' by using a single-site case study approach. The case study is an analytical parody based on multiple discourse relevant to a 'new' and different approach to educational research so that a more comprehensive and complex process of reading and writing text becomes possible. Throughout this process, a generative methodology and interpretative base are anticipated to provide a metaphoric focus for a critical dialogue. The discourse informing the theoretical and interpretative base of the study include philosophy, science, visual arts, literary theory, critical postructuralist theory and theatre performance. The data are presented as a series of performance narratives in the form of socio-drama, interspersed with critical reflection that enables the researcher, the research participant and reader to become part ofa triadic construct. The findings from this study have major implications for informing contemporary educational research, as they demonstrate that by approaching research in 'new' and different ways, the researcher and the educational community have access to insights that are unavailable within the constraints of conventional models ofresearch.

Suite du theatre de la guerre dans l'Amérique Septentrionale y compris le Golfe du Méxique /

Relief shown pictorially.

INTIMATE APPAREL: AN EXPLORATION OF COSTUME DESIGN IDEAS AND PROCESS FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND’S DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE, DANCE AND PERFORMING 2015 PRODUCTION

The following thesis navigates the primary artistic concept, design process and execution of Marchlena Rodgers’ costume design for the University of Maryland’s production of Intimate Apparel. Intimate Apparel opened October 9, 2015 in the University of Maryland’s Kay Theatre. The piece was written by Lynn Nottage directed by Jennifer Nelson. The set was designed by Lydia Francis, Lighting was designed by Max Doolittle.

Les cultes domestiques dans la Grèce antique : catalogue raisonné d’autels domestiques

Si la religion grecque a fait l’objet de nombreuses études, les informations concernant les rites domestiques se font plus discrètes. Nous avons donc tenté de présenter les traces archéologiques de ses cultes domestiques en nous concentrant sur un élément bien précis, les autels. Nous vous proposons donc dans ce mémoire de présenter un catalogue raisonné des autels domestiques de la Grèce antique. Celui-ci répertorie 140 autels domestiques, qu’ils soient de types fixes (construits) ou portatifs (arulae). Une analyse quantitative et qualitative des informations colligées dans le catalogue fait suite à ce dernier. Nous pouvons tirer quelques conclusions partielles suite à l’analyse de notre catalogue. Il est possible d’affirmer qu’il existe beaucoup plus d’autels portatifs que d’autels fixes. Les arulae n’ont pour la plupart pas été trouvés in situ, contrairement aux autels construits. La grande majorité des autels se trouvent dans la cour de la demeure ou contre un mur extérieur de la maison. Les autels portatifs, eux se retrouvent aussi dans diverses pièces de la maison, dont la pastas. La majorité des autels portatifs sont faits de terre-cuite, alors que les fixes sont tous faits de différentes pierres. Peu importe le type, la majorité des autels sont rectangulaires plutôt que circulaires. Très peu d’autels sont dédiés spécifiquement à un dieu et ceux attribués à Zeus Herkeios le sont seulement par leur position dans la cour de la demeure et non à cause d’un décor ou d’objets affiliés. Les autels autant portatifs que fixes peuvent porter un décor, allant d’une simple moulure à un riche décor rappelant les grands autels monumentaux des sanctuaires. Certains sont par contre nus et ont même des faces non travaillées. Nous détaillons dans la dernière section le cas de Zeus Ktésios et Zeus Kataibatès, comme nous possédons beaucoup d’informations pertinentes sur ces deux divinités et nous pouvons donc nous attarder sur leur culte. Il est par contre difficile de recréer des rites domestiques complets. Pour ce faire, il faudrait avoir accès aux catalogues complets des artéfacts retrouvés sur chaque site. Nous pourrions ainsi créer des assemblages et mettre en liens ces objets et les autels et tenter d’interpréter et de reconstituer ces différents rites domestiques.

Les cultes domestiques dans la Grèce antique : catalogue raisonné d’autels domestiques

Si la religion grecque a fait l’objet de nombreuses études, les informations concernant les rites domestiques se font plus discrètes. Nous avons donc tenté de présenter les traces archéologiques de ses cultes domestiques en nous concentrant sur un élément bien précis, les autels. Nous vous proposons donc dans ce mémoire de présenter un catalogue raisonné des autels domestiques de la Grèce antique. Celui-ci répertorie 140 autels domestiques, qu’ils soient de types fixes (construits) ou portatifs (arulae). Une analyse quantitative et qualitative des informations colligées dans le catalogue fait suite à ce dernier. Nous pouvons tirer quelques conclusions partielles suite à l’analyse de notre catalogue. Il est possible d’affirmer qu’il existe beaucoup plus d’autels portatifs que d’autels fixes. Les arulae n’ont pour la plupart pas été trouvés in situ, contrairement aux autels construits. La grande majorité des autels se trouvent dans la cour de la demeure ou contre un mur extérieur de la maison. Les autels portatifs, eux se retrouvent aussi dans diverses pièces de la maison, dont la pastas. La majorité des autels portatifs sont faits de terre-cuite, alors que les fixes sont tous faits de différentes pierres. Peu importe le type, la majorité des autels sont rectangulaires plutôt que circulaires. Très peu d’autels sont dédiés spécifiquement à un dieu et ceux attribués à Zeus Herkeios le sont seulement par leur position dans la cour de la demeure et non à cause d’un décor ou d’objets affiliés. Les autels autant portatifs que fixes peuvent porter un décor, allant d’une simple moulure à un riche décor rappelant les grands autels monumentaux des sanctuaires. Certains sont par contre nus et ont même des faces non travaillées. Nous détaillons dans la dernière section le cas de Zeus Ktésios et Zeus Kataibatès, comme nous possédons beaucoup d’informations pertinentes sur ces deux divinités et nous pouvons donc nous attarder sur leur culte. Il est par contre difficile de recréer des rites domestiques complets. Pour ce faire, il faudrait avoir accès aux catalogues complets des artéfacts retrouvés sur chaque site. Nous pourrions ainsi créer des assemblages et mettre en liens ces objets et les autels et tenter d’interpréter et de reconstituer ces différents rites domestiques.

Kutù’và yu tu’ún va’á. Estoy aprendiendo la palabra de bienestar. Iniciación etnodramática

Is it possible from some one out side of Ñuu Saví (Mixtec) culture to learn how to do an ethnodrama? A healer and rain maker from Mixteca land is teaching me how to ask for rain and cure diseases. “Kutù’và yu Tu’ún Va’á”, is the name of my thesis and means “I am learning the wellness word”. This work is an “ethnodramatic initiation” to their sacred language. I don’t attempt to read Don Marcelino’s mind but to create a mental scenario that would help us to contemplate the internal spectacle he and his community watch during the ethnodrama of rain and healing. Finally I will represent my learning process during my initiation to body-mental technics. The subject of the thesis travels around several concepts interrelated: feast, ritual, celebration, healing, rain, knowledge, magical thinking, learning, performance… It’s related to an analogic language, oral culture, holistic perception and ethnodramaturgy. I will apply some of the concepts of Weisz’s ethnodramatic performance theory to a place located in Mexico, state of Oaxaca, Juxtlahuaca district, belonging to the municipality of Coicoyán de las Flores, El Jicaral. A wiseman from Nuun Tiaxin, Ñuu Saví, is teaching me how to speak with Rain and Sicknesses. Ethnodrama is a word used by Weisz to make the difference between theatre, and an ethnic paratheatrical performance. The ethnic drama is a mythological text, that it is seen inside the mind of the community members. Weisz conceives the concept as part of a greater project called, Anthropology of Knowledge, that studies the imaginary solutions to explain the formation of the world, the universe and the inscribed rituals in all great antique cultures Weisz [1994b:29]. Curanderismo, quackery, belongs to a illegitimate literature, it is something no serious. An art that goes beyond the canons of a written text and does not match with the categories of our cultures. It threatens the monolithic solidity of our academic reality and then it’s excluded. Weisz proposes to study shamanic text from a marginal position in front of a central culture that only recognizes as valid certain texts. The ethnotexto is uncomfortable, it intimidates the unity of the group of the dominant culture. Curanderismo places itself then in a position that questions a conceptual colonization, that “behavior and ideology that nourish themselves from a totalizing strategy”. A colonization that transcends Europe, related to power and to the dominant position. This is how Literature field is created Weisz [2005: 102-103]...

here/there/then/now

here/there/then/now was a practice-led research project that brought together 10 independent artists in dance, music, theatre and visual/media arts to create a site-specific program within the walls of the Brisbane Powerhouse. The purpose was to explore how to best conceive flexible performance platforms, theatricalise site-specific work and engage new audiences through forms of promenade experience that could provide open choices on how and where to view it. The sold out season of 6 performances, which took place 14-19 May 2002, presented three discrete performance installations set in intimate parts of the building, each with their own aesthetic and communicative intention, culminating in a fourth in-theatre installation, where memories of the first three coalesced and were reinterrogated. Each site thereby investigated meaning-making via the moving body and its critical relationship with space and objects, in a dramatic re-contextualisation of traditional solo dance forms, now re-articulated through interdisciplinary practices. The benefit of this approach was the creation of a layered and multimodal experience that could be both shared and subsequently critiqued by performers and audience alike.

Show

Script for non-verbal performance. Research Component: Silent Treatment: Creating Non-verbal Performance Works for Children The research field of theatre for young people draws on theories of child development and popular culture. SHOW explored personal and social development, friendship and creative play through the lens of the experience of girls aged 8-12. This project consolidated and refined innovative approaches to creating non-verbal theatre performance, and addressed challenges inherent in the creation of a performance by adults for young audiences. A significant finding of the project was the unanticipated convergence of creative practice and research into child behaviour and development: the congruence of content (Female bullying) and theatrical form (non-verbal performance: “Within the hidden culture of aggression, girls fight with body language and relationships instead of fists and knives. In this world, friendship is a weapon, and the sting of a shout pales in comparison to a day of someone’s silence. There is no gesture more devastating than the back turning away Simmons, Rachel (2002:3) Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture Of Aggression In Girls Schwartz Books The creative development and drafting process focussed on negotiating the conceptual design and practical constraints of incorporating diegetic music and video sources into the narrative. The authorial (and production) challenges of creating a script that could facilitate the re-mount a non-verbal work for a company specialising in text-based theatre . Show was commissioned by the Queensland Theatre Company in 2003, toured into Queensland Schools by the Queensland Arts Council and in 2004 was performed at the Sydney Opera House.

Fallen Awake

Photo from process: David Megarrity, albury 2007 - example of convergence of writing/design/perfomance/video RESEARCH COMPONENT Fallen Awake was a practice-led research process that opened the development process to the influence of collaborative authorship across artforms. The project focused on of how multiple artforms and artists converge their vision into a singular text, in the context of collaborative authorship. The work also uncovered new questions relating to the dream-life of children. The stimulus for the work was a selection of verbal statements by three-year-olds, raising complex ethical questions as the project progressed about the child’s voice, mediated by the adult artist, for the eventual presentation to a child audience. With the text emergent and open to influence, this project raised other questions related to the lived experience of children, dreaming, creative play and the development of consciousness. It pushed the creative process to experiment with associative, rather then causal narratives, and to negotiate the challenges this raises for traditional story structures and the development processes that usually shape them. It led to the consideration of each artforms and artist as equal contributors in the development of story: traditionally the province of the sole author. The outcomes appeared in various artforms, none of which was live-performance based. An ‘artist’s book’ by the designer, a ‘video treatment’ - a DVD capturing the approach to the performance and a script for an innovative large-scale performance. Fallen Awake was developed with the assistance of Strut & Fret Production House, Arts Queensland, and HotHouse Theatre, Albury Wodonga, through their ‘Month in the Country’ initiative.

Sonic loom : beginnings

An introduction to the Sonic Loom research project, presented at the Drama Australia Conference, 2006.

Being There

This 60 minute work looked to challenge traditional expectations of how dancers ‘perform’ and what it means when they are ‘themselves’ onstage. The audience was asked to sit in an ellipse on stage and the dancers were often performing quite close to them. While the audience didn’t move once the work began, the proximity to the dancers allowed them an unusual opportunity to see these dancers deconstructing their own profession and their own world of performance in an intimate environment. This was done for, and with the audience, and for some, it connected them deeply with the performers. For Georg Simmel, an early 20th Century sociologist, ‘the eye of a person discloses his own soul when he seeks to uncover that of another. What occurs in this direct mutual reciprocity is the entire field of human relationships.’ Performer authenticity, while utilised often in film and theatre, is not common in the form of dance. Because of our societal tendency toward the desire for authenticity, and its uncommon usage in dance, an inversion of this convention is one of the many tools that is available to choreographers to form deep connections with their audience and is one that is gaining popularity throughout the world as a form of connection via reality and the immediacy of live performance.

Sydney Opera House : facilities management exemplar project

The paper presents an interim summary of research and case studies being undertaken in the Sydney Opera House FM Exemplar Project covering procurement, benchmarking and building information models. The final outcomes of the FM Exemplar Project will be presented through various forums open to all FM practitioners and published in Australia and elsewhere through relevant journals. Sydney Opera House is an Australian icon, attracting some 4.5 million visitors per year who admire its built form and enjoy an evening of theatre. The building is the attraction, part of the experience. Therefore, facilities management is critical to the success of the Sydney Opera House enterprise and an ideal subject for the study of facilities management. Significantly the three research themes are heavily intertwined – effective risk sharing in procurement requires historic information and benchmarks for future performance, benchmarking gathers vast quantities of data that can only be exploited if properly related to one another and a building information model provides the means to manage such data. The case studies are emerging as real-life examples of how one organisation is addressing FM issues common to many, and will provide useful lessons for practitioners pursing similar strategies in their own organisations.