Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Protean Careers And The Performing Arts: Antecedents For Intrinsic Motivation, Sophie Fernandes

Theses : Honours

The professional performing arts industry is typified by a high number of personnel employed on either a short-term or casual basis. Work is often unstable and wages are generally below the average, however, artists receive intrinsic rewards from their work, and this is why they choose to be employed in this field. Artists tend to manage their own careers, and have what is called a "protean career", whereby employment choices are made based on previous experiences and the resulting work is meaningful to the employee. The present study set out to explore three independent variables, namely organisational commitment, organisational identification …

Is Dance Good For The Body Or Not? : An Examination Of Body Awareness And Injury Prevention For Specialised Tertiary Dance Students, Kylie Murray

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this research paper is to discover more about tertiary dance and the effects that dance has on the body. I will discuss the pressures that dance places on the body, looking specifically at the years during full time study as a tertiary student. I will address dance issues such as common injuries, the reasons these injuries occur, prevention strategies, the effect that dance has on the mind and training conditions generally. Research into tertiary dance education programs, dance injuries, injury prevention, and general dance patterns will be supported by survey responses to come to some conclusions about …

I Think My Mother Would Have Put Me Off Women For Life'; John Osborne And The Construction Of The Maternal Female In Four Of His Plays: Look Back In Anger, The Entertainer, Time Present And The Hotel In Amsterdam, Dierdre Mangan

Theses : Honours

The following thesis aims to provide an insight into the life of British playwright, John Osborne and to examine his relationship with both his mother and other significant females present in his life. In addition, the following document aims to consider the subsequent effect Osborne's relationships may have had upon both the construction and depiction of the maternal role in four of his plays: Look Back in Anger (1956), The Entertainer (1957), Time Present (1968) and The Hotel in Amsterdam (1968). Evidence to support the thesis was obtained from a wide variety of sources: autobiographies, biographies, plays, film, critical theory, …

Facelift, Cat Hope

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Creative works and performances

Music performance : four bass instruments, semi improvised noise, chainsaw solo.

Lost In Translation: Making Sense Of Dance Through Words, Paul T. O'Sullivan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The aim of this paper is to enter into the debate about meaning and movement and challenge the idea of dance as linguistic communication. Without words, and even with words according to some linguistic theorists, it's not possible to make sense unless we come to an agreement about a set of shared concepts. This is difficult in dance, an art form that has been silent, but undergoing evolutionary change for a large part of its history. I take the point of view that performance movement is even more arbitrary than text as a form of signification. We can read words …

Cinematography And Choreography: "It Takes Two To Tango", Laura Boynes

Theses : Honours

As a practicing dancer and choreographer with a developing interest in film, the lifelong struggle (where many have gone before) to capture and accurately depict choreography on screen, intrigues me.

Who should dance the camera or the choreography? These are questions that have been pondered by choreographers and theorists for centuries, with pioneers such as Busby Berkeley and Maya Deren each finding their own answers to success.

This thesis discusses the creation and production of dance film, and the importance of movement in front of and behind the camera lens. I believe experimentation and research are the most effective methods …

Photography, Dance And The Concept Of Punctum, Rhiannon Newton

Theses : Honours

... catching the underground home from the performance. Alone ... tears streaming down my face ... but I feel warm, uplifted, acutely sensitive. I can't pinpoint exactly what part of the performance or what idea is particularly affecting me. There is a broadening in my screen of vision, an excitement in previously unnoticed detail... an older wisdom (Journal 2007).

"Reality' is always, already encoded, it is never raw" (Fiske in Underwood.2003, p5). Codification negates abstraction or loss of information. "We do not live among and relate to physical objects and events. We live among and relate to systems of signs" …

The Integrated Sound, Space And Movement Environment : The Uses Of Analogue And Digital Technologies To Correlate Topographical And Gestural Movement With Sound, Jonathan A. Mustard

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis investigates correlations between auditory parameters and parameters associated with movement in a sensitised space. The research examines those aspects of sound that form correspondences with movement, force or position of a body or bodies in a space sensitised by devices for acquiring gestural or topographical data. A wide range of digital technologies are scrutinised to establish what the most effective technologies are in order to achieve detailed and accurate information about movement in a given space, and the methods and procedures for analysis, transposition and synthesis into sound. The thesis describes pertinent work in the field from the …

The Influence Of Genetics And The Environment On Human Personalities, Relationships And Experiences, Patrice Smith

Theses : Honours

It's no mystery that our genetic make-up plays an integral part in the outcome of our lives, but to what extent exactly are our personalities, relationships and experiences pre-determined by this genetic code? There are two forces that contribute to the outcome of these aspects of our lives. Genetics and Environment. The significance of the environment, i.e., our upbringing, lifestyle and the world around us is often emphasized by psychologists as the more dominant force, however our genes are just as, if not more, influential on our lives. My choreographic process is directly in relation to the group of artists …

The Dancing Mind, Rebecca Mccormac

Theses : Honours

How is it that we go from the unknown to the known? Is there a parallel relationship between mind and body? How does the brain inform the body? An active approach to cognition conceives of the mind as one with the body. The human brain controls feeling, cognition, perception, action, learning and other basic functions, and therefore it is vital to consider the influence of neuroscience on the development of cognitive psychology and vice versa, when looking at a dancing body/mind.

What Are The Benefits Of Dance In Relation To Developing Creative Potential For The Individual?, Shannon Riggs

Theses : Honours

This thesis proposes to discuss the benefits of creativity for the individual and highlight the increasing importance of creativity in today's society. The thesis discusses how creativity can be identified, nurtured and developed and what factors effect the development of creative potential. Creativity plays a major role in dance as an art form. This thesis draws attention to the fact that dance teaches many of the key skills needed to develop creative potential and how dance can be utilised as an avenue to enhancing an individual's creative ability. This thesis will outline the parallels between learning dance and developing creative …

An Investigation Into Lindsay Vickery's Rendez-Vous: An Opera Noir, Adam Willett

Theses : Honours

A study of Rendez-vous: an Opera Nair, a contemporary chamber opera written by Australian-born composer Lindsay Vickery (b. 1965). The opera was based upon the novel Djinn by the French postmodernist author Alain Robbe-Grillet. Vickery composed the opera over a two-year period from 1993-1995. It was finally performed in 2001 after some revision. The novel contained a non-linear narrative and film genre references. The non-linear narrative structure was represented through a serial-like musical device. Musical influences were derived from classical music and film. Applied technology was utilised in the composition process and in the final production with the introduction of …

Voyeurages, Cat Hope

Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Creative works and performances

Voyeurages is a live performance installation featuring 10 participants, 10 video projectors and 10 mp3 players. As it currently stands, 10 separate 30 minute DVD and audio tracks were created by the artist, using material collected over the last ten years of travel. This is then projected onto each participants naked back, and the sound is produced from a small mp3 player connected to a speaker in each participant's mouth, The audience may move among the participants who are 2 m apart in a arrow formation, the point of which directs to the artist's home.

Oversight : Practice As Research In Australia, Lelia Green

Practice as Research in Performance (PARIP) 29 June - 3 July 2005

No abstract provided.

Toward A Model Of Theatrical Curation, Lisa Scott-Murphy

Creative Connections Symposium @ BEAP2004 September 4, 2004

Our two main areas of investigation raise these questions: Can immersion theatre be used to expand currently available models of ‘experiential’ exhibition making in a museum context? Could such a theatrical curatorial approach be used to address contemporary debates about the relationship between the past and the present in Australian history?

Renaissance And Baroque Stage Technology And Its Meaning For Today's Theatre, Stan Kubalcik

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis seeks to address the understanding of the concept of old stage machinery. In addition, the research will determine the practical applications and meaning of old stage machinery for today's theatre. The approach to this topic will be more historical and practical than theoretical. A thorough examination of the history of theatre and stage technology is initially discussed. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of the practical component of this research and finally, the implications of this for today's theatre. Knowledge of traditional stage technology is a prerequisite for understanding the mechanics of stage technology today. A key …

Dis-Patch: Practice As. . . Practice And Research, Jonathan Mustard, Chrissie Parrott

Creative Connections Symposium @ BEAP2004 September 4, 2004

Dis-Patch is the title of a dance work that was partly the outcome of research into ways in which movement in space might successfully correlate to the parameters of sound. The process of making the work in workshops, rehearsals and performance both altered our view of, and added to the background research. It became evident in this process that certain outcomes, whilst alien to musically conventional ears, were nevertheless valid and interesting sonic translations of the choreography. The performance demonstrated how issues within and between disciplines can be re-problematised through the creative and innovative use of technology. It is our …

Phillip Adams, Nanette Hassall

Creative Connections Symposium @ BEAP2004 September 4, 2004

This paper explores the importance of narrative in Phillip Adams’ work. Despite the fact that he is seen by the critics as a member of the ‘post moderns’ in dance in Australia there are significant ways in which we see him depart from the traditional understandings of those terms in order to develop a more idiosyncratic and personal style.

Plague, Pestilence & Pollution : Berkoff's Collision With Aeschylus And Sophocles, Michelle Aslett

Theses : Honours

Our humanity is bound to perennial themes in drama, so when a classic play is adapted to 'suit' contemporary audiences, the revised version will often reflect the zeitgeist of the times in which it was produced. The magic of retrospection then allows us to examine the social and political particulars that influence the adapted as well as the original work. Indeed, Steven Berkoff's reworkings of both Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Sophocles' Oedipus Rex reflect an unsettled and divided British context in the throes of ideological upheaval during the 1970's and early 1980's. While consistent criticism of leadership and political strife in …

When The Carnival Is Over : Peter Barnes' Red Noses And The Theories Of Mikhail Bakhtin, Duncan A. Sharp

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Peter Barnes, acknowledged as one of Britain's most important contemporary playwrights, writes plays that are of an enormous scale, both physically and intellectually. Red Noses is one such play. Like Barnes' other works, Red Noses makes great technical demands on directors, designers, actors and audiences. As with all of Barnes' plays, Red Noses is, moreover, informed by a wide variety of theatrical styles. As Bernard Dukore (1990, p. 65) states, actors may be required to quickly "switch from intellectual discourse, to period argot, to poetry, to modern slang, to rhetoric, to musical comedy, to ritual, to dance, to opera, to …

The Power Of Desire In Selected Plays By Henrik Ibsen, Brooke Torrens

Theses : Honours

This thesis explores how desire operates in selected plays by the Norwegian dramatist, Henrik Ibsen. I will argue that desire acts us a motivating force, urging the characters to seek fulfilment in their ideals, resulting in both defeat and triumph. The four plays considered, Rosmersholm, The Lady From the Sea. Hedda Gabler and The Master Builder, depict characters that are unable to sustain ordinary existence. This inability produces equivocal and contradictory human emotions that both restrict and impel the characters as they journey toward their downfall and salvation. The ambiguous nature of these four plays is examined in order to …

Accumulated Response In Live Improvised Dance Performance, Joanna T. Pollitt

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The response project and accompanying thesis aim to affirm the role of the dancer as an authority in revealing patterns and traces of accumulated lived experience, knowledge and ideas through the practice and performance of dance improvisation. The dancing body is investigated as a dynamical and complex system of research that is embedded in a process of continual response to the present. These bodily inscriptions and the process of active response form the seminal grounds for the physical and energetic exchange of improvised dance in performance.

Tracing Image And Bodily Displacement In Modern And Postmodern Dance, Carolyn Margaret Griffiths

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Through time the dancer has been both celebrated and disadvantaged by antithetical ideas: the division of soul and body, form and matter, life and death, artist and audience. For the romantics, the dancing body stood in a relationship to poetic thought in much the same way as the dancer stood to the body. Notions of the body in early modernism arose from cultural and political constructs through which poets and writers examined the nature of truth. These poets, Yeats in particular, hinted at a premise that a whole history of culture may be necessary to explain why women and art …