/library/oar/handle/123456789/111195 2025-12-26T08:44:42Z 2025-12-26T08:44:42Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/117460 2024-01-18T08:12:21Z 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Exploring movement and gesture in contemporary performance: three case studies Abstract: This dissertation focuses on movement and gesture within the blurred boundaries of physical genres in contemporary contexts. While dance emphasises aesthetic movement as design, acting centres around gesture infused with intentionality and meaning. In both cases, similar physical mechanisms are engaged. The performer’s body serves as a tool for narration, unlocking imagination and intellectual engagement through physicality in different contexts around the world. As such, this dissertation explores movement and gesture in contemporary performance, by examining case studies from Indian theatre, clowning, and physical theatre in the West, each presented with its own background, influences, and training methods, offering a diverse range of geographical and aesthetic practices. The first case study focuses on Soma Giri’s contemporary performance Silence, highlighting the influence of classical forms on Indian theatre. The second case study delves into James Thiérrée’s La Symphonie Du Hanneton, exploring gesture in mime, and clowning. The third case study analyses Gecko Theatre Company’s physical performance Kin, emphasising body control and movement as storytelling tools. The aim of the dissertation is thus to present an array of contemporary performance realities that rely on gesture and movement as an aesthetic and narrative device. Description: M.A.(Melit.)

2023-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/117459 2024-01-18T08:10:33Z 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Approaches to training and directing beginner actors Abstract: This dissertation focuses on uncovering suitable ways through which beginner actors can gain skills on performing through directing approaches. Using my own personal experience in working with beginner actors, the dissertation defines what a beginner actor is, explores different directing approaches throughout history, and tackles a series of different case studies in which theatre practitioners worked with inexperienced actors. Through research carried out in Chapters 1 and 2, this dissertation then culminates in a series of workshop plans aimed at training beginner actors by means of a devised performance. Description: M.A.(Melit.)

2023-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/117458 2024-01-18T08:09:24Z 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Classroom revolution : the use of theatre of the oppressed in the twenty-first century class Abstract: This is a study of the use of Theatre of the Oppressed as a teaching method in secondary schools. It focuses on how Theatre of the Oppressed can be used in subjects that tackle citizenship to help students engage more with the world around them and give them skills that can shape them into active citizens. It explores TO’s journey from its beginnings to its use in the twenty-first century and the advancement it achieved throughout the years. It also provides concrete examples of the use of TO in class. The hypothesis of this study is put into practice through a workshop with a group of secondary school students, where they engage with TO’s techniques through various sessions. Description: M.A.(Melit.)

2023-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/112817 2023-09-01T09:59:31Z 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Defining modernism through the theories and practices of Reinhardt and Brecht Abstract: In this dissertation overarching characteristics within modern theatre will be defined through the theories and practices of Max Reinhardt and Bertolt Brecht. First and foremost, this dissertation offers a historical contextualisation to the practices of these two practitioners, based on factors that includes antisemitism, hyperinflation, and the technological revolution. Reinhardt’s and Brecht’s theories and practices are dealt with in Chapters 2 and 3 respectively. Their respective vision of the theatre and acting will be analysed, with an emphasis on their rejection of naturalism and the way that this brought new perspectives towards theatrical practices. Reinhardt’s vision of the theatre as a ‘festive event’, which emphasises the integration of actors with the spectators, led him to introduce theatricality on stage, even though he believed that the actor is the most significant element when it comes to theatre-making. On the other hand, through the influence of Marxism, Brecht perceived the theatre as a tool which could produce a change in society. Therefore, he experimented with epic theatre to trigger the spectators to think critically about current socio-political circumstances. Key to Brecht’s theatre were the defamiliarization effect and the Gestus technique, which the dissertation will discuss accordingly. To conclude, contrasting and similar characteristics between their respective theories and practices will be discussed within the attempt to define modernism. Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.)

2023-01-01T00:00:00Z