Theatre and Performance Studies

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Open Access
Presentness: Developing Presence Through Psychophysical Actor-Training
(2014-07-09) Ravid, Ofer; Levin, Laura
Abstract There is a variety of understandings of the notion of presence in theatre and performance studies as well as in the field of actor-training. Presentness, an aspect of presence, is the experience of the emerging here and now as shaped by the performer’s psychophysical engagement with his or her surrounding. It is, thus, a tangible aspect of presence that can be enhanced and developed through training. Presentness developed through training is an acting skill although it does not necessarily determine how actors act in terms of style or form. Rather, techniques of presentness are meant to develop and fine-tune the actor’s instrument as a psychophysical whole that can be used for any style and type of acting. This dissertation examines processes of developing presentness in the practice of three prevalent psychophysical acting techniques in North American actor-training: Viewpoints, Suzuki, and Lecoq. It is based on three years of practice-based research as participant and observer in various training sites with these techniques. Building on detailed descriptions of practiced moments accompanied by interviews and conversations with practitioners and teachers, various emerging manifestations of presentness are exposed to make a complex and deep understanding of this term. Using Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology alongside theories from the emerging field of cognitive neuroscience grounds the experiential accounts of ephemeral processes within concrete existing constructs of motility, perception, and cognition.
Open Access
From Clowns to Computers: Performing Theatrical Interactivity and Pervasive Transmedia Fictions
(2014-07-09) Laviolette, Byron James; Rubin, Donald H.
The Collins English Dictionary defines “Interaction” as “a mutual or reciprocal action or influence”, and “Interactivity” as “allowing or relating to continuous two-way transfer of information between a user and the central point of a communication system”. This study will analyze the range of pre-existing interactive theatre types, using the model of interaction theorized by Gary Izzo in The Art of Play. This model will be used to categorize and problematize the various strategies developed and deployed through seven years of practical interactive research in the theatre. The sites of this research include five productions I worked on as a director, from 2008-2012, with Toronto-based U.N.I.T. Productions, featuring clown duo Morro and Jasp, and an eight-month long, massive, trans- media fiction project called ZED.TO, created by The Mission Business, a local event design company where I worked in 2012 as both writer and narrative designer. The central research question steering this dissertation is twofold. First, what strategies of interactivity already exist and how has the pre-existing theory of audience interaction behind these strategies evolved through the production and performance of these two projects? Second, in what ways have these strategies been proven effective, in real-time or during online encounters, to encourage an audience to believe, trust, share, play and ultimately participate inside an interactive theatre production? To prove the efficacy of these strategies, observations and opinions of both the public and the press are examined. The answers to these research questions trace the sources, evolution and distribution of these strategies from within the established theatre practice (including improvisation and clown) as well as interactive approaches sourced from game design and social media. This multidisciplinary research helps to define what strategies work towards achieving interactivity in the theatre and how, or when, it is appropriate to utilize it during a theatrical production. In essence, this study examines, through a survey of the history of immersive and interactive theatre, the strategies realized by the Morro and Jasp clown series and ZED.TO and how these projects have contributed to the evolving theory and practice of interactivity in the theatre. Analyzing such strategies will create a sourcebook for those seeking to bring theatre into the digital world as well as understand (and perhaps even undertake) the performance of pervasive interactive narratives in the future.
Open Access
Seeking Release From the Armour of Dystonia as the Mother-Showman in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus
(2015-08-28) Garay, Soo Susan; Wilson, Mark E.
Abstract With this thesis I have embarked on the journey to seek release from the armour of dystonia and patiently rebirth my inner artist through playing the role of The Mother-Showman in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus. I set out to rediscover an uninhibited channel of expression and melt my more recent protective nature through physical and vocal practice gained from my training with master teachers David Smukler and Erika Batdorf. I have also drawn from my twenty-five years of experience as a professional actor. In my documented scholarly research I reconnected with the artistic journeys of others to release my own focus with confidence. I believe that I was mostly successful in the artistic challenge I set out for myself as an actor. The labour disruption that occurred during the scheduled rehearsal and performance dates of Venus affected the flow of my process immensely, but with surprisingly positive results.
Open Access
The Habitus of Mackenzie King: Canadian Artists, Cultural Capital and the Struggle for Power
(2015-08-28) Wagner, Anton Reinhold; Rubin, Donald H.
This dissertation analyzes the struggle between William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest-serving Prime Minister (1922-1930, 1935-1948), and Canadian artists to define and determine the nature and distribution of arts and culture in Canada prior to the 1949 Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of habitus, “fields” of knowledge and power, and religious, social and cultural capital, the dissertation analyzes the central paradox of why—despite his decades-long involvement in half-a-dozen artistic disciplines—King failed to implement cultural policies as Prime Minister that would have benefited Canadian artists and the arts and culture in Canada. The dissertation applies Pierre Bourdieu’s model of social change in which “priests” with conservation strategies and charismatic “prophets” with subversion strategies compete among the “laity” for consumers of their respective symbolic goods to document how artists organized locally and nationally to accumulate social, cultural and political capital in their attempt to compel the federal government to implement their cultural objectives—state support for the arts. The dissertation posits that Mackenzie King’s inability to control his sexual impulses led him to espouse a conception of art whose primary function was to project Christian character and ideals. By establishing King’s religious and sexual habiti, I am able to show why he felt compelled to project such an idealized characterization in works of art depicting himself, members of his family, and public figures whose service to the nation he felt should be emulated by Canadians. As Leader of the Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and as Prime Minister, King was able to use his political and economic power in the political field over three decades (1919-1948) to define who was a real artist and who was not, what constituted artistic legitimacy and what was the artistic and economic value of Canadian cultural production. The dissertation suggests that the analysis of King’s relationship with the arts and artists provides the key to unlocking the enigma of Mackenzie King and that in the struggle between artists and the Prime Minister over the nature and distribution of arts and culture in Canada, the artists won.
Open Access
The Worker and the War Machine
(2015-08-28) Smith, Autumn Danielle MacKenzie; Lampert, Paul
This paper aims to discover the theatrical relationship between the working class and the factory of war. In that, it strives to prove that the lower income labourer is the cog of the machine: a nameless entity with an inescapable destiny. Through the paper and the subsequent production of Oh, What A Lovely War! I intend to give a voice to the worker and will struggle with my own blue collar identity, just as Joan Littlewood did in years past. This production and paper therefore is one of self-discovery and acceptance. In addition, it aims to prove that without the heroic efforts of the laboring class, there would be no war, as the cowardice of capitalism would fall without its soldiers.
Open Access
The Actor / Audience Relationship: Vibrating With Purpose in Venus
(2015-08-28) Wicks, Robert George; Batdorf, Erika
The subsequent document examines the vibratory connection that can be shared between an actor and an audience and uses the role of Uncle, in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus, as a practical case in which to examine and reflect on this area of research. This document investigates what is meant by a “vibratory connection,” and how increased vibration enhances the sensate experience both for the sender and receiver. The paper will analyze methods of reducing vibration-dampening tensions, increasing resonating chambers of the oral and nasal cavities, and enhancing the con- nection between an actor and a live audience. The ultimate goal is to develop a practice indepen- dent of a rehearsal process that increases the vibrational capacity of an actor.
Open Access
Re-Ordering Performance: Finding Joy and Freedom in Oh, What a Lovely War!
(2015-08-28) Kelly, Alison Moira; Greyeyes, Michael J.
The following document is an exploration of pursuing ease and joy in the Theatre@York’s production of Oh, What a Lovely War. This support document gives literal meaning to the phenomenon of stage fright, defines the psychological reasoning behind the reaction of the autonomic nervous system, and tracks the creation of a new methodology based on the acting philosophies of David Mamet, Uta Hagen, and Stanislavski. The process includes pursuing full embodiment of character, creating achievable goals and building a new relationship with the audience. The ultimate goal is to create a new performance methodology that will result in both rehearsal and performance being a joyful experience.
Open Access
Searching for a Path to Authenticity Through Physical Theatre Practices as the Baron Docteur in Parks' Venus
(2015-08-28) Silcox, Neil Joseph; Greyeyes, Michael J.
This thesis explores my attempt to develop a system to help achieve authenticity in performance. My primary research involved reading the works of such authors as Kristen Linklater, Anne Bogart, Michael Chekhov, Keith Johnstone, and several others. This theoretical understanding was supplemented by personal explorations in the studio, as well as in the rehearsal hall. I then attempt to synthesize the discoveries made therein into a set of practices that I apply to the rehearsal and performance of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus. Ultimately I make the first steps toward discovering emotional access through interoceptive examination, embodied listening by deprioritizing vision and hearing, and spontaneity of action achieved through acknowledgement and acceptance of tension. Finally, I look at how I will continue this work in the future.
Open Access
Truth in Movement: An Exploration of Code-Switching in Physical Dialects
(2015-08-28) Richardson, Alicia Dionne; Buchli, Ines F.
This paper will discuss my process towards finding authenticity in movement as it pertains to my performance of ‘The Man’ and ‘The Venus’ Chorus’ in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus. My research details how increased body awareness via internal signals from the muscles and a deeper connection to primary impulses help to address my artistic challenge. My task is to use physicality in performance as a means to express the character’s needs and as a response to stimuli from scene partners. I will create unique physical personas for both my roles in Venus, and I will customize a preparation routine to be completed before rehearsals and performances of the play using the following methods: Authentic Movement, The Batdorf Technique, and Richard Pochinko clowning.
Open Access
Excursions into Otherness: Performative Cosmopolitanism and Movement Culture
(2015-08-28) Griffith, Anna Maire; Levin, Laura
Embarking on an interdisciplinary study of movement practices that transcend traditional spaces and modes of transfer, I ask if it is possible to politicize our use of Yoga, Muay Thai and Capoeira. Can framing these practices as part of movement culture allow us to view the complexity of performative cosmopolitanism? Introducing my project, Chapter One argues for the importance of theorizing practices we use to regulate our bodies and express our identity. Chapter Two offers theoretical backbone – a literature review of cosmopolitan theory and scholarship on consumerism, Neo-Primitivism and Orientalism. Exploring how cosmopolitanism is signified by consumption of otherness, I suggest alternatives highlighting the terms of cultural exchange. Chapter Three analyzes how each practice is framed through advertising and social media in order to signal specific lifestyles and identities. I consider how myths are activated in order to consolidate whiteness. In Chapter Four a performance analysis of cultural festivals allows me to position cosmopolitanism as performative – generating difference as much as embracing it. Displaying, performing and consuming otherness at festivals simultaneously butts up against more resistant challenges to dominant culture also being created. Embodiment of form is my focus in Chapter Five. Through autoethnography I consider classes as performances of everyday interculturalism. Describing how practices function to perpetuate myths of Neo-Primitivism and Orientalism and become vehicles to inscribe power and consolidate whiteness, I also consider the forms of resistance created at the level of individuals and communities. My conclusions analyze how movement culture highlights the performative nature of cosmopolitanism, and the power embodiment has in de-centering, challenging and re-positioning us in intimate ways. I suggest that recognizing the structures of inequity we live through, marking the myths of otherness we consume and seeing the places where power is subverted through practice can describe a form of embodied postcoloniality that reflects our globalized, networked world and moves us toward interconnection.
Open Access
Prejudice in Venus Traces the Roots of Black Female Iconography
(2015-08-28) Robinson, Jamie Owen; Lampert, Paul
This paper aims to verify how a ‘freak’ show performer named The Venus Hottentot of the early 1800’s in England and in France, came to symbolize the sexualized view of the black female icon today. My thesis production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ play Venus will demonstrate how Eurocentric prejudice in the colonial era shaped the historical facts that permeated around this South African woman’s life and death. In keeping with the play’s revised Afrocentric perspective on these alleged facts, ideas about directorial concepts for this show will validate how this play is relevant to contemporary artists and audiences through Parks’ elegant storytelling. This potential narrative of victimization, that could easily come off as maudlin, will be proven to require a sardonic political edge in order to succeed. The director’s challenges and premise, the writer’s background, the play’s roots in truth and fiction, along with production hurdles to overcome will all be discussed.
Open Access
Body-Mind Balancing: Exploring Deep Embodiment in Oh What A Lovely War!
(2015-08-28) Elchuk, Tanya Marie; Greyeyes, Michael J.
Acting methodologies have long been divided into two simplistic streams: “outside-in” and “inside-out.” These reductionist models fail to account for the range and synergistic nature of the elements integral to an actor’s work. Exploring these elements I discovered a personal tendency toward favouring an intellect removed from its source in breath, body, and imagination, and disengaged from sensation and emotion. Undertaking an exploration of deep embodiment through the practices of Syntonics©, Linklater voice work, Middendorf Breathexperience, and Batdorf Technique, and applied in Theatre@York’s production Oh What a Lovely War! I discovered a rich new source of information arising not from intellect, but from an intelligent, unified, physical being, or body-mind. This experience has revealed a new understanding of how to approach acting, in which every element becomes a potential entry point into a holistically integrated, reciprocal system, and in which visceral, sensate awareness births true presence and performance.
Open Access
The Freedom to Act: Unmasking Identity in Performance
(2015-08-28) Maendel, Yvonne Jeanette; Greyeyes, Michael J.
Abstract This multi-modal thesis proposes a methodology for addressing anxiety during performance. The methodology intends to create a foundation of relaxation and awareness, in order to more easily access creative impulses. This foundation will be carefully built through a daily practice of deep-breathing exercises, body-alignment exercises, daily physical activity, and recorded psychological awareness of the mind/body connection. Drawing from instruction and consultation within the MFA program at York and my own independently-led research, I developed this methodology in preparation of my chosen thesis role in the Theatre@ York musical, Oh What a Lovely War!, written by Joan Littlewood.
Open Access
Finding Deeper Connectivity Through Full-Body Resonant Listening in Joan Littlewood's "Oh What a Lovely War"
(2015-08-28) deGruijter, Deann Michele; Wilson, Mark E.
Abstract This thesis contains research on my artistic challenge to find deeper connectivity through full-body resonant listening as an actor in Joan Littlewood’s play Oh What a Lovely War. It documents my research on my mind/body artistic practice, Joan Littlewood, Mindfulness, The Great War, Charlie Chaplin, corporal resonance, and the further development of my visceral approach to theatre. Selected journal entries demonstrate the application of my research in rehearsals and performances. They reflect my practices, processes, observations, and applications (successful and unsuccessful) during my research. My anticipated outcome is the attainment of full-body listening and a deeper connection with others and my immediate environment. After a detailed investigation of my artistic challenge in multiple applications, I was able to achieve a state of what I refer to as a porous presence and availability. I believe I was successful in finding deeper attunement and connection when listening with resonant full-body awareness.
Open Access
Exploring Authentic Expression Through Body/Breath Connection in Theatre@York's 'Oh What a Lovely War"
(2015-12-16) Turner, Corey Andrew; Wilson, Mark E.
With this thesis, I have investigated authentic expression through body/breath connection. In playing multiple roles in Joan Littlewood’s Oh What A Lovely War, I set out to find the heart and honesty of the soldier characters that I embodied. In doing so I had to address my habitual muscle tension that has arisen from emotional and psychological barriers from my past in order to find an ease and flow of my breath throughout my body. This was pursued by using warm-up regimens from master teachers David Smukler and Kristin Linklater, and by integrating my sense of Somatic Experiencing as well as yoga techniques. The analysis was ongoing throughout the rehearsal and performance processes. Moreover, the results were gauged by referring to Carey and Carey’s four-tier approach relating to competence. During the latter phase of performances, I was able to find the greatest developments in seeking authentic expression through body/breath connection.
Open Access
Shedding Perfection and Accepting Truth: Exploring Compassion and an Embodied Physicality for the First Soldier and Third Girl in Oh What a Lovely War
(2015-12-16) Semotiuk, Natalie Olena; Buchli, Ines F.
This text is an exploration of one actor’s challenge to find self-confidence, to develop a new process with a compassionate approach and a physical practice to construct characters that are physically embodied. First, self-confidence is explored through the techniques of Rolfing and talk therapy with a Jungian analyst. Next, a new physical and vocal warm up is created from a combination of technical skills learned at Canada’s National Voice Intensive in Vancouver and theatre classes at York University in Toronto. Positive affirmations are put into practice to ensure self-care throughout the rehearsal process. Subsequently, an exploration of two different methods for constructing two characters, one physical approach for the First Soldier, and one psychological approach for the Third Girl, to determine what method is more effective for creating fully embodied characters in the production of Joan Littlewood’s play Oh What a Lovely War.
Open Access
Good Mourning Canada? Canadian Military Commemoration and Its Lost Subjects
(2015-12-16) Vosters, Helene Teresa; Levin, Laura
Using the Highway of Heroes as my point of departure, in “Good Mourning Canada? Canadian Military Commemoration and its Lost Subjects” I interrogate the role of Canadian military commemoration in the production of hierarchies of grievability and the construction of nationalist narratives. I argue that military commemoration plays a critical role in the performative constitution of the privileged—and the “lost”—subjects of Canadian nationalism. My investigation looks first at how Canadian military memorial projects operate as a means of interpellating Canada’s citizen populations into a particular kind of settler-nationalism, and second, at how performance might serve as a methodology towards the production of counter-memorials that resist the forgetful narratives of Canadian nationalism. My methodological approach weaves historical, theoretical, and performance analyses with first-person reflections on three counter-memorial meditations I performed as a method of embodied inquiry and critical engagement. While the reflective remains of Impact Afghanistan War are scattered throughout this dissertation, and Unravel: A meditation on the warp and weft of militarism and Flag of Tears are discussed explicitly in the final chapters, all three counter-memorial meditations inform—and are informed by—the entire project. Throughout this dissertation I deliberately posit both Canadian military commemoration, and performance, as broadly construed. I investigate repertorial performances of commemoration—like the Highway of Heroes, Remembrance Day ceremonies, and Impact—in addition to the archival performances of institutions and objects—like the Canadian War Museum, military fatigues, and Unravel’s threaded remains. I also intentionally wander outside the constructed borders of Canadian military commemoration to consider how these memorials disappear the violence of settler-colonialism. I bring popular culture performances of nationalist and counter-nationalist narratives—like the Winter Olympics and Jeff Barnaby’s film, Rhymes for Young Ghouls—into conversation with performances overtly linked to the contested terrains of Canadian social memory, like the World War I and II documentary, The Valour and the Horror, and Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In bringing this range of performances together under the umbrella of Canadian military commemoration I make visible the larger scenario of Canadian settler nationalism and its sticky “inter(in)animations” with militarism and colonialism.
Open Access
Theatre, Performance and Digital Tools: Modelling New Modes of Political Engagement
(2016-09-20) Mcleod, Kimberley Jean Kelly; Levin, Laura
This dissertation investigates how theatre and performance artists use new media tools to facilitate political engagement. The chapters cover a diverse range of performancesfrom interventions in video games to mobile phone walking tours to theatre productions that use social media. In contrast to the dominant narrative of intermedial theatre and performance studies, when analyzing these examples I consider intermediality as a political rather than solely aesthetic mode. By explicitly connecting intermedial approaches to political performanceand acknowledging how these two concepts are already always conjoinedthis dissertation works to expand how we might think about intermediality as a lens that covers digital practices as both form and content. I also consider the value, challenges and dangers of asking spectators to interact with performers and digital tools in order to model new modes of political engagement, and question how various artistic choices impact the ways that audiences are activated through these new technologies. As the examples range in form, content and location, this dissertation traverses numerous intermedial modes and political topicsa multitude of approaches that challenge any singular or simple understanding of how intermediality functions in contemporary theatre and performance. Although there is wariness about overstating the role of new media in creating concrete political change, examples such as the Occupy movement reveal how political discourse is now intricately linked to the digital. In this dissertation, rather than simply reinforcing cyberutopian or cyberpessismistic views regarding the political impact of digital communication, I investigate socio-political contexts and analyze the motivations and receptions of specific projects. I consider a number of questions, including: How are new media performances influenced by the potentially democratizing nature of digital interactions? How do performances integrate with digital media to investigate the ways we connector fail to connectas publics? How does performance also address exclusions related to the digital? Who is the we in the intersubjective relations produced by intermedial performance?
Open Access
Performance Through an Avatar: Exploring Affect and Ideology Through Narrative in Videogames
(2016-09-20) Owen, David Douglas; Levin, Laura
Videogames are a major source of popular cultural narratives surpassing even Hollywood films. Videogames, however, cast the player as the active agent within the narrative as opposed to film, television, and traditional theatre where the separation between performer and audience is clearly demarcated. This dissertation investigates the affective potential of videogames realized through the relationship of the player and the avatar within the game world. Specifically, I look at the avatar as an affective conduit for the player, how the feedback between the player and avatar creates a cybernetic relationship, how this relationship changes the player, and how this change potentially augments the players interpretation of realityvirtual and otherwise. It is through this changed (and augmented) interpretation of reality that socio/political ideological meaningsintentional or notmay be absorbed by the player. Ethnographic research conducted with six volunteer participants combined with my own autoethnographic research into several recent popular videogames is intersected with theories of affect, embodiment, and ideology. My findings suggest that experience with the virtual realities of game worlds is one step removed from actual experience. Since videogames are composed of representations, the ideological positions embedded within those representations are not simply presented and understood like traditional theatre, film, and television, but are embodied by the player through the avatar as (nearly direct) experience. Theatre, film, and television have rich critical histories and this study of the players performance through the avatar as an affective conduit and receiver/transmitter of ideology joins the growing critical body of work regarding the newer storytelling medium of videogames.
Open Access
Collective Will: Shakespeare's The Tragedie of Julius Caesar
(2016-09-20) Shook, Estelle Nicole; Buchli, Ines
This project situates William Shakespeares The Tragedie of Julius Caesar as a secular Passion Play, whose central themes of collective violence and sacrifice will underpin a directorial approach that seeks to actively engage and include the audience in the staging and dramaturgy. This will be accomplished by using popular models of crowd constellations such as the sporting event, the religious assembly and the protest rally, as design, staging and conceptual templates. By emphasizing the social dimension of the High Park Amphitheatre audience, we create conditions for them to be self aware of the nature, power and potential of their assembly, the ideal place from which to explore the themes of civic responsibility and government for which the play is famous.