Masters Degrees (Drama)
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Browsing Masters Degrees (Drama) by browse.metadata.advisor "Prigge-Pienaar, Samantha"
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- ItemIntellek en impuls : ’n studie van die akteur se intellektuele fakulteite(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Steyn, Louisa; Prigge-Pienaar, Samantha; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Dept. of Drama.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Acting is not normal behaviour: during everyday life, man is relatively unaware of the functioning of his organism. The art of acting, however, requires the actor to reorganise his being to produce seemingly spontaneous behaviour, in spite of his awareness of the character’s experiences and his knowledge of the outcome of the character’s story. This paradox is especially challenging for the actor that relies on his intellectual faculty whilst acting. The calculating and analytical intellect attempts to control the actor’s interaction with his fellow-performer and the given circumstances of the play. This usually leads to the production of clinical or mechanical acting, which cannot capture the spontaneous passion or exuberance of impulsive interaction. As a result of this occurrence, the intellect is seen as an obstacle in acting theory and intellectual actors are often met with a sense of impatience or even regarded as less talented. Actors are advised to “stop thinking”. When we regard acting as a holistic art form, where the actor is required to utilize his entire being, the intellect must also play a significant role in the creative process of acting. In this study I therefore suggest that the intellect is not an inhibiting faculty in acting, but that it is rather the actor’s over-dependency on his intellect that inhibits spontaneous acting. From personal experience as an intellectual actor, I investigate the interactive functioning of the actor’s body-mind to identify the potential role of the intellect during acting. This knowledge is utilized to develop exercises with the goal to guide the intellectual actor and to balance the functioning of his organism as a whole. An attempt is made to align the thoughts of the actor, so that he knows not to “stop thinking”, and to learn “what to think” during acting. The actor’s focus should be on the immediate experience of the character’s situation, rather than an analysis of the character. This study investigates the role of the intellect during creative creation of a logical framework within which spontaneous behaviour can be produced. The abovementioned abilities of the actor’s intellectual faculties are evaluated practically in the form of exercises applied in practice.
- ItemKnowledge production through artistic research : the structure and embodiment of creative action in theatre making(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-04) Van Wyk, Ockert Jacobus; Prigge-Pienaar, Samantha; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Drama.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The artistic research conducted during the respective phases of this practice-led study is based on a singular theatre-event that evolved through my collaboration with secondary school dramatic arts students, a creative-collaborator, visual art students, singers, musicians and artistic contributors. The research undertaken formulates and demonstrates my impressions, as theatre practitioner and theatre pedagogue, on the ways in which the actions, activities, contributions and lived experiences of the participants involved in the making of a collaborative theatreevent collectively determine the operation of its creative action. The intrinsic attributes of my praxis, as discovered and observed by means of the systematic inquiry and reflection of this study, hypothesise the structure of creative action to comprise a complex and non-linear interrelation of intentional, coincidental, conscious, unconscious, interactive and reiterative acts of ‘embodied cognition’. In keeping with the methodology of Artistic Research, the academic narrative utilises stylistic devices – including metaphoric titles, the insertion of images and sound clips, and typographic designs - to symbolise activities and occurrences of theatre-making that include: instances of invention; moments of insight; practice-based decisions and deviations; chance encounters; and fortuitous incidents and collaboration/s. The study suggests that the actions, incidents and events that give rise to, and evolve from, creative action are subject to, and qualified by, conceptual, sensory, corporeal and visceral conditions and intentions that are respectively foregrounded at specific times and during specific phases of theatre-making. By drawing on experiential knowledge gained from this collaborative and multi-media theatre-event, the thesis demonstrates and describes the ways in which creative action is realised and practiced through the implementation of individualised approaches and strategies that are geared towards the construction and embodiment of physical and spoken texts. In addition, the research offers insights into the ever-shifting and multifunctional role of the theatre practitioner, pedagogue and researcher as the negotiator of dissonant heterogeneous voices in a collaborative collective who are actively involved in a shared creative experience.
- ItemStaging the criminalised society : contemporary South African theatre's response to the social insecurity caused by violent crime in South Africa over the past decade (2002 - 2012)(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-03) Williams, Candice Lynn; Prigge-Pienaar, Samantha; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Drama.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The potential to fall victim to violent crime is an ever-present threat in contemporary South African society that many South Africans have resigned themselves to. It is also one of the few aspects of South African society that is common to all races, genders, cultures, locations, and socio-economic backgrounds. It is a popular topic of public debate and violent crime regularly features in all forms of news media. However, this prevalence is not mirrored in the original theatre productions that have been created since the crime wave began in the early 1990s. The aim of this study is to investigate and find ways to categorise the South African plays that have been created in response to the crime problem. It will highlight patterns in this body of work that could be used by theatre-makers and scholars to understand this subject matter, how it is being received by South African audiences and how theatre-makers have approached the creative process of generating work responding to this theme thus far. This research study primarily makes use of empirical information collected from a combination of watching the selected plays, reading their scripts and reading reviews of these productions. This study also makes use of information obtained from various publications in the fields of criminology, psychology and sociology, as well as information gathered from newspaper articles and the statistics released by agencies such as the Institute for Security Studies and Stats SA. In order to discuss how portrayals of violent crimes are choreographed and how these portrayals affect viewers/ consumers. Through an analysis of the data on the South African crime wave that emerges from these various sources, a picture begins to emerge of a generally misunderstood phenomenon that is unique to South African society; crime rates are undoubtedly high, but the ‘crime wave’, appears to have more to do with perceptions than with rising incidences of violent crime. This is reflected in the theatrical engagement with the crime wave thus far; it is as diverse as are the perceptions of the prevalence of violent crime in South Africa.