https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/3317 2026-04-13T03:59:36Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/101018 Title: Effects of actor training on personality Abstract: The terminology of the theatre-maker and choreographer Rudolph Laban is applied as a point of departure for the development of new approaches to the study of personality - broadly defined as relatively stable patterns of behaviour - in the context of interdisciplinary performance research. The work is conducted under the aegis of the xHCA programme at the University of Malta, in which actor training is also investigated from the perspectives of the life sciences and the social sciences. It is argued that aspects of Laban Movement Analysis provide a meeting point for communication between artist and scientist. The potential for the theatre pedagogue is illustrated by demonstrating the congruence of many of Laban's ideas with issues related to contemporary training in improvisation, and by applying variants of the terminology as a tool for the organization of observational records of sessions of creative movement by actors and apprentice actors. The potential utility to interdisciplinary researchers is shown by deriving quantitative correlates of the terminology through integration with computer-based recording and analysis (motion capture) and applying the results in two pilot studies of differences in movement style between actors and non-actors on a series of improvisational tasks. The thesis concludes by proposing extensions to this approach including training in a master class based on feedback from computer models, as well as suggestions for future research projects encompassing learning and memory, personality research, and creativity studies. Description: PH.D. 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/3484 Title: Juventutis Domus : Carmelo Galea's contribution to the Salesian didactic theatre Abstract: In experiencing the troubles faced by deprived young people in Turin, John Bosco strived to create a dynamic structure through which these youngsters could feel loved whilst receiving ongoing formation. Theatre was seen as an important tool through which this formation could be passed on. In seeing the importance of involvement and entertainment, the founder of the Salesian congregation sought to develop a structure in which theatre would develop into a good educational tool. Alfons Maria Galea, a Maltese politician and philanthropist, sought to usher the success achieved within the Italian context to a local context which needed a young pastoral impetus. The development of an Oratory complex in Sliema worked towards creating a space for young people to holistically develop their skills. Such was the initiation of a space, Juventutis Domus, for intellectuals to develop their social and cultural skills. Carmelo Galea, after years in Sicily, was sent to give the Domus important impetus which was needed following internal difficulties. Theatre was vital in complementing this mission, adhering to the original needs of society. The gradual development of a theatre framework within a group focusing on catechism, together with a number of texts written in Maltese, marks Carmelo Galea's important contribution to the local Salesian Theatre. Description: B.A.(HONS)THEATRE STUD. 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/3320 Title: Contrasting the use of technology and machinery : Erwin Piscator & Robert Lepage Abstract: As Kenneth Pickering states, '[t]he use of mechanical devices to assist in staging of plays appears to be almost as old as Western theatre itself, and whenever spectacle has dominated the taste of audiences, stage machinery has been developed to assist its creation' (Pickering 2005:190; emphasis in the original). The developments in technology and machinery, evident also in daily life, affect the choices made in generating performance work. For example, the potential of human performance is questioned. The actor-spectator/actor dynamic in theatre is often challenged with the use of the machinery and technology. My dissertation, Contrasting the use of technology and machinery: Erwin Piscator and Robert Lepage, builds on such considerations. As the title suggests, the work of Piscator and Lepage will be used as case-studies aimed at evaluating the role of machinery and technology in performance. I chose these case studies because they will assist my framing of the discussion to the twentieth-century. In fact, Piscator's use of technology and machinery can be seen as having marked his pre-World War II work, while Lepage is a contemporary theatre practitioner (born in 1957) whose work links the twentieth-century to the twenty-first. Therefore, by using Piscator and Lepage, I will be drawing a line throughout the twentieth-century and extending it to the twenty-first. However, in order to facilitate the exposition of my argument, the first chapter of my dissertation will serve as a contextualising framework to highlight some important historical examples of mechanical mediations to theatre performance. In order to do so, three examples will three examples which will serve to analyse technology and machinery, namely spectacle and/or illusion. The other three chapters will focus on Piscator and Lepage's use of machinery and technology. Three different approaches in comparing and contrasting Piscator and Lepage can be identified. First, I will take into account the role machinery and technology play in order to manipulate time and space in the two practitioners' performances. The recurrent thread, i.e. spectacle and illusion, which was expounded upon in chapter one, will be used in this section to elaborate on this manipulation of time and space. I will discuss how Piscator was knowingly seeking to create spectacle while, on the other hand, Lepage elevated spectacle to the level of illusion. Secondly, I will take into consideration how the use of technology and machinery was used by the two practitioners to affect the audience's experience. I will address the differences between Piscator's political theatre and Lepage's performance/rehearsal. I will examine the creation of a particular political message, which the audience should decipher in Piscator's work. Lepage will be investigated through his use of taking his spectator on a process of discovery, a process which is full of possibilities. Finally, I will compare and contrast Piscator's use of documentary theatre to Lepage's storytelling. In this exposition, Piscator's and Lepage's attitudes towards their audiences will be heightened: since he considers his audience to be of the same socio-political background, Piscator can be seen to have manipulated the story, i.e. history, in order to get a planned response from his audience, while Lepage's conception of individual meaning and individual spectator can be seen as serving as a c interpretations since the audience can choose what they want to look at. Description: B.A.(HONS)THEATRE STUD. 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/3319 Title: Transformation in the work of performance artist Marina Abramovic Abstract: Is transformation a crucial element within the work of performance artist Marina Abramović? If it is so, how is it manifested in her work? The dissertation will analyse some perspectives of transformation in the work of Abramović‟, an artist who has always been fascinated by transformation. From a very young age she showed an ambition to develop her work further and breaking any boundaries of performance aesthetic and normative rules along the way. This impulse has lived with her till today and is still present in her works – perhaps today she is a bit subtler in her approach. The Online Oxford Dictionary defines transformation as „a marked change in form, nature, or appearance‟. This means that that the term „transformation‟ includes also a change which might be externally invisible but intrinsically present. This thesis will investigate both the visible and the less visible transformations in Abramović‟s work. Erika Fischer-Lichte, a performance theorist, wrote about the transformative processes within the work of both actors and performance artists. In my analysis I acknowledge Ficher-Lichte‟s and other performance theorists‟ argument that performance is potentially a field for transformation on many levels. Description: B.A.(HONS)THEATRE STUD. 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z