Doctoral Degrees (Drama)

Permanent URI for this collection

https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/599

Browse

Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Drama) by Author "Makhumula, Catherine Mayesero"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Within between : an investigation on intermediality in the Malawian and South African theatre context
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Makhumula, Catherine Mayesero; Du Preez, Petrus; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Drama.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explores the state of African theatre in the age of new media and digital technology. Through the engagement with current literature, the researcher found that the concept of intermediality provided suitable theoretical and methodological tools for this investigation. Intermediality in this study is defined as the interrelations between media. The study therefore, investigated the interrelations between theatre and other media through the performance analysis of four theatrical performances from festivals in Malawi and South Africa in 2014, in order to unearth how intermediality manifests in these contexts. Specifically, the study investigated the nature of interaction between theatre and other media, how intermediality shapes the conceptualisation of theatre and theatrical presence, and how the creative team creates a mise en scène that incorporates other media. The study formulated a model for the analysis of intermediality theatre. This model was drawn from a variety of semiotic and phenomenological theoretical and methodological frameworks. The resulting model was used in the analysis of the four cases in the study. This model has the capacity to be used for the analysis of other cases of theatrical intermediality. The cases in this study present compelling evidence that theatre practice in these contexts is far more experimental in transcending the boundaries between theatre and other media, in contrast with the picture painted by African theatre scholarship. Of the four performances, two performances incorporated digital and electronic media (and puppetry). One performance resulted from the appropriation of music, while another evoked the experience of other media through its own media-specific means. The study found that the cases reconfigured conventional conceptualisations of and expectations from theatre in their attempts to augment how the audiences experienced theatrical presence, time and space. The study also found that the creation of mise en scène that incorporates other media restructured traditional theatre roles, because it involved working with more than one system of aesthetic conventions, principles of structure, and stylistic procedures, often requiring the collaboration of skills from other media. The study argues that the field of theatre studies in these contexts can no longer afford to be rigid while theatre practice experiments with other media, continually changing how theatre is created, conceptualised and experienced. The four cases should be considered as a starting point in understanding how intermediality manifests in the theatrical performances in the Malawian and South African contexts.