OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Baxter, Veronica"

Browsing by Author "Baxter, Veronica"

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Open Access
Breaking my silence as a 'trained' dancer in post-apartheid South Africa
(2020) Jones, Danielle-Marie; Baxter, Veronica; Job, Jacki
This research is a personal reflection and a self-study of two performances that have taken place over the course of two years. My Medium Project titled, When Memories Break, set out to navigate ways of decolonising oppressive dominance and investigating the ramifications of indoctrination in dance. In 2017, during my Honours Degree in Dance Studies at the University of Cape Town, I created a poster-painting with a fellow #FeesMustFall artist-activist. This poster-painting, entitled, Amputation, was introduced at UCT School of Dance' Confluences 9: Deciphering decolonisation in Dance Pedagogy in the 21st Century in Cape Town, South Africa. Since then, Amputation has become a personal credo that I have carried with me in my Practice as Research field of study. In 2018, as part of my Minor Project, I not only highlighted my memories and experiences in Classical Ballet, but also included my memories of other informal1 dance influences. The purpose of this essay is therefore not to depict ballet as a current colonialist art form but rather to draw attention to what it represented during the years of colonialism, apartheid, and the aftermath of that. It is against this background that I explore the issues related to the relationship I have with my dance training to date. As a performer-researcher, I will use my living experience as a case study. This article provides a perspective from a performer-researcher's position using selfreflexivity as a research methodology. My conclusion supports the notion that self-reflection in the quest for decolonisation in dance by performer-researchers is important for the evolution of a more democratic society.
Open Access
Chains of memory in the postcolony: performing and remembering the Namibian genocide
(2018) Maedza, Pedzisai; Baxter, Veronica; Lentz, Carola
This research project is an interdisciplinary investigation of the memory of the 1904-1908 Namibian genocide through its performance representation(s). It lies at the intersection of performance, memory and genocide studies. The research considers the role of performance in remembering, memorialising, commemorating, contesting, transmitting and sustaining the memory of the genocide across time and place. The project frames performance as a media through which history is narrated by positioning performance as a complex interlocutor of the past in the present. This claim is premised on the assumption that the past is not simply given in memory ‘but it must be articulated to become memory’ (Huyssen, 1995:3). The research considers commemoration events and processes as fruitful performance nodes to uncover the past as well as the politics of the present. It makes the case that while the Namibian genocide has so far been denied official or state acknowledgement, it is chiefly through the medium of performance that the genocide memory is remembered, contested and performed. The project offers a variety of perspectives on the relationship between genocide violence, memory and space by focusing on what is remembered, how it is remembered and by paying attention to when it is remembered. The research contributes to an understanding and reconstruction of memory and performance of the Namibian genocide on two fronts. Firstly, as a cultural phenomenon and secondly, as a form of elegy and memorial in contemporary times. These insights contribute to the emerging body of scholarly work on performance and the cultural memory of the Namibian genocide. The project also charts avenues of inquiry in the production and transmission of memory across time and generations, within and beyond Namibian national borders. It pays close attention to performance’s contribution to the formation of cultural memory by exploring the conditions and factors that make remembering in common possible such as language, images, rituals, commemoration practices, exhibitions, theatre and sites of memories. Through examining the specific role of performance as a medium of cultural memory of the Namibian genocide the study considers ‘memory as performing history’ (Shuttleworth et al., 2000:8). The research interrogates how contemporary artistic performance representations and interpretations from within and outside of Namibia inform the way societal history and the present are presented and remembered. Performance becomes an aperture to investigate the enduring contemporary role of the memory of the Namibian genocide as well as its simultaneous reconfiguration. This enables the project to investigate how memories circulate across time and place - transnationally and across generations. This cross-border and transgenerational reflection is essential to understanding how the Namibian genocide has and is articulated, circulated, structured and remembered through performance in the postcolony.
Open Access
Complex associations : facilitator, host and refugee, a 'round-about' way of drama for inclusion
(2013) Hughes, Shannon; Baxter, Veronica; Morris, Gay
This dissertation focuses on the use of drama as a method of fostering inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers living in host communities. It examines two theatrically based studies simultaneously facilitated over a six month period between July and December of 2012 and explores the two programs from the stage of conception to conclusions regarding their effectiveness in tackling issues related to social exclusion, xenophobic sentiment and violence.The study approaches the topic from three social perspectives considering the position of refugee, host and facilitator and parallels these positions in order to highlight relationship structures which both prevent and assist in the fostering of inclusion and/or coexistence. The study further examines how the interactions help to develop the programs and how the use of theatre can bridge societal gaps; with a unique focus on environments where host and refugee find themselves in a non-encounter position due to the potential for violence. The research methodology stems primarily from grounded theory and brings together elements of symbolic interactionism, pedagogy, sociology, psychology and applied theatre. The method looks at increasing and facilitating communication about and between host and refugee through exploration in applied theatre and intends to increase social understanding between the parties by challenging participant’s stereotypes of the other.
Open Access
An evaluation of the impact of performing arts on the knowledge of Tuberculosis and Clinical Research in adolescents in selected high schools in the Boland Overberg region, Western Cape
(2016) De Kock, Marwou; Tameris, Michele; Baxter, Veronica
Background: There is a high incidence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M tb) infection and active Tuberculosis (TB) disease among adolescents in high TB burden countries, such as South Africa (SA), which indicates that clinical trials assessing vaccine-induced protection are critical in this age group. In educating adolescents regarding TB and clinical trials it is important to ensure that this population has received some relevant prior information if they are approached for clinical research, as well as for the benefits to their own health. Method: Applied theatre was used to educate and inform adolescents to improve their knowledge about TB and clinical research. The script used was based on a young mother's decision to enroll her baby as a participant in a TB vaccine trial and the questions asked by her family and the community. The story played itself out in public transport, a local clinic and the participants' household, using singing, dancing and rap in the local dialect. The message was visually delivered by actors from the Worcester Senior Secondary (WSS) School's drama class in an adolescent-friendly format to learners. A pre-performance multiple choice knowledge survey was completed by the study population before they watched the play and approximately seven days after the play the same knowledge survey was completed as a post-test. Results: Of the total study population 4.56% of the adolescents had had TB previously and 39.15 % had been involved in TB research. A high number of the adolescents (97. 7 0 %) had heard about TB and 78. 39 % indicated that they heard about TB at school. The majority of adolescents knew that TB is contagious: 82.92 % in pre-and 97.26 % in post-test. The results for mode of prevention (covering your mouth when coughing / sneezing) in the pre-test for all the schools were above 9 1.28 %. In all tested schools combined there was a slight knowledge increase from pre-to post-test that TB is curable. There was a significant knowledge improvement (P=0.009) for the question: "TB can easily be cured if you take your treatment?" Reassuringly, 9 4.84 % (pre-test) and 9 2.78 % (post-test) indicated that they would consult a medical doctor or go to the clinic if they thought they had TB. Clinical research knowledge did not improve. Conclusion: Using applied theatre to sensitize a rural adolescent population to TB-related clinical research was a novel approach to educate and convey sensitive information to potential study participants. Through theatre, SATVI raised awareness and established strong partnerships with the Department of Basic Education (DoE), school principals, teachers and adolescents as well as indirectly with their parents. It created a platform to engage with the adolescents as well as sensitizing them for a future clinical trial.
Open Access
Exploring active citizenship through spoken word poetry
(2022) Phasha, Pheladi; Baxter, Veronica
This dissertation is concerned with developing the South African youth's active participation in formal politics. Spoken word poetry as an applied drama and theatre medium is of particular interest to this study and it argues that the art form can be used as a means of youth development in the area of formal politics. To illustrate its argument, the dissertation discusses how a programme of spoken word poetry was used to address the issue of youth formal political participation and developed a group of young people's enthusiasm to participate in formal national decision-making processes. The programme, titled Raising Participation, was conducted with the support of Africa Unite, a non-profit organisation in Cape Town that offered their school club members as participants in the programme. The workshops targeted young people who would be eligible to vote in South Africa's next general elections, set to take place in 2024. Chapter 2 discusses spoken word poetry as an applied drama and theatre medium and identifies the connections which make spoken word poetry an appropriate art form to use as an applied drama and theatre approach. Chapter 3 discusses the programme of activities, the theoretical framework that informed its design and the methods of data collection and analysis which were used. It also discusses Africa Unite and the partnership between the organisation and the programme. Chapter 4 discusses the findings of the programme and its successes and limitations, concluding the dissertation.
Open Access
Grey zones: performances, perspectives, and possibilities in Kashmir
(2015) Dinesh, Nandita; Baxter, Veronica; Sitas, Ari
This doctoral project investigates the use of theatre practice to engage across the'victim'/'perpetrator' binary in the Kashmir valley; a binary that is framed in this project as a tripartite division between Civil Society, Militants/Ex-Militants, and the Indian Armed Forces. Using Primo Levi's (1988) concept of "grey zones" to investigate how narratives from these spaces might be given theatrical form, this thesis utilised six concepts to frame the aesthetic, pedagogic, and ethical principles of a practice-based-research undertaking: Immersive Theatre, Documentary Theatre, devised theatre workshops, affect, situational ethics, and performance auto-ethnography. With one Kashmiri theatre company operating as my central collaborator, the first two phases consisted of devised theatre workshops and performances with Civil Society and Ex-Militants in Kashmir. Exploring instances from these projects through thick description, critical analyses, and auto-ethnographic writing, the grey zones of Civil Society in Kashmir are situated as being within acts of aggression that occur between civilians who are differently privileged, while it is Ex-militants who are discovered as occupying a liminal space when studying narratives of militancy in the region. By contrasting these two phases of practice-based research with the third phase of 'failed' attempts to engage with the Indian Armed Forces, this thesis postulates that the grey zones within the experience of government soldiers might only be accessed by making theatre with cadets at military academies. By drawing out the parallels and disjunctures between the manifestations of the three phases of theatre practice, this project offers outcomes that contribute to scholarship around theatrical interventions in times and places of war. The concluding outcomes are framed by one question: if an outside theatre maker were to create one performance piece that contains cross-community narratives from Kashmir, what ethical, pedagogical, and aesthetic considerations might arise as a result. Amongst the strategies that are put forward to answer this question, there are three outcomes that are particularly significant: a re-articulation of grey zones as existing both between and within each of the three groups; the proposal of a process-based spectatorship when utilising novelty in form and content; a re-framing of the discussion around affect and effect by considering artists' intention and spectators' response vis-à-vis a theatrical creation.
Open Access
How to be a superhero: stories of creating a culture of inclusion through theatre
(2021) Jaskolski, Kaitlin Orlena-Kearns; Baxter, Veronica
This thesis investigates the use of Inclusive theatre to disengage the ‘disabled'/ ‘non-disabled' binary for transformation to inclusive cultures. The research extends existing scholarship in Inclusive and applied theatre practices by documenting selected case studies in west and southern Africa. A sociocultural lens defines disability as a social construct, problematizing community reactions, systemic oppression and societal barriers as the disabling force rather than any physical or cognitive impairment. A series of participatory action research projects explore inclusion through an applied theatre praxis and critical/performance ethnography. Progressive pedagogy informs the methods, ethics, and values of each cross-cultural inclusive project. Participants with neurodivergent, or atypical (dis)abilities are contextualized as heroes within the metaphoric framework of the hero's journey as popularized by Joseph Campbell. Campbell's stages are juxtaposed with project workshops and performances to emphasize the universal application of inclusion, and the educational power of storytelling. The primary journey follows the development of Nigeria's premier inclusive theatre company; from drama-as-therapy beginnings to their professional performance of How to be a Superhero: A Guide to Saving the World. Supplementary projects with Hijinx Theatre in Lesotho and the Oasis Association in South Africa provide stories of igniting hidden talents and overcoming the obstacles that create barriers to inclusion in both the arts and society. An enabled dramaturgy details accessibility, authenticity, engagement, transformation, and aesthetics to debate the allies/enemies of inclusive theatre. Each project reveals the boons of adapting practices through considerations of accessibility, accommodations, and modifications. The culminating performances of each project provide evidence that storytelling, building relationships, transforming and engaging participants and audiences through theatre forges empathy, increases representation, and encourages visibility. Psychologist Philip Zimbardo argues that “Heroism can be learned, can be taught, can be modeled, and can be a quality of being to which we all should aspire.” (2011). This research, inspired by Campbell and Zimbardo, argues that inclusion, like heroism, can be learned, taught and modeled through theatre to create a culture of inclusion.
Open Access
"Let's put on our teaching face" : an investigation of teaching styles and their skillsets
(2016) Marrier D'unienville, Krystle; Baxter, Veronica
The following dissertation analyses teaching as a performance and argues that teachers "enrole" or "put on their teaching face" when in front of their learners (Whatman, 1997:182; Dobson, 2005:334). The dissertation investigates the benefit to teachers of learning the skills of an actor such as voice, breathing and relaxation techniques, movement and use of space, presence and mindfulness and improvisation. The research argues that actor training may lead to increased effective communication with an 'audience' of learners in order to transmit and transact information. The research process involved observation and analysis of 14 teachers in government schools in Cape Town, using 'performance' as an analytical framework for a total of 36 hours over the course of a month. Questions around the use of acting and drama training are explored, and ethnographic observation and auto-ethnography are used to further the analysis. Trends and patterns were noted in the field using observational research methods such as video-recordings, field notes and interviews with participants. The writer's position as researcher was adapted from outsider (interpretive ethnography) to insider (autoethnography) due to unforeseen circumstances. Findings included the recognition of the predominant teaching style in schools, namely the transmissive approach, the emphasis on content learning, the lack of self-reflexive practice and acute stress due to the pressures of the job. The difficulties teachers are confronted with in their day to day operations became apparent, resulting in possible disinterest in, and lack of time, for professional development. The researcher's position as reflective practitioner and the ethnographic observations of teachers in schools confirmed and reinforced that teachers would benefit from actor and drama training skills such as voice, movement, improvisations and role-play.
Open Access
Prison a/r/tography: the aesthetic of 'captive' masculinities
(2017) Chinhanu, Chiedza Adelaide; Baxter, Veronica
Contemporary artists have been successful in breaking into prisons and persuading the prison institutions, the general public and prison educators to legitimize artistic activity. However, the discourses on prison theatre have been largely dominated by therapeutic and rehabilitative agendas, possibly at the expense of theatre practice - its aesthetic strategies, and aural and visual qualities. This research comes against such a background. The research project was developed in response to the debates and concerns about artistic work in applied prison theatre. It was located at the borders of what can be articulated about aesthetic intervention 'without purpose' in a prison setting; - without purpose in the sense of eschewing big claims of social and psychological efficacy. Through the practice of a/r/tography, which is a means of inquiry through a method of art making, the research examined what is possible about the work. Of particular interest was the potential to explore possibilities for aesthetic intervention understandings and nuances in prison theatre. Be that as it may, although there was a conscious moving away from the applied umbrella as overtly instrumentalist, it can be argued from the findings that there is a possible tension of falling under the umbrella.
Open Access
Process drama : affecting the second language learning classroom
(2016) Mwange, Sepiso; Baxter, Veronica
This is a practice as research (PAR) study that investigates Process drama as a pedagogical methodology for second language acquisition. The dramas were structured around role play in fictional situations designed to improve the pupils' vocabulary in English, mainly using the strategies of Teacher in Role and Mantle of the Expert. This research demonstrates the effect and affect of placing the pupils in experiential learning environments that empower him/her to be a co-creator of knowledge, as well as the skills needed by the researcher to facilitate this process. The pilot study was designed for implementation over four months, with pupils in second language English classes in grades 2 and 3 (i.e. seven/eight years old). Qualitative research methods were used, including critical and reflexive ethnography, simple questionnaires, and unstructured interviews with teachers and pupils, Teachers' and Visitors' feedback, video recordings and the researcher's journal. The sample of participants was too small to make recommendations, but the study tested the Process Drama method and the techniques of role, Teacher-in-role and Mantle of the Expert. The analysis of the project draws from the theoretical principles applied in other case studies by practitioners in the field, comparing the methods used and their outcomes. As well as the assumption that Process Drama is a good way to teach language because it creates the space for emotion and cognition to co-exist within the learning space.
Open Access
The mediation and facilitation of a ‘living' landscape through the musical arts within the Clanwilliam Arts Project
(2022) Andrews, Brandon Hilton; Sandmeier, Rebekka; Baxter, Veronica
The Clanwilliam Arts Project, situated in Clanwilliam, Western Cape, South Africa, is a community arts initiative that has become a platform for many artists, scholars, and students. Gaining access to the town creates an opportunity to engage with the town's culturally rich history, knowing that the Clanwilliam region is often referred to as an archaeological gem with its archaeological field station housed at the Living Landscape, Park Street. The community arts project has also been known as a training centre for students and artists in community-based arts learning, exposing them to the practice of informing and enriching a community about its heritage. The objective of the study was to investigate the ways in which the mediation and facilitation of a ‘living' landscape took place through the arts with specific emphasis on the musical arts. The rich ancestral history of Clanwilliam, along with its own practices of community-making through the arts, were engaged with the lenses of tradition, culture, and heritage. To accommodate this culturally rich context provided by the Clanwilliam Arts Project, a multidimensional theoretical framework was implemented. The overall theoretical framework consisted of an amalgamation of three ‘theories' by three different authors: • Huib Schippers's Twelve Continuum Transmissions Framework (2010) • Meki Nzewi's principle of space within an African ensemble context (2005) • Sylvia Bruinders's perspective on ‘hidden subjectivities' (2017). For these three theories to form a conceptual whole, an additional theory was introduced to integrated them, namely Harry Garuba's Roots and routes: Tracking form and history in African diasporic narrative and performance (2010). Following a constructivist paradigm, this qualitative study made use of interviews, observations, and biographical questionnaires. The analysis of the qualitative data employed a grounded theory approach that enabled patterns and themes to emerge accordingly. Following the theoretical framework, findings from the review of literature and fieldwork data were used in collaborative form to assist the study's key findings. Analysing the processes involved in facilitating and mediating the ‘living' landscape in community-based learning through the musical arts context has revealed that the Clanwilliam community is to be considered as a peripheral field of learning. Key findings indicated that, with the mediation and facilitation of a ‘living' landscape, communities coexist and cohabituate in this peripheral field of learning when the past is reconnected and/or reimagined with the present.
Open Access
The poetics of planetary theatre: image and bricolage
(2019) Muftic, Sanjin; Baxter, Veronica; Fleishman, Mark
Images are all around us. They serve as a tool of communication, whether transmitted in words, sound or in visual media. An image may simultaneously be a thing placed in front of us and a thing that we create in our minds – a fragment that fleetingly captures our attention and is difficult to articulate. To describe images is to undo them: they are too unstable, fluid, and personal to each of us, yet we constantly exchange them. In this sense, images become migrants as they travel through time, cultures and media; repeating, re-occurring, re-mixing and carrying the baggage of their contexts in their journeys. They contribute to shaping identities and culture in a global intermedial space saturated by media exposure. The central question of this study is how images work to make theatre. I place myself within the postdramatic and intercultural theatre context and consider how one of the tasks of the theatre-maker is to construct and shape images into a performance. Through a focus on several theatre productions, I investigate the features of theatrical images and highlight their usefulness within both the devising and performance stages of theatre-making. In doing so, I develop a poetics to establish an image-driven dramaturgy from rehearsal to performance. This poetics places the body in an intermedial space which constructs itself through the exchange and juxtaposition of images from across the planet. My investigation is guided by two interwoven theories. The first is that of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s (2003a) concept of the planetary, which asserts the necessity of recognizing diverse experiences and perceptions on the planet in order to redefine who we see as the “other”. I utilize her approach by juxtaposing fragments in order to defamiliarize theatrical images. Through the use of fragments, the second theory of bricolage is informed by, amongst others, Claude Lévi-Strauss (1966). I thus seek to identify myself as a bricoleur; someone whose art-making poetics is dependent on using pre-existing material through sampling and montage. These poetics seek to capture my own experience as a migrant, who sees the planet as a rhizome of images and their associations. My project makes the claim that a poetics of the planetary (dramaturgy) is found through the exchange of images drawn from those involved in the creation of an intermedial theatrical event.
Open Access
Theatre of Testimony: An investigation in devising Asylum
(2013) Maedza, Pedzisai; Baxter, Veronica
The use of testimonies in performance is enjoying increased artistic and critical popularity on contemporary world stages and has a long and rich tradition on South African stages. Both internationally and locally, emerging and established playwrights working on migration and refugee issues are seeking to incorporate the testimony of asylum seekers into their work. This necessitates a need to critically reflect on the influences that shape and structure the staging of testimonies. This study argues that increased migration and the mounting number arrivals of asylum seekers on South African shores, has motivated at times violent interaction between host communities and the new arrivals. These incidents have inspired a distinct trend of testimonial performances around the concept of asylum. This dissertation uses Narrative analysis to read examples of contemporary theatre of testimony plays that examine this phenomenon. The study examines how playwright positioning informs the structuring of asylum testimonies on stage in addition to contextualising the ethical and moral complexities the playwright's positionality places on their practice. Through three case studies, the study interrogates how playwright positioning informs notions of authorship, authenticity, truth, theatricality and ethics. The study further investigates the challenges speaking for 'self' and speaking for the 'other' place on testimonial playwrights.
Open Access
Transformative Arts Practices in the Criminal Justice System. The impact of human rights violations on identity amongst those previously incarcerated
(2023) Adams, Nawaal; Baxter, Veronica
This research discusses the impact that human rights violations have on the identity of parolees and ex-offenders. It makes use of the Applied Theatre form, Theatre of the Oppressed (TO), and its practices of Image Theatre and Newspaper Theatre. These practices draw on lived experiences in the form of storytelling and poetry, based on metaphor and its links with reality. The writing in the research is defined as autobiographical fiction or autofiction and becomes performative using TO. The core aim of this research and its process is to rewrite, redefine, or reclaim identity through performative autofiction. It unpacks the human rights violations experienced by the incarcerated, using evidence from various resources including case studies and fieldwork with members of the Second Chance Theatre Project (Cape Town). The research process explored individual identity, relational identity, collective identity, and material identity. This research opens a discussion on the current South African criminal justice system and its failure to uphold ratified policies and programmes. It suggests a discourse that could be delivered through the vocal and physical body.

Browsing by Author "Baxter, Veronica"

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