Browsing by Author "Van der Walt, Tanya Lenore."

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Co-directing, co-creating, collaborating: a self-‐reflexive study of my collaborative theatre-making practice.
(2018) Van der Walt, Tanya Lenore.; Singh, Lorraine Pushpam.
One of the first things any Drama or Theatre student learns is the maxim ‘Theatre is a collaborative art’. However, the question of what it means to be truly collaborative in one’s approach, the range of different types of collaboration, and the deep seated workings of the collaborative act, are rarely discussed in considering the art of theatre-‐making. This study uses self-‐study methodologies to examine my own practice of collaborative theatre-‐making, in order to gain a greater understanding of the educational implications of my work as director, theatre-‐maker, and educator. In so doing, I reflect on my own long-‐term, scholarly, creative, and pedagogical partnership, by examining our co-‐created work, the FrontLines Project, as the focal case-‐study of this thesis. Section 1 answers the question “How do I enact my collaborative theatre-‐making practice? (with specific reference to the FrontLines Project), through a discussion of theories and practices of devising theatre, and a detailed analysis of the making of the FrontLines Project. Section 2 considers the question “Who am I as a collaborator?”. I engage with theoretical understandings of collaboration, and creative collaboration, and excavate my own practice as a collaborative theatre-‐maker, identifying a series of ‘selves’ at work in my practice. Section 3 asks “How does my practice of collaborative theatre-‐making create a space for teaching and learning? Why?”. I identify ten different types of teaching and learning which can be identified in the FrontLines Project. Then, I posit a theoretical understanding of why this teaching and learning took place in the project, using a Vygotskian model. In so doing, I conceive of my collaborative theatre-‐making practice as a complex Zone of Proximal Development, in which we can grow and develop as collaborators and co-‐constructors of meaning, as both knower and learner, teacher and student, leader and follower, more capable peer and less capable peer, thinker and doer. In this way the process of collaborative theatre-‐making becomes a developmental process in which affective skills, critical thinking skills, communication skills, creative skills, and cognitive skills are grown and expanded.
Creative Shakespeare : exploring a creative pedagogy for teaching The Merchant of Venice at Grove End Secondary school within their English home language learning area.
(2013) Moodley, Derosha.; Meskin, Tamar.; Van der Walt, Tanya Lenore.
This dissertation is an investigation of a creative pedagogical approach formulated to teach the Shakespearean play in a KwaZulu-Natal public high school, namely Grove End Secondary in Phoenix, Durban. The study explores how my formulated creative pedagogy for teaching The Merchant of Venice (1980) functions as an alternate creative teaching methodology to the current pedagogical approach, namely the text-based approach, which appears not to acknowledge the performative element inherent within Shakespearean plays. This study argues that through creative learning processes such as drama in education, creative drama, experiential learning, group dynamics and playmaking, learners can engage the performative aspect within the plays. The study also argues that creative learning processes can diminish the apprehension with which learners currently approach Shakespearean play study, since creative processes stimulate the learners’ imaginative ideas, as opposed to the educator-centered text-based approach, which requires little or no input from the learners during the learning process. Through the implementation of the creative pedagogy with eighteen learners from Grove End Secondary, the research aimed firstly, to evoke a positive attitude change from learners towards Shakespearean play study and secondly, to guide the learners towards a better understanding of the Shakespearean play narrative and Shakespearean language. The research was conducted through classroom action research. Research methods included data collection of journals, surveys, and questionnaires that were analysed throughout the course of the case study. Outcomes of the continuous data analysis reflected upon during the case study resulted in the adaptation of the creative pedagogy to suit the learners’ needs. The qualitative nature of this research led to findings which reveal that the creative pedagogy is an effective methodology for teaching Shakespearean plays, but is problematic when trying to integrate the educational aims of the creative pedagogy, with the constraints and structures of the current curriculum and public school system. The research also produces data which can benefit future inquiry into the creative teaching of Shakespearean plays in KwaZulu-Natal public high schools.