DTS Podcast 2008 Archive
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The Vanya Project
May 19th 2008

Read by Monash staff members and postgraduate students:
- Peter Snow
- Sue Tweg
- Fiona Gregory
- Felix Nobis
- Tamara Searle
- Craig Peade
In pursuit of a series of research questions: Can a live performance and a short film grow from the exact same material? And if they can, what does this require of the writer, director and actors?
DTS Seminar Series: Stuart Grant
28 April 2008
Phenomenology and Performance Studies: With Particular Reference to Group Phenomenology
An overview of group phenomenological enquiry and its potential for application in the study of performance. How the method worked in the Audience group project. Reporting from the investigations of the third year comedy class who have turned their unit into an instance of research as pedagogy.
DTS Seminar Series: Felix Nobis
14 April 2008
Working With Dinosaurs: Narrative Techniques in the Arena Spectacular
Felix Nobis (Monash)
This paper examines some unique performance challenges presented to the narrator / presenter of a 21st century arena spectacular. The paper draws on the experience of narrating the premiere production of “Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience” in Australia and the United States. The paper explores the liminal territory between ‘acting’ and ‘storytelling’, as well as the relationship between single performer and mass audience.
DTS Seminar Series: Amanda Burrell
31st March 2008
Fear in the Academy: an Exploration of Academic Stage Fright
Amanda Burrell (Canberra)
This paper reports on a pilot project exploring the effectiveness of theatre training to reduce stage fright in academics. A self-selected sample of Advertising and Marketing Communication academics were given intensive theatre training by theatre scholar/practitioners. Semi–structured depth interviews which informed the training content, preceded multiple observations. Participants’ lectures were observed (with students present) prior to and after training. Additionally participants were filmed at the start and end of training. One final measure, an electronic survey, was administered six months after training. Participants’ initial felt symptoms matched the description of stage fright from the literature. Final observations showed massive and enduring improvements in entrances, vocal and physical ease and dialogical delivery style. Theatre training can be an effective method to reduce academic stage fright and increase academic confidence and effectiveness in lecture performance.
DTS Seminar Series: Will Peterson
17th March 2008
The Bloodless Head of Longinus: Political Interventions and the Decapitation of the Moriones Tradition in Marinduque
Dr Will Peterson (Monash)
This seminar presentation maps out the political interventions and competing social interests that have altered the Moriones Festival on the island of Marinduque in the Philippines over the last forty years. The three-night sinakulo or passion play and attendant events associated with the festival are known largely for the ways in which they utilise local men donning elaborate masks and wearing costumes meant to resemble Roman centurions. This talk will examine the social forces and multiple and competing political and economic interventions that have shaped and significantly modified this multi-faceted event since the 1960s, with particular attention given to the ways in which the local elite through the power of the provincial government under Governor Carmencita Reyes has used this festival to effectively shore up the country’s existing, highly stratified social and economic order.
Agnes Heller: Comedy Lectures
A series of lectures presented by Professor Agnes Heller for the DTS3700/COM3700 subjects.
- Download Lecture 2 - Three Theories of Comedy (MP3)
- Download Lecture 3 - Laughter (MP3)
- Download Lecture 4 - Jokes (MP3)
- Download Lecture 5 - The Comic Genres (MP3)



