Wits School of Arts (ETDs)

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A pandemic shakes our pedagogy: Attempts to honour the integrity of a South African tertiary institution’s Applied Drama and Theatre curriculum in online learning platforms as a result of COVID-19
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Mokoena, Moratoa Trinity; Janse van Vuuren, Petro
A pandemic shook our pedagogy. The arrival of COVID-19 changed the face of higher education in South Africa and in many parts of the world. As an Applied Drama and Theatre department whose work is predominantly embodied and experiential, we were faced with the question: How do we migrate our kind of work online and honour its fundamental objectives? A characteristic Applied Drama and Theatre practice is embedded in principles of participation and collaboration, reflection through praxis and immersion in social contexts. All of these are largely experienced with physically present bodies in a common space for the purposes of social transformation and education. Due to the pandemic, the effects of the digital divide were rapidly exposed and its limitations on access, connectivity and synchronicity delayed the progress of teaching and learning. Can we honour the integrity of the complete Applied Drama and Theatre pedagogy online and remotely, especially when the digital divide impacts connection with students and the marginalised communities that the pedagogy is suited for? While we acknowledged that digitising our educational practices had become a progressive necessity, would online learning alone be sufficient for the teaching and learning of embodied curricula? Through ethnographic case study and as teaching assistant, I observed University of the Witwatersrand’s Drama for Life department and their Applied Drama and Theatre educators during their encounter of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown periods of 2020 and 2021. By use of interviews, field notes and documentation, this study inquired how we reacted to the pandemic and its anticipated implications on the pedagogy and the academic programme. Furthermore, I established the evident threats that online learning poses to the pedagogy and investigated the disconcerting effects of the digital divide on student access and content delivery. Central to the study is the exploration of these educators’ practical strategies and collective approaches in maintaining the integrity of the Applied Drama and Theatre pedagogy. Through a journey of trial and error, the department and its educators were tasked to re-envision the pedagogy and negotiate appropriate multimodal online modes of delivery, in efforts to save the academic programme and achieve its pedagogical intentions. Even though the data and literature demonstrate the possibilities of migrating similar pedagogies online, remote learning has certainly compromised the practical and physical demands of a conventional Applied Drama and Theatre experience. Additionally, even though the theoretical components could be negotiated online, the findings highlighted that the pedagogical objectives as a whole were fragmented. Thus, in the case of the professionalisation of students and the provision of the full Applied Drama and Theatre pedagogy – the educators’ efforts fell short. The pedagogy, though shaken, still stands. The study concludes that the pedagogy is highly dependent on uninterrupted physical presence and even if the digital divide is managed its integrity remains tainted without connection. The findings emphasise that we cannot do away with contact teaching post-pandemic and any idea of a pedagogical utopia requires a carefully negotiated balance of appropriately designed online and offline approaches. The discussions and findings in this study do not only impact the Applied Drama and Theatre fraternity, departments and practitioners alike, but also shed light on the available possibilities for other multidimensional pedagogies. Institutions are encouraged to take the full repertoire of the pedagogy into account when designing their Learning Management Systems, to provide adequate support for staff and student training and their digital affordances. Moreover, it is noteworthy to address the feasibility and equity of online learning within a particular South African context as a whole.
A transpersonal approach to drama therapy techniques for embodied grief work with women who experience loss and distress from an abortion
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Brollo, Gillian Susan; Pankhurst, Margie
Abortion as a lived experience is not often explored in research or therapy, particularly when women are distressed as a result of an abortion. This research addresses the scarcity of such explorations through developing and testing a workshop model based on transpersonal drama therapy in order to examine how women who are distressed after an abortion express and manage their experience, and also how women can integrate an abortion into their life story in order to find healing. The two key questions are concerned with firstly, how embodied activities can bring unconscious feelings to the surface, and secondly how narrative can work to integrate a distressing experience into a life story so that its emotional impact is managed and the individual finds ways to move forward from the traumatic event. Chapter One is an introduction to the context, one in which women who experience a sense of loss or grief after an abortion find few places for support, healing and most importantly, for expressions of distress. The introduction touches briefly on the hyper-politicised nature of abortion as a phenomenon and how difficult it is to communicate nuance within such a polarised context. Chapter Two is a description of the theoretical framework of the transpersonal approach which also serves a literature review. The literature drawn on includes models of drama therapy, griefwork, embodied grief activities such as rituals, transpersonal philosophies which present a world where the material and the immaterial are connected and draws these theories together within an Afrocentric paradigm. Chapter Three describes the methodology and explains how the workshop was designed and its aims. Chapters Four and Five are concerned with how data was obtained and a data analysis and discussion flowing from that analysis. The final chapter looks at findings including a deep sense of relief and healing in being offered a space to explore their personal experiences of abortion, and in the affirmation iv provided by witnessing other women’s stories and telling of their own; and recommendations for future research such as trying the model with a rural cohort, and extending the process in combining individual and group work in order to dive deeper into individual stories.
A transpersonal approach to drama therapy techniques for embodied grief work with women who experience loss and distress from an abortion.
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Brollo, Gillian Susan; Pankhurst, Margie
Abortion as a lived experience is not often explored in research or therapy, particularly when women are distressed as a result of an abortion. This research addresses the scarcity of such explorations through developing and testing a workshop model based on transpersonal drama therapy in order to examine how women who are distressed after an abortion express and manage their experience, and also how women can integrate an abortion into their life story in order to find healing. The two key questions are concerned with firstly, how embodied activities can bring unconscious feelings to the surface, and secondly how narrative can work to integrate a distressing experience into a life story so that its emotional impact is managed and the individual finds ways to move forward from the traumatic event. Chapter One is an introduction to the context, one in which women who experience a sense of loss or grief after an abortion find few places for support, healing and most importantly, for expressions of distress. The introduction touches briefly on the hyper-politicised nature of abortion as a phenomenon and how difficult it is to communicate nuance within such a polarised context. Chapter Two is a description of the theoretical framework of the transpersonal approach which also serves a literature review. The literature drawn on includes models of drama therapy, griefwork, embodied grief activities such as rituals, transpersonal philosophies which present a world where the material and the immaterial are connected and draws these theories together within an Afrocentric paradigm. Chapter Three describes the methodology and explains how the workshop was designed and its aims. Chapters Four and Five are concerned with how data was obtained and a data analysis and discussion flowing from that analysis. The final chapter looks at findings including a deep sense of relief and healing in being offered a space to explore their personal experiences of abortion, and in the affirmation provided by witnessing other women’s stories and telling of their own; and recommendations for future research such as trying the model with a rural cohort, and extending the process in combining individual and group work in order to dive deeper into individual stories.
Catch and release: A Practice-based analysis using interviews from healthcare workers, to explore the impact on self-care, using 5 Drama Therapy core principles and practices.
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) ADLAM, ANTONE; Thibedi, Linda (Mdena)
This is a Practice-based Research study analysing the impact of five core principles from Phil Jones’s nine core principles in drama therapy. Data was collected from interviews with healthcare workers within a private hospital in Johannesburg. This research aimed to find the most suitable core principle for each interviewee, in order for them to practice self-care in an explorative and creative manner. While the research identified the importance of drama therapy and the core processes used within the researcher's rehearsals and solo performance based on the answers from interviews with the healthcare workers, the researcher identified the unique approaches and impact drama therapy holds to practice self-care. The integration of the core principles (as named by Jones, 1996) are embodiment, play, dramatic projection, interactive audience and witnessing, as well as drama therapeutic empathy and distancing.
The affordances of Narradrama as a tool for psychological adjustment among Traumatic Brain Injury survivors in South Africa
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024-03) Bekker, Jané-Desire; Clarke, Lucy Draper
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an acquired disability that can easily be overlooked, and there is a need for innovative, accessible and more effective therapeutic models for neuropsychological rehabilitation in the South African context. This practice-based research aimed to explore how Narradrama may assist TBI survivors in identifying and adjusting psychologically to their own identity, exploring ways to expand this identity and uncovering the affordances of familial witnessing. The practical application was conducted with a group of six to twelve adult TBI survivors in Johannesburg more than three years after their injury. Data was collected from interviews, six Narradrama sessions, and creative expressions made by participants. The findings in this study document two case studies and determined four sub-categories of witnessing that made an impact. Interpretative phenomenological analysis revealed the main themes of shame to empathy and disconnection to connection. For this sample group, a Narradrama approach proved effective for psychological adjustment to changes in identity and provided ways to expand confidence, meaning, agency and a sense of belonging.
The Body Navigated Through Moments of Abstraction
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Lopatecki, Diana; Williams, Joshua
My research explores how bodily trauma and the power dynamic between doctor and patient influences the relationship that an individual has with their body. I investigate bodily trauma such as physical injury or an accident that takes place and results in harm done to one’s body, as well as how a patient becomes vulnerable under the gaze of medical professionals. These moments of bodily trauma and the interactions between doctor and patient abstract one’s understanding of their physical body. By examining the writers and artists that work in this field of interest, as well as the globally recognised standard medical textbooks, my research and my practice aims to explore these moments of abjection that are experienced as well as the shift that takes place within an individual when they are altered from subject to object. I engage with these notions further in my practice through sculptural works/ installations that investigate the manner in which we look at and into the body, particularly with regards to physical injury.

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