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This practice as research inter-disciplinary PhD’s purpose is to create new knowledge in the area of contemporary and naturalistic drama translation. It straddles the fields of Drama, Acting and Translation Studies but inevitably encompasses the fields of social semiotics and linguistics. The methodology used is of a hybrid nature as it consists of a portfolio of work. The work is divided into two major sections. The first comprises the translation of three Hungarian Contemporary plays into English by the author, followed by the thesis and self- reflection. The thesis will claim that it is by the precise use of the proposed mixed methodology and practical approach to drama translation that new knowledge will be contributed to the field of contemporary European naturalistic drama translation. The use of this methodology is novel in the sense that it claims that the act of translating itself is creating new knowledge. This builds on Nelson’s practice as research model is in which the act of translation is the practice. New knowledge will also be generated by the practice, which is the mise-en-scène of two translated plays as well as the analysis of the Hungarian stage source productions. The use of this hybrid methodology results in the creation of new concepts in the field of foreignising drama translation. The thesis part of the portfolio claims that these new concepts will also serve as tools that will aid the work of scholars and drama translators who chose foreignisation and resistance as their translation strategies. These methodologies will challenge prevailing views in Translation Studies of the primacy of the text in translation. It will challenge Susan Bassnett’s view that it is a superhuman task and not the translator’s role to decode sub-textual meaning in the dialogue. The aim of this methodology is to offer new working concepts for the foreignising contemporary drama translator. This thesis and reflective work will claim and defend the view that in order to achieve a foreignised (Venuti 1998, 2008, 2010) drama translation strategy that adheres to the much debated performability criteria, the drama translator needs to become a cultural anthropologist and perform an excavation of the source culture by using the source production as a tool for translation, especially in translating realia. It will also argue that the drama translator needs to expand and go beyond the traditional translation tools and borrow the naturalistic tools of the actor in order to help with translation challenges. The performance case studies will focus on Hungarian contemporary drama but although this new knowledge contribution is transferable to all contemporary naturalistic drama translation, it will be of a particular benefit to the field of contemporary Eastern European drama translation.

The vertical guidance of longwall coal cutting machines (shearers), using a novel method of measuring machine position relative to the coal seam, is considered. Coal is a stratified sedimentary rock made up of horizontal layers of material with different physical properties, in particular hardness. A cutting pick mounted on the periphery of a rotating shearer drum will experience variations in cutting force as it passes through the various layers of the coal. The pattern of forces experienced as the drum rotates will be unique and if the drum is displaced in the vertical sense relative to the seam, then the force pattern will be similarly displaced. Therefore comparison of pick force patterns can form the basis for a drum position measurement system. An experimental trial was conducted to assess the viability of this concept. The results of the trial showed that it was possible to detect and measure changes in the vertical position of a shearer cutting drum, when cutting an artificial 'coal' face. On-line measurement of drum position was used to satisfactorily control a shearing machine. The effects of the pick force data signal to noise ratio, on the accuracy of the measurement system employed was considered by simulation, The minimum signal to noise ratio of data which could be used to give acceptably accurate results was determined. Simulation has been used to compare the operation of a proposed 'pick force' based control system with that of an existing guidance system. The results show the systems perform in a similar manner. The effect of time delay in the measurement of position by pick force analysis, on control was also studied to determine the maximum acceptable lag.