This thesis is an attempt to examine how improvisational humor in central Thai genres of "folk" dance/drama is responsive to performance contexts. Specifically, this issue is examined with reference to the dance/drama genre known as lakhon chatri, in which not only is comic improvisation prominently featured, but, female performers tend to be significantly involved in such comic play—indeed to a greater extent than is often the case in other central Thai "folk" dance/drama genres. Much of the ethnographic research on which this thesis is based was conducted in the central Thai province of Phetchaburi, where it was my intention to examine how improvisational play during lakhon chatri performances might include contextually-specific references to such aspects of local provincial life as well-known political maneuvering and conflicts. During the course of my research, I found that, although more immediate aspects of performance contexts were directly incorporated into comic play in lakhon chatri performances, broader social and political developments tended not to be explicitly referenced. Instead, over the course of observing many performances, I found that there tended to be a substantial degree of repetition to comic set-ups and the broad outlines of joke sequences across multiple performances. I thus began to devote more attention to the way non-improvised, scripted portions of performance effectively channeled comic set-ups and joke sequences along certain broad trajectories from performance to performance. I also took note of the way speech and mannerisms applied by performers during comic improvisation contrasted with the formalized speech and movement that characterized non-improvised, scripted portions of performances. Based on a combination of interviews and my observations of performances, I came to the conclusion that comic improvisation in lakhon chatri (and other central Thai "folk" dance/drama genres) entails a re-contextualization of formal non-improvised speech and movement through exaggerated types of speech and movement associated with modes of "everyday" social performativity. In turn, these modes of performativity tend to have strong class and gender-specific links.
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