Skip to main content

A Personal Process of Restorying Lived Experience into a Proto-Verbatim Performance

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Theatricalising Narrative Research on Women Casual Academics

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education ((GED))

  • 175 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter discusses specific dramaturgical and theatrical decisions made to transform a proto-verbatim drama based on the lived experience of women casual academics into a piece of theatre. It particularly focuses on how the venue, staging, costuming, visual and sound effects, and direction, were designed to ‘make the everyday strange’ (Waters, Int Rev. Philos 30(2):137, 2011) or to startle the audience out of complacency and comfort.

YouTube videos and photographs of a performance are employed throughout the chapter to demonstrate the artistic characteristics of proto-verbatim theatre; evoke a fully embodied response; and demonstrate that ‘if the research is important enough to engage the audience it will justify the time making the piece effective theatre as well as good research’ (Anderson, NJ Drama Aust J 31(1):79–91, 2007, p. 87).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Anderson, M. (2007). Making Theatre from Data: Lessons for Performance Ethnography from Verbatim Theatre. NJ Drama Australia Journal, 31(1), 79–91. http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;res=AEIPT;dn=168557

  • Arnot, M., & Reay, D. (2007). A Sociology of Pedagogic Voice: Power, Inequality and Pupil Consultation. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 28(3), 311–325. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300701458814

    Google Scholar 

  • Barone, T. E., & Eisner, E. (1997). Arts-Based Educational Research. In R. M. Jaeger (Ed.), Complementary Methods for Research in Education (pp. 72–116). Washington, DC: American Education Research Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boje, D. M. (1995). Stories of the Storytelling Organization: A Postmodern Analysis of Disney as “Tamara-Land”. The Academy of Management Journal, 38(4), 997–1035. https://doi.org/10.2307/256618

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. S. (1990). Acts of Meaning. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cahnmann-Taylor, M. (2007). Arts-Based Approaches to Inquiry in Language Education. In K. King (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of Language Education. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chiari, J. (1971). Landmarks of Contemporary Drama. New York: Gordian Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cixous, H. (1998). Stigmata: Escaping Texts. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cixous, H., & Clement, C. (1986). The newly born woman. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Claycomb, R. M. (2003). (Ch) Oral History: Documentary Theatre, the Communal Subject and Progressive Politics. Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 2, 95–122, https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/jdtc/article/view/3474

  • Connelly, F. M., & Jean Clandinin, D. (2000). Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dening, G. (1996). Performances. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Denzin, N. K. (1997). Performance Texts. In W. G. Tierney & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Representation and the Text: Re-framing the Narrative Voice (pp. 179–217). Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duggan, P. (2013). Others, spectatorship, and the ethics of verbatim performance. New Theatre Quarterly, 29(2), 146–158. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x13000250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisner, E. W. (2008). Art and Knowledge. In J. Gary Knowles & A. L. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research, Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples and Issues (pp. 3–12). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Fleckenstein, K. S. (1996). Images, Words, and Narrative Epistemology. College English, 58(8), 914–933. http://www.jstor.org/stable/378229

  • Fortier, M. (2002). Theory/Theatre: An Introduction. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerrig, R. J. (1993). Experiencing Narrative Worlds: On the Psychological Activities of Reading. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langer, S. K. (1942). Philosophy in a New Key. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langer, S. K. (1962). Philosophical Sketches. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laughlin, K. (1990). Brechtian Theory and American Feminist Theatre. In P. Kleber & C. Visser (Eds.), Reinterpreting Brecht: His Influence on Contemporary Drama and Film (pp. 147–160). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenfant, C. (2003). Clinical Research to Clinical Practice – Lost in Translation? The New England Journal of Medicine, 349(9), 868–874. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa035507

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyddon, W. J., Clay, A. L., & Sparks, C. L. (2001). Metaphor and Change in Counseling. Journal of Counseling and Development, 79(3), 269–274. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2001.tb01971.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyons, C., & Lyons, J. (1994). Anna Deveare Smith: Perspectives on Her Performance Within the Context of Critical Theory. Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 9(1), 43–65. https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/jdtc/issue/archive

  • McCall, M. M. (1993). Not ‘Just’ a Farmer and Not Just a ‘Farm Wife’. Unpublished Performance Script.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mienczakowski, J., Smith, L., & Morgan, S. (2002). Seeing Words – Hearing Feelings: Ethnodrama and the Performance of Data. In C. Bagley & M. B. Cancienne (Eds.), Dancing the Data (pp. 34–52). New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neilsen, L. (2002). Learning from the Liminal: Fiction as Knowledge. Alberta Journal of Education Research, 48(3), 206–214. http://ajer.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ajer/article/viewFile/326/318. Accessed 28 Sept 2017.

  • Phelan, P. (2004). Marina Abramović: Witnessing Shadows. Theatre Journal, 56(4), 569–577. https://doi.org/10.2307/25069529

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinelt, J. (2009). Rethinking Brecht: Deconstruction, Feminism, and the Politics of Form. In M. Silberman (Ed.), The Brecht Yearbook. Madison: The International Brecht Society-University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, L. (2007). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 923–948). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rindfleish, J., Sheridan, A., & Kjeldal, S.-E. (2009). Creating an “Agora” for Storytelling as a Way of Challenging the Gendered Structures of Academia. Equal Opportunities International, 28(6), 486–499. https://doi.org/doi:10.1108/02610150910980783

  • Saldaña, J. (2005). Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theatre (Crossroads in Qualitative Inquiry Series). Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saldaña, J. (2010). The Backstage and Offstage Stories of Ethnodrama: A Review of Ackroyd & O’toole’s Performing Research. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 1(Review 5). http://www.ijea.org/v11r5/

  • Saldaña, J. (2011). Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage (Vol. 3). Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schön, D. A. (1993). Generative Metaphor: A Perspective on Problem-Setting in Social Policy. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought (pp. 135–161). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sikes, P., & Gale, K. (2006). Narrative Approaches to Education Research. Plymouth: Faculty of Education, University of Plymouth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Squiers, A. (2012). The Social and Political Philosophy of Bertolt Brecht. PhD Dissertation, Western Michigan University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stetson, K. (2001). Horse High, Bull Strong, Pig Tight: A Play for One Actor in Two Acts. In B. Barton (Ed.), Marigraph: Gauging the Tides of Drama from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island (pp. 395–423). Toronto: Playwrights Union of Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, J. (2009). Performance Affects: Applied Theatre and the End of Effect. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, Alana. (n.d.). The Tune of the Spoken Voice. http://www.alanavalentine.com/media/australian-writers-guild-magazine.pdf. Accessed 6 Oct 2017.

  • Verdecchia, G. (2006). Blahblahblahblah Mememememe Theatreschmeatre. In S. Grace & J. Wasserman (Eds.), Theatre and Autobiography. Vancouver: TalonBooks.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wake, C. (2013). To witness mimesis: The politics, ethics, and aesthetics of testimonial theatre in through the wire, modern. Drama, 56(1), 102–125. https://doi.org/10.1353/mdr.2013.0009

    Google Scholar 

  • Waters, S. (2011). Political Playwriting: The Art of Thinking in Public. An International Review of Philosophy, 30(2), 137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-011-9100-0

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, L. (2015). Working Together: Collaborative Journeys in Cross-Cultural Research and Performance. In M. Anderson & P. O’Connor (Eds.), Applied Theatre: Research. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Crimmins, G. (2018). A Personal Process of Restorying Lived Experience into a Proto-Verbatim Performance. In: Theatricalising Narrative Research on Women Casual Academics. Palgrave Studies in Gender and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71562-9_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71562-9_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71561-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71562-9

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics