Inviting entanglements: Researching ‘with/in’ applied theatre companies

Abstract

I encountered a number of methodological and ethical challenges when designing and carrying out my doctoral research. The study involved three applied theatre companies in three different countries. I looked critically with them at issues of concern about managing funding relationships. In this presentation I reflect on the challenge of moving from the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ of this research, to the ‘how’. Drawing on ethnography, applied theatre and organisational research, I unpack my thinking around forming reciprocal research relationships, working across multiple sites and the relationship between research and practice. This presentation was developed into a written article: Mullen, M. (2014). Inviting entanglements: Researching within applied theatre companies. Applied Theatre Research, 2 (1), 33–47. doi: 10.1386/atr.2.1.33_1