Out at School: Imagining a Slow Ethic of Care in Research-Based Theater

Abstract

This article invites us to reconsider how we engage in ethical tensions and decision-making with the stories we are gifted as artist-researchers. Using a verbatim theater piece titled Out at School, we explore three moments of discomfort and growth that moved our collective approach toward a slow ethic of care. Within three ethical moments of dissonance, we investigate how to navigate a slow ethic of care in a project that is iterative and constantly shifting within and against our social and political world. By moving away from the desire for resolution, we argue for a process that understands the need to sit within ethical tensions as a way to commit to an ongoing slow ethic of care. We discuss our process, production, and performance as an invitation to critically reflect on ethical practices in research-based theater and reimagine ways to call in and move forward.