Research-based Theatre Research Articles

Research-based Theatre about veterans transitioning home: A mixed-methods evaluation of audience impacts

RationaleContact!Unload, a research-based theatre production, portrays veterans experiencing mental health challenges and overcoming them through therapeutic enactment. It was performed eight times by veteran performers in 2017 for audiences in two Canadian cities comprised of civilians and military-connected personnel and their families (n = 525). MethodsDrawing upon qualitative and quantitative data sources, this paper evaluates the immediate and longer-term impacts of Contact!Unload as a knowledge translation intervention for audience members. ResultsOur findings suggest that the performance: 1) improved knowledge of mental health concerns and symptoms that some veterans experience when transitioning to civilian life, 2) increased knowledge of the need for mental health supports and care for veterans, 3) sustained impacts on awareness and knowledge six months after the play and 4) sparked dialogue and actions after the show for some audience members. Moreover, theatre was seen as a powerful medium to engage audience members both cognitively and affectively in the topic. ConclusionsResearch-based theatre has significant potential as a knowledge translation intervention for mental health topics. The work also points to the untapped potential of using RbT to engage audience members in a mental health literacy intervention. Future work is needed to study how to effectively combine research-based theatre with intervention design frameworks and other mental health literacy interventions.

Research-based theatre across disciplines: A relational approach to inquiry

Research-based theatre (RbT) is an innovative research methodology that draws on theatre practices and conventions to engage in and share research. It is an inherently collaborative and relational methodology, inviting research participants, artists and researchers to take part in embodied data generation, analysis and knowledge-exchange activities. This methodology encompasses writing, rehearsing and performing a research-based monologue, scene or play. In this article, the authors share three recent examples from interdisciplinary projects where researchers and artists engaged with different communities to dramatize data using an RbT methodological approach. To add to literature in the field, the authors consider their experiences leading RbT projects in three disparate fields: theatrical, social and therapeutic. The authors explore the question of how RbT transforms relationships and how relationships transform RbT.

George Belliveau, Graham W. Lea, and Marv Westwood, eds., Contact! Unload: Military Veterans, Trauma, and Research-Based Theatre

George Belliveau, Graham W. Lea, and Marv Westwood, eds., <i>Contact! Unload: Military Veterans, Trauma, and Research-Based Theatre</i>

Ethics in Research-based theatre: Stories from the field

Ethics in Research-based theatre: Stories from the field

An interactive ethnographic performance: using research-based theatre and drama pedagogy to enhance meaning making

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the application and efficacy of performance ethnography designed for adult professional learning. An ethnographic performance related to women in research leadership was constructed and performed in an executive tertiary leadership programme and the responses from the female audience/participants were investigated. The study defines a form of research-based theatre: interactive ethnographic performance where an ethnographic performance text is intersected by drama pedagogy designed to enhance the learning experience. It found that this model of interactive ethnographic performance applied to professional learning provides opportunities for deep engagement and critical reflection and offers a site for powerful collective learning.

Practice what you preach: research-based theatre as a method to investigate drama teacher professional identity

ABSTRACTTeachers’ perceptions of their own professional identity affect their efficacy and professional development, as well as their ability and willingness to cope with educational change and implement innovations in their own teaching practice. Despite this, few opportunities are provided that engage teachers in developing an understanding of their professional selves. In this paper, we present two cases of using research-based theatre as a way to understand and develop teachers’ sense of professional identity. A performative inquiry yields insights into the influences on teachers’ professional identities. Engaging in identity work through a teacher’s craft can result in shifts in perspective that positively impact future practice. We conclude that drama teachers ‘practicing what they preach’ by engaging in embodied reflections enhances agency and autonomy. Our findings demonstrate the benefits to all teachers engaging in embodied reflective work to better understand their own professional identities and harness their professional potential.

"Research Usually Sits on Shelves, Through the Play It Was Shared." Co-producing Knowledge Through Post-show Discussions of Research-Based Theatre.

This is a critical analysis of the co-production of knowledge on health care with members of the public attending two research-based plays that were followed by post-show discussions with expert panelists. Passing On was developed from the findings of a qualitative research study of family decision making toward the end of life. Cracked explored help seeking pathways for young people experiencing psychosis in families of different ethnicities developed from a research study on this topic. The analysis provides critical reflections on the immediate, post-performance impact of research-based Theatre as a strategy to encourage the co-production of knowledge beyond delivery of the performance itself. The plays were developed through partnership working from interview transcripts and joint workshops engaging academics, users and Theatre practitioners (writers, director, actors). Post-show discussions with expert panels were held after each performance to widen participation of the public in the co-production of knowledge to enhance the impact of completed research and stimulate debate. These discussions were recorded and the audience were asked to complete post-show feedback forms. Audience members were researchers, service providers, service users, and carers. This is an analysis of the co-production of knowledge using the feedback forms and transcripts of the post-show discussions. The analysis showed evidence of impact and co-production of knowledge through dialogues that occurred between the audience members, the members of the panel, and the audience and the panel. The discussions covered policy and practice, personal experiences, and Theatre making. The post-show discussions led the public to critically discuss issues with the panel and other audience members thus widening participation in the co-production of knowledge. The feedback forms gave information on the audience demographics and the immediate impact of the performances. Research-based Theatre with post-show discussions and evaluation forms is a strategy for widening participation and engagement with health research findings, through the co-production of knowledge on complex health issues.

I'm So Glad I Came, but I Can't Wait to Leave

Can a theatre play provide actors and audiences with a feeling of being at home? This article is an autoethnographic work that addresses how the author finds, in his work directing the research-based theatre play Heavier than Air devised by Anne Harris and Stacy Holman Jones, a self-identification with its queer characters. Describing it as a play that explicitly and implicitly welcomes people to be queer and to tell their stories, the author analyzes how the play also symbolizes the free movement of people and the quest for home.

Health advocacy training through research-based theatre.

Health advocacy training through research-based theatre.

Community Stories and Growth Through Research-Based Theatre

Community members and staff at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Learning Exchange collectively created a theatre piece, based on stories from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), entitled Voices UP! This article examines the impact this project had on four DTES community members who took part in the collective creation process. The results are presented as both a thematic analysis and a short play script, entitled Give Me Your Hands. Give Me Your Hands is a play about making a play, illustrating the shared and individual learning experiences of those who took part in a community-based collaborative theatre process.

Staging Therapeutic Enactment with Veterans in Contact!Unload

ABSTRACT This article shares an excerpt from the research-based theatre production Contact!Unload. The play, developed with military veterans using community theatre approaches, explores experiences of veterans transitioning from active service and living with trauma-related stress injuries. The excerpt included in this article provides a theatricalized example of therapeutic enactment (TE), a central intervention of the Veterans’ Transition Project (VTP). After contextualizing both TE and VTP, the script provides a visceral example of one veteran’s experiences both in service and in a TE. This article provides an example of using TE with veterans living with traumatic stress injuries and, in doing so, demonstrates the potential of research-based theatre as a methodology for engaging in and sharing psychological research.

How research-based theatre is a solution for community engagement and advocacy at regional medical campuses: The Health and Equity through Advocacy, Research, and Theatre (HEART) program

Regional medical campuses are often located in geographic regions that have different populations than the main campus, and are well-positioned to advocate for the health needs of their local community to promote social accountability within the medical school. At the Niagara Regional Campus of McMaster University, medical students developed a framework which combined research, advocacy, and theatre to advocate for the needs of the local population of the regional campus to which they were assigned. This involved a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with homeless individuals to explore their experience accessing the healthcare system and using a transformative framework to identify barriers to receiving quality healthcare services. Findings from the qualitative study informed a play script that presented the experiences of homeless individuals in the local health system, which was presented to health sciences learners and practicing health professionals. Participants completed two instruments to examine the utility of this framework. Research-based theatre was a useful intervention to educate current and future health professionals about the challenges faced by homeless individuals in the region. Participants from both shows felt the framework of research-based theatre was an effective strategy to promote change and advocate for marginalized populations. Research-based theatre is an innovative approach which can be utilized to promote social accountability at regional medical campuses, advocating for the health needs of the communities in which they are located, with the added bonus of educating current and future health professionals.

Beyond Text: the co-creation of dramatised character and iStory

Purpose In exploring the impact of reflective and work applied approaches, the authors are curious how vivid new insights and collective “Eureka” momentums occur. These momentums can be forces for work communities to gain competitive advantages. However, the authors know little of how learning is actively involved in the processing of creating new insights and how such a turning to learning mode (Pässilä and Owens, 2016) can be facilitated. In the light of cultural studies and art education, the purpose of this paper is to explore how the method of dramatising characters (DC) in a specific innovation culture can be facilitated. In this viewpoint, the authors are suggesting one approach for this type of turning to learning which the authors call Beyond Text, outlining its theoretical underpinnings, its co-creative development and its application. Design/methodology/approach In this Beyond Text context, the authors are introducing the method of DC and the method of iStory both of which are the authors’ own design based on the theory of the four existing categories of a research-based theatre. Findings The findings of this viewpoint paper are that both iStory as well as DC methods are useful and practical learning facilitation processes and platforms that can be adopted for use in organisations for promoting reflexivity. Especially they can act as a bridge between various forms of knowing and consummate the other knowledge types (experiential, practical and propositional) in a way that advances practice-based innovation. Originality/value The originality and value of iStory and DC is that they can be utilised as dialogical evaluation methods when traditional evaluation strategies and pre-determined indicators are unusable.

Theatre with veterans: Transition and recovery

Abstract This article shares research from an initiative where researchers in counselling psychology and theatre education collaborated with military veterans to produce the play Contact!Unload. Researchers and community members participated with returning veterans in a series of drama-based workshops that led to the production. The collective process was an expressive vehicle for military men to publicly reinterpret their struggles and experiences of transitioning from active service overseas to civilian life in ways that build resilience. The article offers insights on how researchbased theatre as a methodological approach invites researchers to artistically present their understandings in a performative manner.

Transforming research into art: the making and staging of My English Tongue, My Irish Heart, a research-based drama about the Irish in Britain

This article explores the use of research-based theatre as an alternative mode of research representation and audience engagement in the field of Irish migration studies. Although theatre-based methods of research inquiry and presentation have attracted growing academic interest in recent decades, there are few examples of research-based projects that originate in literary or historical research, and fewer still that have resulted in full-scale theatrical productions. My English Tongue, My Irish Heart is one such work, a play that purposefully seeks to expand the public reach of research outward from universities into the communities that were originally studied. The first part of the article outlines the play’s origins and development; the second explores the chief conceptual and artistic challenges that arose during its creation; and the third presents a critical evaluation of the play’s reception, drawing on audience feedback data collected during its month-long tour of Ireland and the UK in May 2015.

Evaluation of the impact on audiences of Inside Out of Mind, research-based theatre for dementia carers

Background: A play about dementia care was taken on tour, funded by the Big Lottery through Arts Council England, to six cities. This paper explores its impact, mainly on professional carers.Methods: Mixed methods were applied; semi-structured self-completion questionnaires and subsequent telephone interviews to a stratified sample of respondents. Framework analysis was used, paying particular attention to critical comments.Results: Post-show questionnaires were submitted by 1035 (19%) and 64 people were later interviewed. Audience members expressed heightened awareness of the needs of people with dementia, with greater appreciation of the care process itself and of the challenges faced by professional dementia carers in hospitals and other long-term settings.Conclusions: This production of Inside Out of Mind afforded an effective medium for knowledge transfer. It engaged audiences with key issues – including dignity, identity and loss – and enabled them to reflect on these issues, while encouraging appropriate practical responses.

A short report on knowledge exchange through research-based theatre: ‘Inside out of mind’

The short report describes the development from page to stage of a work of theatre based on an ethnographic study. The originating research focused on the work of health care assistants (nurse's aides) whose direct impact on the quality of life of highly dependent people is often overlooked. The research followed hospital personnel on wards specialising in the 'challenging behaviour' associated with dementia in central England. Conventional research outputs failed to engage the health care assistants themselves, so we turned to theatre to remedy this. The development of the field notes into theatre was characterised by the artistic freedom given to the playwright, in contrast to more data-led approaches to theatre making. The account of the process of creating the play, Inside Out of Mind, is followed a description of how the work was received by specialist and general audiences totalling 2000+. The discussion seeks to locate the whole enterprise in relation to the field of research-based theatre and explores how the production and its associated learning events relate to definitions of research-based theatre in the light of recent attempts to encapsulate this broad and diverse methodology.

Six perspectives in search of an ethical solution: utilising a moral imperative with a multiple ethics paradigm to guide research-based theatre/applied theatre

Throughout the International Drama in Education Research Institute (IDIERI) 2012 conference, practitioners in keynotes, presentations and workshops mentioned ethical dilemmas that arose in their work; wondering at times if they did the ‘right’ thing. By addressing a moral imperative, practitioners can start to identify common ethical dilemmas and questions within applied theatre generally and research-based theatre specifically. Applied theatre, in which theatre is used for extra-theatrical purposes, and research-based theatre, which is a hybrid of theatre and research practices, transcend traditional boundaries of one discipline. A moral imperative which is not prescriptive, but serves to frame issues and situations from different perspectives can highlight the borders of one perspective and how it may create tensions within other ethical stances. By identifying these different frames of references, practices can be interpreted and translated throughout social, psychological, political and/or cultural settings. In 2010/2011, seeking a moral imperative to guide my work in research-based theatre, I surveyed six applied theatre practitioners deemed leaders in the field, namely Johnny Saldana, Jim Mienczakowski, Kathleen Gallagher, Tim Prentki, Anthony Jackson and James Thompson. In this article, I address the moral imperative each suggested and link it to an ethical perspective identified in a multiple ethics paradigm model. Shapiro and Gross highlight four ethics: justice (dealing with laws, rights and policies), critique (challenging the status quo, and questioning oppression and social inequities), care (focusing on supportive and nurturing relationships) and profession (setting a high moral standard and code for a specific vocation). In addition, Branson adds a fifth ethic to Shapiro and Gross's model: moral integrity (challenging ethical leaders to consciously analyse, judge and determine why they choose a particular ethic and course of action). I then put forward a synergised moral imperative which may help theatre-based researchers in particular, and applied theatre practitioners in general, to think about ethical issues in a comprehensive manner to support their own ethical practice and further discussions towards new ethical paradigms in the field.

Translating research findings into community based theatre: More than a dead man's wife

Increasingly, qualitative scholars in health and social sciences are turning to innovative strategies as a way of translating research findings into informative, accessible and enjoyable forms for the community. The aim of this article is to describe how the research findings of a doctoral thesis – a narrative study about 58 older women's experiences of widowhood – were translated into a unique and professionally developed script to form the basis for a successful theatrical production that has travelled extensively within Australia. This article reports on the process of collaboration between a researcher, a highly regarded Australian actor/script writer and an ensemble of well-known and experienced professional actors. Together the collaborating partners translated the research data and findings about growing older and ‘widowhood’ into a high quality theatre production. In particular, we argue in this paper that research-based theatre is an appropriate medium for communicating research findings about important life issues of concern to older people in a safe, affirming and entertaining manner. By outlining the process of translating research findings into theatre we hope to show that there is a real value in this translation approach for both researcher and audience alike.

Collective voicing as a reflexive practice

This article focuses on the co-construction of a reflexive practice in a public health-care organisation. We study how the reflexive methods of applied drama and theatre facilitate ‘collective voicing’, specifically in the context of dental health-care professionals’ reflections on their own practices in perplexed situations. Our emphasis is on research-based theatre as a way by which the employees of an organisation can become more reflexive in their relationship with customers. This study makes use of the research-based theatre approach, illustrating how various voices – even those of young customers – are expressed, heard and discussed in order to interpret the status quo of perplexed situations and relationships and to imagine possible choices for disentangling the perplexity. Our study demonstrates the value of post-Boalian applied drama and theatre practices and presents a path for collective voicing as a learning process enabling reflexive practice in organisations.