Theatre Project Research Articles

Outlander Theatre Project: Creating a Non-Profit Theatre Based on Presenting Politically, Socially, and Culturally Diverse Stories

This project illustrates the creation of the Outlander Theatre Company and its inaugural production of Twilight: Los Angeles 1992. Specifically, I document the introduction of the Outlander Theatre Company, the process of creating the production, the obstacles present in the process, and finally the plan for the theatre moving forward. Through this experience, I developed a greater understanding of the idea of building a strong foundation of diversity in theatre, often calledd "power equity," and of how it relates to diversity, equity, inclusion, and access in the theatre—all with the ultimate goal of allowing for diverse artists to control the narrative of BIPOC stories being told in theatre today. Finally, I address the statistics of BIPOC theatre professionals in theatre today and how we must address creating true diversity in theatre moving forward.
 

The Return: Research-Based Theater With and for Ex-Military Personnel Experiencing Posttraumatic Stress

This article discusses The Return, a research-based theater project about posttraumatic stress, performed by actors and ex-military personnel. The objective of the project was to address the stigma of mental health in the military and encourage psychological help-seeking in the veteran and military population. The play combined verbatim text and dramaturgical re-authoring of material to explore the lived realities of mental health experiences of posttraumatic stress (PTS) in the military. Part of the ethical entanglements encountered lay in calibrating the risk–safety nexus, specifically in relation to questions of authenticity, narrative structure, decisions relating to casting actors and ex-military personnel, and how to negotiate the performance of a personal story of trauma. The article argues that performance is innately a process governed by “edgework” as much as safety, and therefore part of the ethical entanglement lies in the negotiations between risky aesthetics, “safe” spaces, and frameworks that enable critical vulnerability.

"My Death Was in a Kiss": Theatrical Propaganda Against Sexually Transmitted Infections in the Early Soviet Union and the United States in the 1920s-1930s.

We analyze key historical anti-sexually transmitted infection (STI) theatrical performances in the Soviet Union and the United States that were staged to disseminate knowledge and awareness of STIs among the population. The phenomenon of theatrical hygiene propaganda emerged in the USSR after the October Uprising of 1917. The so-called sanitary plays, mock trials, revues, and Living Newspapers addressed important public health issues, one of which was STIs. The Soviet experience provided inspiration for the Federal Theater Project in the United States, which produced socially relevant performances during the Great Depression. The Living Newspaper Spirochete, staged in Chicago, Illinois, in 1938 at the beginning of the "war against syphilis," became one of the most often staged Living Newspapers in the United States. We compare discourses of the theatrical propaganda against STIs in the Soviet Union and the United States. We aim to explain the driving forces and motives behind the anti-STI movement in both countries and describe structural and performative differences in the anti-STI theatrical productions. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(9):1318-1325. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306933).

“Everyone should get the chance to love”: Sexual health education and disability research-based theatre with self-advocates

Too often, individuals with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) are left out of discussions on romantic relationships and sexuality. However, many individuals with IDD want to become sexually expressive, fulfilled persons who are sexually active, yet they are often denied the sexual health education to support their sexual agency. Given this, we conducted a three-year disability Research-based Theatre (RbT) project in New Westminster, British Columbia to better respond to the needs of individuals with IDD, who refer to themselves as self-advocates—those who speak and act with agency—regarding their sexual agency. The project, entitled Romance, Relationships, and Rights ( RRR), sought to disrupt sexual ableism, and present the lived experiences of self-advocates on stage. Throughout the three phases of RRR, the themes of sexual agency, self-advocacy, and self-determination arose. As an extension of this previous work, we take up these themes in a critical self-study where we reflect on the project across, within, and between each phase by focusing on the implications for sexual health education. We present findings about the impact of creating RRR to engage in a retrospective dialogue across all three phases to offer recommendations for intersectional, accessible, inclusive, and comprehensive sexual health education. Key recommendations include recognizing self-advocates’ rights to self-determination and sexual agency, active involvement, and hands-on approach to sexual health education where accessibility, flexibility, and an awareness of needs are built in to lesson plans and curriculum.

Policy and protocol in Indigenous theatre projects: Hul’q’umi’num’ voices, consensus and relationality

ABSTRACT Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island, including what is known as Canada, have experienced the traumatic effects of colonisation that have deeply impacted the ability to share language and culture with younger generations. While funding and who it is from is an ongoing struggle for many arts-based practitioners, it is particularly problematic in offering ‘solutions’ for Indigenous communities in Canada with the ongoing colonial violence and injustice perpetuated by the government and funding institutions. In this article, a collective of Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors discuss decision-making processes, consensus-based policies, and document the ways performance creation assists these processes through protocol and policy.

The art of growing old: oral history theatre plays a part

ABSTRACT This article reports on an oral history theatre project completed by a Hong Kong professional theatre company which involved more than 200 elders who participated as devising actors in two stage performances, with school students and the wider public as audiences. The study found that older participants in the project were much satisfied with their creative experience as a meaningful process to make sense of their past life – an artistic integration of memories for achieving coherent internal life-history. Using both quantitative questionnaire and qualitative methods, the paper discusses how these elders were mentally, emotionally, socially, and physically transformed through the art form of oral history theatre.

“And So We Write”: Reflective Practice in Ethnotheatre and Devised Theatre Projects

This paper follows the author’s trajectory as he collaboratively experimented with ethnodrama (theatre scripts generated from interviews, media artifacts, and written media) and devised theatre performance (theatre collaboratively created with a group), culminating in the analysis of a performance with high school students combining elements of these forms. The author defines the forms, illuminates how he engaged with them over time, and how he adapted elements of them for work with his high school students. The author proposes a framework deduced from these experiences as a provocation for future performance projects and as a demonstration of an educator’s reflective practice.

Vadim Shershenevich as a translator, librettist and critic in a theatrical dialogue with Shakespeare

The reception of the works of William Shakespeare in the work of the poet and translator Vadim Shershenevich (1893—1942) is considered. The relevance of the study is due to the insufficient study of the reception of Shakespeare’s work in the legacy of Shershenevich. The novelty of the study lies in the reference to the little-known texts by Shershenevich, which are translations and adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays for the early Soviet theater, as well as in understanding the specifics of the perception of these theater projects in the press of the 1920s—1930s. Particular attention is paid to archival documents, which make it possible to recreate in detail the landscape of the literary and theatrical process of that period. It is proved that Shershenevich became the author of adapted texts for three productions based on Shakespeare in pre-war Moscow: «Romeo and Juliet» at the Chamber Theater (1921), «Hamlet» in the version of A. Dumas at the «Romanesque» Theater (1923, work on the performance stopped in rehearsal time), “The Twins” based on the play “Twelfth Night” at the Moscow Operetta Theater (1939). The concept of two translation approaches in the work of V. Shershenevich is proposed: an accurate literary translation (this is how he translates «King John» and «Cymbeline») and an adapted translation for theatrical needs.

Romance, Relationships, and Rights: Ethical Considerations and Dilemmas in a Research-Based Theater Project With Self-Advocate Co-Creators and Actors

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are often excluded from conversations about sexual health; when included, well-meaning researchers and support workers often speak for individuals instead of creating opportunities for their voices to be heard. To support the sexual agency of people with intellectual disabilities, who refer to themselves as self-advocates (SAs), we embarked on a Research-based Theater (RbT) project, Romance, Relationships, and Rights, with the goal to address misconceptions of individuals with IDD and sexuality. Throughout the project, ethical tensions percolated from ableist assumptions about “legal capacity,” consent both on and off stage, and conflicting perspectives on aesthetics. Throughout this article, we discuss these ethical dilemmas and offer recommendations for future work with SAs in co-creating RbT through the lens of disability justice and critical disability studies.

Yarning Up Relations: Enacting a Relational Ethics in Cross-Cultural Research-Based Theater

This is a reflection on The Score, a Research-Based Theater (RbT) project that has just begun, and some emerging ethical entanglements surrounding the work. The Score is a collaboration between First Nations and non-Indigenous artists and researchers, produced by ILBIJERRI Theatre Company—a leading First Nations theater company based in Melbourne, Australia. The goal is to create a community-engaged, participatory model for theater in health education that addresses sexual health for First Nations young people, to be delivered in schools, prisons, community centers and community health settings. Drawing on Indigenous and applied theater research methods, our article situates the discussion of ethics in RbT within the concept of relationality. Through a process of yarning (discussion), we explore the complexity of relations within the project and how relationality infuses all aspects of the project design. We argue that this approach is essential in ensuring respectful, accountable, and decolonial theater-research praxis.

Engagement, Authenticity, and Advocacy in “Youth Uncensored”: Ethics in Applied Theater Research With Street-Involved Youth

“Youth Uncensored” was an applied theater project with youth affiliated with an arts-based, nonprofit organization serving street-involved youth. The organization identified the need to educate service providers about the youth’s experiences to better meet youth’s needs. The youth were involved in all aspects of the process of creating workshops for service providers, from generating content for our scenes to devising, rehearsing, and performing scenes for service provider audiences, and participating in forum theater activations, in talk-back sessions, and in evaluating the project. For an evaluation of outcomes for youth, the youth created a 30-min video exploring the projects’ benefits and challenges. Through a close reading of the video, this article addresses the ethical issues that arose in relation to engagement, authenticity, and advocacy. Our ongoing efforts at negotiating this ethical terrain were crucial for the endurance and efficacy of the project.

Through a Glass Brightly: Generative Ethical Tensions in Research-Based Theatre

This qualitative case study methodically explores ethical tensions that arose in the Research-based Theatre (RbT) project, Alone in the Ring (AitR), as a case. We borrowed Elliot Eisner’s set of tensions in Arts-Based Research (ABR), exploring the extent to which they manifested as ethical tensions in AitR. Following analysis of in-depth interviews with key project members, we identified five areas of ethical tension in AitR, adapting Eisner’s framework to account for the ethical dimensions of the tensions, their generative quality, and their temporal and social dimensions, as they manifested in AitR. Complicating Eisner’s general tensions for ABR, this article advances an adapted, RbT-specific framework with meta-language to reflect on the ethical terrain of RbT using the richness and specificity afforded by a case study. The framework is particularly useful for RbT practitioners seeking to maximize the benefits of RbT for knowledge translation, arts-based inquiry, and community engagement.

Front Cover

Next article FreeFront CoverPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreCover credit: The crowd for Macbeth outside the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem (1936). Federal Theatre Project Collection. Next article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of African American History Volume 107, Number 3Summer 2022 A journal of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/722267 Views: 459Total views on this site © 2022 Association for the Study of African American Life and History. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Introduction. Confronting the Challenges of the 21st Century

Introduction. Confronting the Challenges of the 21st Century

Medieval Ballads in Miniature and Our New Gold: Collaborative Theatre Projects in the Digital Era

Abstract: This article discusses two collaborative theatre projects developed virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions during the 2020–2021 academic year. These projects—Medieval Ballads in Miniature: A Shadow of Myself and Our New Gold—highlight the dynamics of theatrical collaboration outside the traditional performing arts setting or classroom and show how these can be truly synergistic and enriching for academic and non-academic audiences.

Research-Based Theater in Schools: Ethical Challenges, Conundrums, and Choices

This article focuses on the ethical challenges which may arise when a research-based theater (RbT) project is undertaken with students in a school or in another educational setting. It focuses on three case studies where I worked as an RbT practitioner with students in a single-sex boys’ school and Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) in a Master of Teaching program. For over 15 years, I have worked as an RbT practitioner, and I have developed a set of ethical principles pertaining to the writing and the performance of the RbT piece. I discuss in this article that even with such ethical principles in place, unforeseen critical incidents of an ethical nature may arise in an RbT project that may lead the RbT practitioner to reappraise the effectiveness of these principles in their work.

The Pull of Opposing Forces: An Inquiry Into the Ethical Dimensions of an Emergent Research-Based Theatre Project

In this article, the author conducts a retrospective interrogation of the ethical issues embedded in the development (over a 5-year period) of a one-woman play, Goldilocks’ s Testimony, about the accumulation over time of the organizational processes and practices that marginalize women in workplaces. She describes the play’s developmental trajectory, from conception through to the final performance to date as a serendipitous one. In the article, she explores many of the ethical issues that emerged over the course of this trajectory, some of which became apparent only in hindsight. In her exploration, she attends explicitly to the many opposing forces she negotiated over the lifetime of the project.

SpaceDrones 2.0—Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation and Validation for Orbital and Deep Space Computer Vision and Machine Learning Tasking Using Free-Flying Drone Platforms

The proliferation of reusable space vehicles has fundamentally changed how assets are injected into the low earth orbit and beyond, increasing both the reliability and frequency of launches. Consequently, it has led to the rapid development and adoption of new technologies in the aerospace sector, including computer vision (CV), machine learning (ML)/artificial intelligence (AI), and distributed networking. All these technologies are necessary to enable truly autonomous “Human-out-of-the-loop” mission tasking for spaceborne applications as spacecrafts travel further into the solar system and our missions become more ambitious. This paper proposes a novel approach for space-based computer vision sensing and machine learning simulation and validation using synthetically trained models to generate the large amounts of space-based imagery needed to train computer vision models. We also introduce a method of image data augmentation known as domain randomization to enhance machine learning performance in the dynamic domain of spaceborne computer vision to tackle unique space-based challenges such as orientation and lighting variations. These synthetically trained computer vision models then apply that capability for hardware-in-the-loop testing and evaluation via free-flying robotic platforms, thus enabling sensor-based orbital vehicle control, onboard decision making, and mobile manipulation similar to air-bearing table methods. Given the current energy constraints of space vehicles using solar-based power plants, cameras provide an energy-efficient means of situational awareness when compared to active sensing instruments. When coupled with computationally efficient machine learning algorithms and methods, it can enable space systems proficient in classifying, tracking, capturing, and ultimately manipulating objects for orbital/planetary assembly and maintenance (tasks commonly referred to as In-Space Assembly and On-Orbit Servicing). Given the inherent dangers of manned spaceflight/extravehicular activities (EVAs) currently employed to perform spacecraft maintenance and the current limitation of long-duration human spaceflight outside the low earth orbit, space robotics armed with generalized sensing and control and machine learning architecture have a unique automation potential. However, the tools and methodologies required for hardware-in-the-loop simulation, testing, and validation at a large scale and at an affordable price point are in developmental stages. By leveraging a drone’s free-flight maneuvering capability, theater projection technology, synthetically generated orbital and celestial environments, and machine learning, this work strives to build a robust hardware-in-the-loop testing suite. While the focus of the specific computer vision models in this paper is narrowed down to solving visual sensing problems in orbit, this work can very well be extended to solve any problem set that requires a robust onboard computer vision, robotic manipulation, and free-flight capabilities.

Powerlessness as Potential

In this interview piece, the theorist, practitioner and curator Gigi Argyropoulou discusses current forms of political theatre in public spaces that she’s been involved with. She focuses particularly on her work with Eight (Το Οχτώ), the Green Park and the Embros Theatre, all of which are theatre projects situated in central Athens, in Greece. She analyses the dynamics of creating work collectively as a group of practitioners that share similar political and artistic objectives. The interview took place during the Covid pandemic which Argyropoulou discusses in relation to how it has affected her practice and the practice of performance projects she was currently running. Her analysis of the problematics and aspirations of a collective aesthetic in performance-making, discussed in relation to the occupy movement and the future of political performance in public spaces, offers us a sobering yet optimistic view of theatre in times of crisis as well as of the potential of theatre-making in future radical projects of protest, collectivity, and resistance.

“Journey Up Seventh Avenue to Infamy: The Cradle Will Rock”

One historically consequential event of the Federal Theatre Project was the headline-grabbing opening night of Mark Blitzstein’s labor opera The Cradle Will Rock. The deeply satirical work examined greed and corruption, and the Works Progress Administration canceled it for fear it was too politically radical. Director Orson Welles and producer John Houseman felt the stakes were too high to not push back against this censorship and performed it elsewhere that night.