Drama Research Methods: Provocations of Practice [1 ed.] 9789004389571, 9789004389564

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Drama Research Methods

Bold Visions in Educational Research Series Editors Kenneth Tobin (The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA) Carolyne Ali-Khan (College of Education & Human Services, University of North Florida, USA) Co-founding Editor Joe Kincheloe (with Kenneth Tobin) Editorial Board Daniel L. Dinsmore (University of North Florida, USA) Barry Down (School of Education, Murdoch University, Australia) Gene Fellner (College of Staten Island, City University of New York, USA) L. Earle Reybold (College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University, USA) Stephen Ritchie (School of Education, Murdoch University, Australia)

VOLUME 62

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bver

Drama Research Methods Provocations of Practice Edited by

Peter Duffy, Christine Hatton and Richard Sallis

අൾංൽൾඇ_ൻඈඌඍඈඇ

All chapters in this book have undergone peer review. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 1DPHV'X൵\3HWHUHGLWRU_+DWWRQ&KULVWLQHHGLWRU_ 6DOOLV5LFKDUGHGLWRU Title: Drama research methods : provocations of practice / edited by Peter 'X൵\&KULVWLQH+DWWRQDQG5LFKDUG6DOOLV 'HVFULSWLRQ/HLGHQ%RVWRQ%ULOO6HQVH>@_6HULHV%ROGYLVLRQVLQ HGXFDWLRQDOUHVHDUFKYROXPH_,QFOXGHVELEOLRJUDSKLFDOUHIHUHQFHV ,GHQWL¿HUV/&&1SULQW _/&&1HERRN _,6%1 (ERRN _,6%1SENDONSDSHU _,6%1 KDUGEDFNDONSDSHU Subjects: LCSH: Theater--Research. &ODVVL¿FDWLRQ/&&31HERRN _/&&31'SULQW _''& GF /&UHFRUGDYDLODEOHDWKWWSVOFFQORFJRY ,661 ,6%1SDSHUEDFN ,6%1KDUGEDFN ,6%1HERRN &RS\ULJKWE\.RQLQNOLMNH%ULOO19/HLGHQ7KH1HWKHUODQGV Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, %ULOO1LMKR൵%ULOO5RGRSL%ULOO6HQVH+RWHL3XEOLVKLQJPHQWLV9HUODJ Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The &RS\ULJKW&OHDUDQFH&HQWHU5RVHZRRG'ULYH6XLWH'DQYHUV0$ USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

CONTENTS

Foreword: The Both/And of Performance Research Anne M. Harris

vii

Notes on Contributors

xi

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Part 1: Provocations of Design  Touchstones of Practice: &RQVLGHUDWLRQIURPWKH7KHDWUH:RUNVKRS)ORRU George Belliveau and Christine Sinclair 2.

ACTive pARTicipation: 6RFLDO,QFOXVLRQDQG'UDPD5HVHDUFK Jo Raphael and Kelly Freebody

 Learning on the Ground: +RZ2XU5HVHDUFK6WRULHV7HDFK8VDERXW(WKLFV Kathleen Gallagher and Richard Sallis

  

Part 2: Provocations of Method  A Research Tango in Three Moves: *HQGHULQJWKH'UDPD5HVHDUFK6SDFH Christine Hatton and Richard Sallis



 Three Arts Based Researchers Walk into a Forum: A Conversation on WKH2SSRUWXQLWLHVDQG&KDOOHQJHVLQ(PERGLHGDQG3HUIRUPHG5HVHDUFK Nisha Sajnani, Richard Sallis and Joe Salvatore



6.



6XUUHQGHU3HGDJRJ\$PELJXLW\5HVHDUFKDQG,PSRVVLELOLW\&DWV#3OD\ Joe Norris, Lynn Fels and Yasmine Kandil

 3DUWLFLSDWLRQLQ3DUWLFLSDWRU\'UDPD%DVHG5HVHDUFK Diane Conrad and Janinka Greenwood



Part 3: Provocations of Representation  How Do Culture and Power Work in and through Drama Research?: An H&RQYHUVDWLRQEHWZHHQ6HOLQDDQG%ULDQ Selina Busby and Brian S. Heap



 Representation, Authenticity and the Graphic Novel in Arts Education ,QTXLU\7UDQVXEVWDQWLDWLQJ5HVHDUFK Robin Pascoe and Peter R. Wright



v

CONTENTS

 'H¿DQW%RGLHVA Punk Rock Crip Queer Cabaret: Cripping and 4XHHULQJ(PDQFLSDWRU\'LVDELOLW\5HVHDUFK Emma Selwyn and Liselle Terret



Part 4: Provocations of Practice  We Need to Talk about Theory: Rethinking the Theory/Practice 'LFKRWRP\LQ3XUVXLWRI5LJRXULQ'UDPD5HVHDUFK Helen Cahill, Viv Aitken and Christine Hatton



 The Stories That Made Us: A Duoethnography on Becoming Reflective 'UDPD5HVHDUFKHUV Christine Hatton and Peter Duffy



 5HVHDUFKDQG,WV,PSDFW$'UDPDWLF&\EHU'LDORJXHLQ7KUHH6FHQHV John O’Toole and Peter Duffy



 Lessons Learned: 3URYRFDWLRQVRI3UDFWLFH Allison Anders, Peter Duffy, Christine Hatton and Richard Sallis



 Afterword: Well Begun Is Half Done Brad Haseman



vi

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FOREWORD: THE BOTH/AND OF PERFORMANCE RESEARCH

The interdependent fields of drama, theatre, performance, and play research are woven together throughout this fascinating new book from co-editors Peter Duffy, Christine Hatton and Richard Sallis. The weaving frame that holds them in place is the power of reflexive dialogue, and both the content and the form push the boundaries and possibilities of contemporary research. This book is dialogic, and through the YHU\SDUWLFXODUSHUIRUPDWLYHQDWXUHRIGLDORJXHDVNVVHYHUDOLPSRUWDQWTXHVWLRQVIRU UHVHDUFKHUVIURPWKHVHDUHDVDOOSLYRWLQJRQWKHTXHVWLRQVRIZKDWDIIRUGDQFHVDQG limitations does dialogue as a relational practice and research methodology bring ZLWK LW" ,PSRUWDQWO\ WKHVH DXWKRUV DUH GUDPD UHVHDUFKHUV RI RQH NLQG RU DQRWKHU and so they understand the power for themselves, their co-participants and their DXGLHQFHVRIVXFKFRQVLGHUDWLRQVLQPDNLQJSUDFWLFHVDQGUHVHDUFKHQTXLUHV7KH\ collectively ask us to consider whether dialogue is a tool that, like all creative and performance strategies, enables its co-creators to make something ‘in between’, rather than for some imagined Others, in mythical Elsewheres. These editors have asked researchers, practitioners and scholars (and their collaborators) to ‘make bare’ their own ethical and practice-based dilemmas, but it is much more than a µUHIOHFWLYH¶YROXPHRUDEHKLQGWKHVFHQHVORRNDWVRFDOOHGLQQRYDWLYHUHVHDUFK,W is an enactment of drama research relationships itself, a dynamic mapping of both the practices and collaborations that are helping to shape the field/s today. While this dialogic or epistolary format predominates, the book is also always VLWXDWHG LQ HPERGLPHQW ± QR DFFLGHQW IRU D ERRN RQ SHUIRUPDQFH ,Q &KDSWHU  Belliveau and Sinclair foreground this relationship by reminding us that “the body often guides us to new and sometimes unexpected discoveries,” different ways of knowing, of playing “on the floor”. They create a discursive stage on which the other chapters act out their diverse knowledges, within a field that sees itself as a studio, a workshop, a “multi-dimensional creative space.” This book isn’t afraid to interrogate a number of false binaries, too, through these dialogic encounters: the drama/performance studies/performance ethnography literature divides; the socalled theory/practice divide; a range of politico-geographical-contextual divides, disciplinary divides. Apart from the sometimes and always-minimal concession to performance HWKQRJUDSK\LQFOXGLQJ7XUQHU 6FKHFKQHU &RQTXHUJRRG DQG 6R\LQL0DGLVRQ DGGLWLRQDOGLYLGHVEHWZHHQFRGHVLJQHGSDUWLFLSDWRU\DQG

vii

FOREWORD: THE BOTH/AND OF PERFORMANCE RESEARCH

more social science, measurable and aesthetically-oriented perspectives continue to separate bodies of practice, bodies of collaboration, and bodies of disciplinary knowledge creation. This book sees itself as primarily drama research, yet even within the chapters ‘drama’ is broken down into performance, theatre, embodiment, and more. A strength of the text is in its invitation to go further into breaking down and indeed interweaving these practices and literatures in more transdisciplinary ways. &RQUDG DQG *UHHQZRRG LQ &KDSWHU  UHPLQG XV WKDW µGLDORJLF HQJDJHPHQW¶ &RQTXHUJRRG   FDQ WDNH PDQ\ IRUPV EXW WKDW ZLWKLQ WKH DFDGHP\ D SUD[LV approach is inherently oppositional to dominant forms of ‘expert’ knowledge and truth claims. Hatton & Duffy’s duoethnography (like autoethnography) makes explicit what all of these case-study oriented conversations demonstrate, that “Our researcher selves are inextricably woven together with the threads of our pasts and our pasts provide the circuitry of our research.” These drama, theatre and performance researchers mine the rich and complex vein of subjectivity, making claims and sometimes thinking aloud about how understanding the power of subjectivity in all research endeavours, not just arts-informed ones, opens ever-expanding new possibilities. While Gallagher and Sallis discuss ethical dilemmas in drama/theatre research relationships and the precarity of their youth participants, Gallagher rightly turns the lens back on us by asking ‘What does a researcher risk?’ in such wefted work. The excellently-entitled Surrender, Pedagogy, Ambiguity, Research and Impossibility: Cats @ Play, by Norris, Fels, and Kandil, wonders about work that makes innovation claims within one field while not necessarily representing the same risks or boundary-breaking in others. They use the metaphor of ‘herding cats’ to explain their rebellious approaches as well as playfulness both in their research practices and in this chapter. Their self-conscious resistance of a notion of ‘the expert’ in general, and the ‘expert speaks’ form in this book, is a most refreshing reminder of the radical potential of performance in many contexts outside of the academy, and occasionally within. 2QHWUXWK,GHHSO\DSSUHFLDWHIURPWKLVWHDPDVDIHOORZFUHDWLYLW\DQGLQQRYDWLRQ  researcher, is this: The word “innovation” compelled us to examine whether we thought the nature of our work was indeed innovative, or if striving for innovation was in fact a trap, where, if caught in it, we might gloss over the moments of true learning and the opportunities that come from stillness, repetition, and reflection. This call-out of neoliberal imperatives toward ‘impact’ and ‘innovation’ in so much of our academic work these days is a relief. This chapter also exemplifies what the book more generally argues in one form or another, which is how drama and performance research can both tell and show, explain and express. How the ‘moments of encounter’ are what distinguish the onto-epistemology of performed research from all others. viii

FOREWORD: THE BOTH/AND OF PERFORMANCE RESEARCH

7KLVHGLWHGFROOHFWLRQLVDOVRLQWHUHVWLQJIRUWKHVHHPLQJO\XELTXLWRXVSUHVHQFHRI Skype (or other video calling software applications), which everyone seemed to use DQGPHQWLRQEXWQRWUHIOHFWXSRQ,WVHHPVDWWLPHVWREHDOPRVWDQDGGLWLRQDOGLJLWDO collaborator in these dialogues, a silent or absent presence always impacting on the GLVFXVVLRQ , IRXQG P\VHOI DVNLQJ TXHVWLRQV ZKDW GRHV LW PHDQ IRU HPERGLPHQW dialogues to be mediated by a digital form of gathering? How has this affected not only the drama and performance work being discussed, but the discussions themselves? How are digital collaborators and collaboration approaches impacting our work, more generally? Several of the chapters use a critical lens for examining the radical potential of drama and theatre research to change social relationships and LQFOXVLRQSUDFWLFHV5DQJLQJIURPFULSDQGTXHHUVWXGLHVWRIHPLQLVWSRVWFRORQLDO diasporic and intercultural collaborations, these dialogues lay bare the inescapable power relations at the heart of all collaborative and certainly all academic work. Scholarly research into drama and performance is now well-established and thoroughly interdisciplinary, and this book provides a welcome expansion of this body of work. This text’s foregrounding of performance as a kind of processual co-designed teaching and learning is a masterful example of how, at its best, performing arts and education are doing the same work, always contextual and of its social, political and historical moment, a co-constitutive venture in which we are all simultaneously the performer/audience, teacher/student, and changer/changed, DNLQGRIERWKDQGWKDWLVDWRQFHELQDULVHGDQG\HWEH\RQGELQDULHV,FRQJUDWXODWH the co-editors for curating a diverse and powerful text which so effectively explores the impact and still-emerging potential of our shared field/s of research, and to these authors for inviting us into their most creative conversations.

ix

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Viv Aitken is Research Associate with the Faculty of Education at Waikato University ZKHUHVKHZDVVHQLRUOHFWXUHULQGUDPDHGXFDWLRQIRU\HDUV6KHDOVRVSHQWWZR \HDUV DV$VVRFLDWH 3URIHVVRU LQ (GXFDWLRQ DW WKH (DVWHUQ ,QVWLWXWH RI 7HFKQRORJ\ LQ +DZNHV %D\ ,Q KHU FXUUHQW UROH ZLWK WKH ,QVWLWXWH RI 3URIHVVLRQDO /HDUQLQJ DW Waikato, Viv contributes to initial teacher education courses and facilitates inservice professional development programmes in schools around New Zealand. Viv’s research to date has explored power and positioning in theatre and classroom drama including in inclusive settings. Her current focus is on developing and theorising Mantle of the Expert within a New Zealand context. Allison Daniel Anders, PhD, is an assistant professor in educational foundations DQGLQTXLU\DWWKH8QLYHUVLW\RI6RXWK&DUROLQD6KHWHDFKHVFRXUVHVLQTXDOLWDWLYH LQTXLU\IRXQGDWLRQVRIHGXFDWLRQVRFLRORJ\RIHGXFDWLRQDQGFULWLFDOUDFHWKHRU\ She studies the everyday experiences of targeted youth, contexts of education, and TXDOLWDWLYH PHWKRGRORJLHV +HU UHVHDUFK LQFOXGHV ZRUN ZLWK LQFDUFHUDWHG \RXWK children with refugee status, and LGBTQ+ students and educators. George Belliveau is Professor of Theatre/Drama Education at the University of British Columbia, Canada. His research interests include research-based theatre, performed research, drama and L2 learning, drama across the curriculum, drama and KHDOWKUHVHDUFK+HKDVSXEOLVKHGERRNVDORQJZLWKPDQ\VFKRODUO\SXEOLFDWLRQV that can be found in various arts-based and theatre education journals and edited ERRNV+HLVDSURIHVVLRQDOO\WUDLQHGDFWRUDQGKDVSDUWLFLSDWHGLQRYHUWKHDWUH productions as an actor, director, or playwright. He is a member of the Royal Society College of Canadian Scholars and Artists. Selina Busby is a Principal Lecturer in Community Performance and Applied Theatre, and course leader for the MA Applied Theatre at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. She is an applied theatre practitioner who works in prison settings, youth theatres, and with young people living in adverse conditions both in the UK and internationally. Current projects include work with FRPPXQLWLHVZKRKDYHH[SHULHQFHGKRPHOHVVQHVVLQ,QGLDDQG1HZ