Relational and Aesthetic Accountability: Considerations of a Research-Based Playwright

Abstract

Research-based Theater (RbT) is shaped by both the form of theater, as an embodied, gestural, spatial, imaginative multi-dimensional art form, and traditions of research surrounding knowledge production, specifically qualitative research. When ethical tensions and questions arise in RbT they are often framed as a dichotomy, such as the ways aesthetic or artistic interests of creating a compelling piece of theater for audiences contrast with responsibilities to research. By drawing on the frame of an aesthetic of relationality, and an example from my work as an RbT playwright from the project Cracked: new light on dementia, I consider the ways both theater and research might be more clearly aligned. This includes how relational and aesthetic accountabilities can offer an important foundation for considering how RbT might be rooted in caring practices and might influence theater-making and the traditions of scientific research more broadly.

In Their Own Words: Exploring the Methodology and Ethics of Ethnotheatre in Qualitative Dementia Research

“…Music, audio and back-projected photography were all added as the rehearsals proceeded, often on the suggestion of the cast members. This seems to support the view that verbatim theatre and ethnodrama are a means for building support, solidarity and relational care (Saldaña, 2011;Gray, 2022) not only between cast members but also with the original participants.…”

“…Schneider (2017) used participant observation to create a drama related to the experiences of direct care staff, and Speechley et al (2015) used ethnographic research data to create a script on home-based care. More recently, Gray (2022) have consulted people living with dementia and their families to develop a drama based on the ways their relationships have changed and evolved since diagnosis. Such approaches clearly have great potential for increasing the reach of qualitative dementia research and ensuring that the voices of people with dementia, their families and paid carers are heard more widely.…”

The Art of Data Analysis: Disturbing Knowledge and Performing Critical Inquiry

“…The ethical imperative was that the immigration tropes of invasion, stealing, threats to ownership, and flooding the country (Cunningham-Parmeter, 2011) with racists stereotypes around gender that often framed resettlement, were placing women on the margins and had to be the overarching concepts to deconstruct. The non-neutrality of this methodology, including the history of harm, oppression, and “power over” employed by both social sciences researchers and Theater, needed to be attended to (Gray, 2023; Nichols et al, 2023). Despite the collaboration with women, the community-based methodology, and the in-depth discussions of theater praxis, power is everywhere present.…”

“…This conclusion highlighted the importance of engaging with actors who have lived experience of migration and racialization. This embodiment grounds performative inquiry into historical processes, demanding that the body is centered in a participatory dynamic (Conquergood, 1991; Gray, 2023). In presenting data, creative moments can be used in the learning experience to gather new understanding(s).…”

“…Performance ethnography is a way to share knowledge of how culture or, in this case, the phenomena of migration, is done through the body. This work situates the body in social/cultural/historical spaces (Gray, 2023). This visually highlights how these lived realities are both set within the historical and political landscape while embedded in its own time and location, placing these understandings on stage (Hamera, 2011).…”