1st Edition

Verbatim Theatre Methodologies for Community Engaged Practice Perspectives from Australian Theatre

By Sarah Peters, David Burton Copyright 2023
    210 Pages
    by Routledge

    210 Pages
    by Routledge

    Verbatim Theatre Methodologies for Community-Engaged Practice offers a framework for developing original community-engaged productions using a range of verbatim theatre approaches.

    This book's methodologies offer an approach to community-engaged productions that fosters collaborative artistry, ethically nuanced practice, and social intentionality. Through research-based discussion, case study analysis, and exercises, it provides a historical context for verbatim theatre; outlines the ethics and methods for community immersion that form the foundation of community-engaged best practice; explores the value of interviews and how to go about them; provides clear pathways for translating gathered data into an artistic product; and offers rehearsal room strategies for playwrights, producers, directors, and actors in managing the specific context of the verbatim theatre form.

    Based on diverse, real-world practice that spans regional, metropolitan, large-scale, micro, independent, commercial, and curriculum-based work, this is a practical and accessible guide for undergraduates, artists, and researchers alike.

    1. Histories, definitions and applications  2. Community Immersion  3. Interviewing and Listening for Aesthetics  4. Transcription, Exploration, Community-engaged Workshopping  5. Playwriting: Translating Stories into Performance  6. Verbatim and community-engaged work in rehearsal and beyond  7. Ethical Practice: Private lives, public stages, and making space for stories

    Biography

    Sarah Peters is a playwright and senior lecturer in drama at Flinders University, Australia.

    David Burton is a playwright and researcher in Queensland, Australia.