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Theatre as Method by Gina Grandi

Gina Grandi encourages ARTists to work with methods from theatre.  GIna, whose article has just appeared in the Action Research Journal, writes: “Imagine yourself in a job interview. What do you think about, when presenting yourself? Consider your social media feeds. How do you curate your life? Consider all the ways we choose what, when, and how much to share. Now consider young people and the messages they receive – from school, family, the media – about their choices, and what they should say, think, and do.

Most research around young people and identity relies on interviews. But when are young people saying what they think is the ‘right’ answer? What beliefs have they internalized without really thinking about them? There is no reason to believe that what young people say is not the truth, but there is reason to believe it is filtered truth.

As an educator, researcher, and theatre artist, I am interested in the ways theatre work creates space for deeper discussion and communication. This study examines the way playbuilding – a form of participatory arts-based research in which participants create a piece of theatre together – might be used to disrupt power dynamics and open critical, honest conversations with young people.

This article describes and analyzes my work with thirteen high school girls as they created an original theatrical performance. After exploring ideas through writing, discussion, and theatre activities, the girls wrote, rehearsed, and presented a show around the themes they decided were most important to them. I examined the girls’ writing, transcripts of their discussions with me and with each other, and all the products of the creation process – including image and improvisation work and the final script. The girls did not simply respond to questions, but examined those responses through discussion with each other, by working through metaphor with image and movement, and by writing and editing.

Collaborative performance creation is an exciting form of participatory research that has enormous potential to provide a space in which young people can and do interrogate their own

assumptions and internalized beliefs. Working through the arts provides opportunities to work through metaphor, explore possibilities, and to communicate on a more rich and nuanced level than interviews alone.”

We invite you to learn more about this by reading the AR+ Blog which includes free 15 day access without paywall to this article beginning now. 

DOI for future reference:  https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750321993530