“Jokering” an Applied Theater Performance/Video to Understand the Epistemological Tensions in a Gaining Entry Experience

• In Event: “Jokering” an Applied Theater Performance/Video to Understand the Epistemological Tensions in a Gaining Entry Experience

Abstract

Objectives

This study employed a participatory playbuilding research methodology (Mienczakowski, 1995; Fels & Beliveau, 2008; Norris, 2009) to articulate and analyze the complexity of issues surrounding a gaining entry experience. In addition to assisting the researchers in better understanding their experience, the performance and participatory workshops assist those in attendance in understanding the complexity of entry in general and to appreciate the use of Applied Theatre (Prendergast & Saxton, 2010; Prentki & Preston, 2009) as a method of inquiry.

Overview

Applied Theatre or Theatre in Education (Jackson, 1993) and Popular Theatre (Boal, 1979; Kidd, 1984), as it was called prior to 2000, can be both a pedagogical tool for social animation and a form of research (Norris, 2009). Researchers and audience members alike create improvisational scenes that elucidate the salient themes embedded within the narrative and its interpretation. As such it is an innovative research methodology that can, through resonance (Barone, 1990), influence both practice and policy.

While Applied Theatre is the overarching methodology within it are a series of techniques that assist in the simultaneous analysis and representation of the data as well as generating new data. Through the use of the ‘joker’ (Boal, 1979; Smith, 1996; Bowmen, 1997; Berezan, 2004; Hewson, 2007; Norris, 2009), who acts as an MC, audience members and the “Actor/Researcher/Teachers” (Norris, 2009, p. 9) reexamine the performance. With ‘inner dialogue the characters to articulate their inner thoughts; ‘voices for/against’ explores the complexity of decision making; ‘hot seating’ interrogates a character and ‘out scenes’ explore before and after events that could impact the issue. While all elicitations are hypothetical, they do evoke tacit knowledge of the assembly albeit different than a standard interview or questionnaire.

The data for the performance came from the experiences of two researchers working with displaced persons in the rural south. The third, well experienced in applied theatre assisted in devising and workshopping of the participatory research phase with audiences of colleagues and graduate students. The introductory scene portrays two researchers navigating entry with a supportive principal, a challenging board IRB representative and a superintendent suggesting major design changes.

Significance of Methodology

This presentation will exemplify how participatory arts-based performances can be a form of participatory inquiry by providing an in vivo experience for those attending.

Significance of Content

A number of themes emerged that articulate the difficulties of entry with qualitative research. Misunderstandings of interpretive research designs, fears of potential legal concerns, the difficulty of creating negotiated spaces in a top-down environment.

Structure

This will be an interactive participatory theatre workshop. Live and video performances will be presented followed by a participatory workshop in which all in attendance will be invited to participate in the jokering experience previously mentioned. Rather than summarizing the content, participants will leave with their own reinformed beliefs on how to change policy and/or practice. The session will conclude with a fifteen-minute discussion of this research and pedagogical methodology.

Authors

• Joe Norris, Brock University

• Aaron Thomas Bodle, James Madison University

• Douglas J. Loveless, James Madison University

• Ashley Taylor Jaffee, James Madison University

• Chapman Hood Frazier, James Madison University

• Deborah F. Carrington, James Madison University