Walking Labyrinths Through Arts-Based Research Practice

• In Event: Healing Trauma and Creating Friendships Through Ethnodrama and Other Forms of Research-Based Theatre

Abstract

I owe my career to small acts of kindness shown me by an African-American teacher I met when I started substitute teaching. I knew him for all of one endless, Chicago winter. The man named Mr. Johnson in the play Johnny Saldaña and I developed helped me understand the classroom’s heart. In my last year in Chicago, I learned Mr. Johnson died of AIDS. Performing the play helped me focus on the beginning of the story. Instead of being haunted by Mr. Johnson’s death—and I was, literally, haunted—the show helped me remember the way he laughed and the way he moved. Performing gave me friends, colleagues, and opportunities (see Bickel et al., 2023).

Author

• Charles F. Vanover, University of South Florida