Approaches to Developing Research-Based Theatre

Abstract

This article explores the literature to identify and describe three general approaches used in the development of research-based theatre scripts: collective, playwright-centred, and composite. Each approach is situated within both conventional and research-based theatre literature. After elucidating each approach, a representative project of each approach is explored in depth. Discussions of the projects, undertaken in 2009 at the University of British Columbia, provide insight into some of the tensions inherent in working in each approach.

Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Vanier and Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship programs. Funding for Drama as an Additional Language and Naming the Shadows was provided through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant. Funding for Centring the Human Subject was provided through a Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. The author expresses gratitude to George Belliveau and Brendan Lea for their gracious suggestions while developing this manuscript and to Amanda Wager for her assistance in developing the images.

Notes

¹A discussion of the findings of this project can be found in Wager et al. (2009).

²For a discussion of the playwright's writing process, refer to MacKenzie and Belliveau (2011)

³For further information, refer to Lea (2010).

⁴More information on this project may be found in Lafrenière et al. (n.d.).

⁵Centring the Human Subject in Health Research: Understanding the Meaning and Experience of Research Participation is a five-year research project funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research conducted by Susan M. Cox, principal investigator; Michael McDonald, co-principal investigator; Patricia Kaufert, Joseph Kaufert, and Anne Townsend, co-investigators.