Ethical Issues in an Ethnographic Performance Text: the ‘dramatic impact’ of ‘juicy stuff’

Abstract

This confessional tale describes the author's first time venture with producing an ethnographic performance text, an alternative mode of research presentation. In ethnotheatre, significant selections from a qualitative study's field notes and interview transcripts are carefully arranged, scripted, and staged for an audience to enhance their understanding of the participants’ lives. This particular project dramatised the story of Barry, an adolescent who dreams of becoming a professional actor. Barry participated in a longitudinal study of drama and theatre as he progressed from kindergarten through sixth grade. A follow‐up study from his sophomore (tenth) through senior (twelfth) years in high school observed his continued and exemplary participation in the art forms. Barry, his mother and his two high school theatre teachers were interviewed to assess the social influences on his career goals and to gain multiple perspectives on his ways of working. Unknowingly, the researcher was to grapple with several ethical issues as the study progressed. Immediately before and during the initial fieldwork period, Barry and his parents underwent and eventually recovered from difficult conflicts, inhibiting complete researcher investigation. Several casting choices for the ethnographic performance text raised audience concern over the representation of participants’ lives and their welfare. Finally, the confessions and revelations of personal history by participants during one‐on‐one interviews challenged the ethnographer to reconcile his obligation to respect each member's privacy with his desire to write a play script containing ‘juicy stuff for ‘dramatic impact’.