The director’s ‘I’: theatre, self, and self-study

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Date
2014
Authors
Meskin, Tamar
Van der Walt, Tanya
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
This article interrogates the connections between the self-study research methodology and the making of a piece of theatre, and explores ways in which self-study can offer a new arts-based research paradigm for theatre-makers. There are a number of useful parallels to be explored between the self-study project and structures of drama and performance-making. While the methodology is, to a large extent, aimed at teacher educators, we argue that it is sufficiently flexible to be transferable to the context of theatre-making because of the emphasis on practice in both self-study research and theatre. Using the a/r/tographic frame, we explore ways in which the experiential dynamic of both fields offers a unique intersection point from which to generate new thinking. The dialogic necessity of self-study is paralleled by the interactive processes of performance-making – what Marowitz (1978: 49) calls the “actor-director two-step”. Hence, the article uses dialogue as a way of demonstrating our thinking-in-action, and reflects the co-created space of learning and knowledge generation. Using self-study to interrogate our own creative work opens up space for new understandings in relation to both the discourse of Drama study and the broader self-study project.
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Keywords
Theatre, Self-study, Dialogue, a/r/tography, Hermeneutic spiral, Arts-based methods, Praxis
Citation
Meskin, T., & Van der Walt, T. (2017). The director’s ‘I’: Theatre, self, and self-study. Perspectives in Education, 32(2), 54-68.