Forum Theatre: Performance as Research?

Warwick University PG Conference May 2014

Photo 6th Mar 2014

Julie Hudson

Materials used with the permission of Cardboard Citizens..

Warwick Research Interests

• Thesis– The environment on stage; the impact and efficacy of eco-

theatre.– Event research – audience reception research.– Identifying theatre productions that successfully shift the

environmental perspective of their audiences and communities. (c.f. Kershaw 1992)

• Cardboard Citizens Project– Theatre seeking to shift perspectives on homelessness.– Forum theatre - Performance as Research– Opportunity to test out the idea of efficacy in another

context.

Glasshouse by Kate Tempest

• Rhea, Jess, Paul. Sundry small characters played by Kathryn Bond.

• In a nutshell: – Jess is 18, living with her mum and step-dad in his

house. Rhea wants to follow her dream instead of washing up and working on the checkout. Paul’s struggling at work. Jess is trying to find herself (and a job).

– Two fights (Jess/girlfriend, and Jess/Paul/Rhea).

– Downward spiral – homelessness, job loss, baby.

www.cardboardcitizens.org.uk

Forum Theatre as Audience Reception Research?

• Watch the play.

• Decide whose perspective you want to explore.

• Offer solutions. “Where might you have done things differently?” (Joker).

• Actors replay a scene, you shout STOP.

• Opposite the relevant actor, you, the spectactor, play out how you think it should have gone.

Roundhouse London, 15th May 2014

Terminology: Joker - forum theatre facilitator. Spectactor – spectator-turned-actor.

CastJohanna Allitt –Rhea

Kathryn Bond –Rachel, Clint, Reg, Pickles, Jackie.

Michelle Cobb- Jess

Andre Skeete – Paul

Adrian Jackson - Joker

Terry O’Leary - Joker

Kerry Norridge -Understudy

St. Helens Central Library, 24th April

Theatre Event as Dialogue

• ‘When spectators observe the actors, they actively participate in an event, the theatrical performance […] as a co-creative participant.’ (Sauter, 2010)

• ‘Conventional theatre is governed by an intransitive relationship, in that everything travels from stage to auditorium. […] Lest the magic of the stage be shattered, silence is required. In the theatre of the oppressed, by contrast, dialogue is created. This theatre asks its audience questions and expects answers.’ (Boal, 1998).

Feedback Form as Audience Engagement

• ‘I understood the play better after the forum. If I hadn’t experienced the forum, I would never have wanted to fill in a four-page feed-back form. But, the feedback form took me on another step in my understanding of the play.’ (Spectator, in the bar, Battersea Arts Centre, March 2014).

Listening-to-the-Audience-as-Research

Corby, January 2014

The Curve. April 2014.

Research Questions

• Research questions– What impact did the play have? How did the

audience react to it?

– Is there a relationship between the reaction to the play and the reaction to the forum?

– Co-creative participation – Evidence of Impact?

• Methodologies– The audience survey – What did the audience think?

– Documenting audience reactions on the spot.

– Observing spectacular spectactorial performativity!

Size Seems to Matter for Audience Surveys

Audience Number

Response rate

Performances

The Word Cloud Game

• Did the audience take a view on one of the three main characters?

– Word selection: prominent words or phrases from the text (e.g. ‘out of control’), or about the behaviour seen in the play (e.g. ‘in denial’).

– Instruction on the form: “Choose one character and think about how they came across to you. Draw a circle round any word you agree with. Cross out anything you disagree with.”

STUPIDJEALOUS

STRESSED

DOING THE RIGHT THING

GENTLE

IN THE WRONG

SELFISH

OUT-OF-CONTROL

BULLY

IN DENIAL

SELF-INDULGENT

MISUNDERSTOOD

VICTIM

UNLUCKY

IN THE RIGHT

CARINGLOVING

IMPULSIVE

DESTRUCTIVE

AFFECTIONATE

VIOLENT

TRAPPED

DISHONEST

REASONABLE

SUPPORTIVE

UNCARING

DESERVES BETTER

CONFUSED

RUNNING IN CIRCLES

CONTROLLING

Methodology note: Semantic differentials rejected as less likely than a game to engage the audience.

Cloud Sparks Creativity

A shift in perspective, greater complexity after the forum.

Evidence that the play , and then the forum, had an impact on this

spectator.

Hypothetical Responses

Playing Games: What the Audience Did

Audience Profiling Characters

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

RHEA

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

PAUL

The Forum – Feedback Forms• You can have the conversation you normally

have after the play with the audience.

• After the forum I understood Paul better. I could empathise with him more.

• Before the forum I thought Rhea was powerless. After the forum I realised she had agency.

• After the forum I could see how hard it was to change the outcome for Jess.

Listening to the Audience

• Evidence of audience engagement?

– In the play: Laughter (singly, in groups, in ripples). Sighs. Clapping/applause. Cheers. Whoops. Other noises: sssss, ooooo, arrgg, yuk, oh no!, foot-banging

– In the forum: Laughter (singly, in groups, in ripples). Sighs. Clapping/applause. Cheers. Whoops. Other noises: sssss, ooooo, arrgg, yuk, oh no!, foot-banging and, the “buzz” (audience in discussion).

• All plays are different.

– Benchmarking the sound-points in the play.

Idea inspired by the Meyerhold notation.

Counting Noises:Sounds per Spectator Minute

• A. Single noise. 1, 2, 3 etc.• B. Group noise. 1, 2, 3, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 * the number

in the audience. • C. The spectator minute. Duration of the play or

(as appropriate) the forum in minutes * the number in the audience = total spectator minutes.

• D. Total number of noises = A + B (for play, forum).

• Intensity of reaction = D/C for each of the play and the forum.

39 Performances Play Accounts for 31% of Variance in Forum Noise

25 Performances (No Theatres)Play Accounts for 38% of Variance in Forum Noise

21 Performances (No Theatres or HMPs)Play Accounts for 51% of Variance in Forum Noise

Re-Writing the Play (1)• "Jess" : Hopping theatrically around holding onto her fist (laughs from the

audience).

• Paul: You think you're a big woman now?

• "Jess": No, but you thought I was last night. (Oooo from the audience). Mum. Sorry. I didn't want to tell you this way. I got home and Paul came back, and found me crying in the dark. He was trying to make me feel better.

• Paul: It's true so far.

• "Jess": And we kissed.

• Paul: This is not true and you f***ing hit me. (Oooo from the audience).

• Rhea: Why would you say this, Jess?

• Paul: (getting louder and louder) She punched me and now I'm supposed to have kissed her.

• Joker: Is this progress?

• Audience: No. We had a bit of fun but it didn't get us anywhere. She needs to get her mum on her own.

• Source: Notes, Leicester Curve performance.

Re-Writing the Play (2)• "Paul": What we 'avin? Curry'll do me. I've got something I need to talk about.

Something's happened. I've been made redundant. But don't worry. I'll get some redundancy, about three grand, and I'll start a little business.

• Rhea: That's wonderful my darling.• "Paul": And there's something else. You know I smoke a spliff now and again?

(Pause. Puts his hands over his face). You know, I don't think I can tell you?• Rhea: Tell me what? What? Is it cancer?• "Paul": I'm not gonna die. That would be much worse. As I tell you this I want

you to think about how much worse that would be.• Rhea: WHAT.• "Paul": I'm not gonna die but I kissed Jess by accident. • Rhea: You kissed my daughter.• "Paul": She was upset, crying and everything. It was an accident.• (Rhea whacks him with a tea towel, and moves away from him to hug Jess).• Joker: (raises her eyebrows at the spectactor).• Spectactor/Paul hybrid?: I thought I'd clear the air. What I wanna do is say

sorry to Jess.

Source: Notes, HMP Wandsworth performance.

Evidence of Impact and Efficacy?

• At the most basic: feedback form response-rate (based on Stage Manager’s show reports, data not final).

• Word-cloud as evidence that the audience is taking a view on the characters, and that view changes with the forum.

• Other feedback form questions e.g. about what made spectactors come to the stage.

• Sound-point notation and regression as evidence of an active dynamic between the play and the forum.

• The content of forum interventions as evidence that people empathised with actors and characters, that the play connected to people’s lives.

Primary MaterialsVenues Visited by the Citz Glass House 2014 Feedback Forms ObserverType of Venue Performances Percent Audience Forms Response RtePerformances Percent

Hostel or Related Specialist Services 14 25% 378 116 31% 14 29%

Theatre for Hostels 6 11% 310 71 23% 4 8%

Youth (16-25) Foyer or YMCA 7 13% 105 41 39% 5 10%

Youth Theatres 3 5% 83 37 45% 2 4%

Prisons 3 5% 190 52 27% 3 6%-------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- --------------

TOTAL SPECIALIST 33 59% 1066 317 30% 28 58%

London Mainstream Theatres 13 23% 1287 302 23% 10 21%

Regional Mainstream Theatres 10 18% 838 187 22% 10 21%-------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- -------------- --------------

TOTAL GENERALIST 23 41% 2125 489 23% 20 42%-------------- -------------- -------------- --------------

Overall Total 56 100% 3191 806 25% 48 100%========= ========= ================== ========= =========

Source: Audience numbers from Stage Manager’s show report therefore still an estimate.

Bibliography

• Boal, Augusto (2008). The Theatre of the Oppressed (London: Pluto Press).

• Boal, Augusto (1998). Legislative Theatre. Using Performance to Make Politics. Translated by Adrian Jackson (1998), Loc 556.

• Kershaw, Baz (1992). The Politics of Performance(London and New York: Routledge).

• Sauter, Willmar (2010) ‘Thirty Years of Reception Studies: Empirical, Methodological and Theoretical Advances’, in About Performance 10, pp. 241-63.

• Tempest, Kate (2013). Glasshouse (Unpublished manuscript).

Creative TeamWriter – Kate TempestDirector – Adrian JacksonDesigners –Stephanie Johns and Hannah JerromSound Design and Composition – Arun GhoshAdditional Sound Design – Giles AshongLighting Design –Peter HigtonFight Direction –Austin SpanglerVoice Coach –Tim Charrington.

Production Team Tour Producers: Sarah Sansom(Time Won’t Wait). Rowan Rutter. Production Manager –Bernd Fauler. Stage Manager –Alix Lencz

Marketing and PressPetia Tzanova.

Alix Lencz setting up in St. Helens Central Libary.