The Winning Postgraduate Short Article From Missed Opportunities to Insights

Abstract The author's drama background is as actor/director in conventional theatre, with no experience of ‘Developmental Drama’ or ‘collective performance creation’. This study was an opportunity to carry out ‘naive’ research in which his knowledge and experience did not differ substantially from those of the other participants. Seventeen participants, including the author, worked in smaller groups under the guidance of a facilitator, ‘Buddy’, to create performance pieces inspired by a museum exhibit and performed at the museum and in elementary schools. The author's official status was that of ‘participant observer’, but he was, in fact, fully a ‘participant’, occasionally to the detriment of being an observer. The study focuses on the performance creation of his group. Although the original research question asked ‘What conceptions of person‐hood are manifest in the procedures of facilitators and participants as they make the work?’, this question changed as a result of the experience. The question and...