Margi Brown Ash B.A

House of Homes: Theatrical Explorations of Home and Belonging Author Brown Ash, Margaret Elizabeth Published 2017-11 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School School Educ & Professional St DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/3033 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/380569 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au HOUSE OF HOMES Theatrical Explorations of Home and Belonging Margi Brown Ash B.A. Dip. Ed. Grad. Dip. Adolescent Health & Welfare Grad. Dip. Experiential & Creative Arts Therapy Master of Counselling Master of Arts (Research) School of Education, and Professional Studies Arts, Education and Law Group Griffith University Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2017 ii ABSTRACT This arts-based thesis focuses on notions of mapping a home of belonging. By investigating creative ways to re-story our past, present, and future, it considers what we might do to satisfy this basic human longing and necessity. Born out of a personal need, the study could be seen as a response to the growing social problem of loneliness and anxiety throughout the Western world and, more particularly, in the arts industry. Underpinned by a social constructionist paradigm, the research has engaged with a range of ideas and methods from Theatre, Postmodern Therapies, and the Human Potential Movement, as well as studies in Home culture and mythology. This interdisciplinary approach has been driven by my own arts practice, which was deployed to devise and stage three original performances—Home (2012, 2015), Eve (2012, 2017), and He Dreamed a Train (2014, 2017)—collectively entitled The Belonging Trilogy. These shows, generated over six years, became a way of writing new personal mythologies to create, and re-create, my own personal map of belonging in my world as a social artist. An outcome of this process was the development of the “Relational Impulse Cultural” (RIC) Process, a method that can enrich artists’ professional and personal lives. The embodied inquiry has pioneered an artistic and therapeutic method that can be used for understanding and articulating where and what is “home” and “belonging.” While home is constantly changing, depending on who one is becoming, the dissertation details how it can be productively created through the active re-storying of Place/Space, Mythologies/Stories, and Relationships. This original framework offers a simple yet effective model of personal and professional transformation. Coupled with the RIC Process, the process moves the social vi artist into a place of curiosity, vibrancy, and awareness, with an ability to push the boundaries, knowing that things constantly change. It is no longer a question of “Who am I?” or “Who are you?” but rather “Who am I becoming?” and “Who are you becoming?” Relationally, it allows for difference, diversity, and acceptance, improving the social bonds within our communities, both personally and professionally. vii STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. DATE: NOVEMBER, 2017 Margi Brown Ash viii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures x Acknowledgements xi Relevant Research Outputs for The Belonging Trilogy xv Brief Contextualisation of The Belonging Trilogy xviii Room 1: Interactive Architecture 1 Room 2: Room of Literature: Social Constructionism, Home Theory, and 31 Mythology Room 3: Research Methodology: Charting The Belonging Trilogy as a 83 Contribution to Knowledge Home Script 119 Room 4: The Poetics of Home 159 Eve Script 183 Room 5: The Configuration of Eve 203 He Dreamed a Train Script 237 Room 6: He Dreamed a Train 254 Room 7: Coda 281 Appendix 1: Promotional Material for The Belonging Trilogy 302 Appendix 2: Outline and Reviews of Home 2012 Season 310 Appendix 3: Adapted MIECAT Process: Writing Creative Text 314 Appendix 4: RIC Training 316 Appendix 5: Coming Home: Queensland Academies of Creative Industries 338 2015 Appendix 6: Reviews of The Belonging Trilogy 344 Appendix 7: Audience Responses to Home 350 Appendix 8: Audience Responses to Eve 356 References 360 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1 Mapping of My Home of Belonging 26 Figure 2 List of Methodologies Employed 87 Figure 3 Bird's Eye View of PALAR Research Cycle for All Three Performances 91 Figure 4 Home Action Research Cycle 97 Figure 5 Eve Action Research Cycle 98 Figure 6 He Dreamed a Train Action Research Cycle 100 Figure 7 Elements of My Reflective Practice 101 Figure 8 Methods Used in Research 105 Figure 9 Action Research Cycle for the Creative Developments of Home 164 x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work is dedicated to my husband of over 30 years, Bill Ash, our children Aleema and Tom, Houston, Micaela and Alec, Travis, our granddaughter Sybella and my brother David Brown. I have had the journey of a lifetime delving, prodding, interrogating and re-storying our map of belonging in order to create home. Home with you. The warmest thank you goes to my Griffith University supervisors, who, for the last six years, have been strong supporters of my ambition to bring my performative work into academia. In particular, they made the last few months of writing more than bearable, with encouragement, persistence, and practical support: Professor Emeritus Bruce Burton, thank you for your belief in me and your consistent encouragement throughout the entire six years. You inspired me to finish. Professor Michael Balfour, thank you for your enthusiasm and belief that I was able to get over the finishing line—in time—with a body of work that would make a difference. Dr. Linda Hassall, you were always there, from the very beginning of the journey, with a smile, words of encouragement and articles for me to read. You believed in my work. Thank you. Dr. Penny Bundy, thank you for your patience and ability to help me keep a sense of humour for the first few years. Eva Rosenorn, thank you for your patience and expertise as editor. xi GRATITUDE We're all relatively familiar with different theories of performance art such as “theatre of the oppressed” and “theatre of cruelty” and “epic theatre” and so on. What I viewed as the latest in La Boite's 2012 Indie season offering offers perhaps a new theatrical paradigm. A 'theatre of compassion', theatrical product that elucidates, highlights and draws out humanity's ability to be kind to one another, our fragility, our imaginativeness, our beauty and celebrates the way we understand our lives as stories. (Downes, 2012) One of the principles that emerged from the RIC Process (one of the major outcomes of this research) is the value of compassion and gratitude. When one embraces collaborative practice as a philosophy of living and working, then one is beholden to their workmates: theatre making is a collaborative practice, particularly when embracing what reviewer Brent Downes called a theatre of compassion, “a theatrical product that elucidates, highlights and draws out humanity’s ability to be kind to one another” (Downes, 2012). There are many people inside the rehearsal room I wish to thank for their big-heartedness of spirit and their generosity of intellect, creativity and soulfulness. My first gesture of gratitude must be to my life partner and father of my children, Bill Ash. Bill has made sure that I could take time to rehearse, reflect, and dream. He journeyed with us wherever we had to go—Egypt, Greece, Mexico—and came to rehearsals and performances every season, which I think would add up to over 300 hours of theatre viewing. I could not ask for a more supportive and loving companion. Assoc. Professor Leah Mercer has been my long-term creative partner since the early 2000s, journeying with me throughout the world as we pushed boundaries and discovered things that surprised, disturbed, and delighted us. Her constancy, commitment, outstanding talent, and love of our devising processes has made her the perfect “theatre wife.” She has demonstrated that as long as we hold similar values, it doesn’t matter what happens; we will not only survive but we will thrive as a collaborative ensemble. We are now entering our 15th year together. xii Dr. Benjamin Knapton has been part of He Dreamed a Train since its conception, gently guiding the rehearsal process so that we would achieve a work of art that opened hearts and minds. His consistency, loyalty, and sheer genius as director, designer, devisor, and executive producer has made the journey deliciously engaging and overwhelmingly successful. Travis Ash, my youngest child, has been involved in The Belonging Trilogy since the beginning, in several capacities, as sound designer, musician, writer, and performer. His generosity of spirit, his enormous gifts as artist, musician, performer, and writer have made this experience life changing. His generosity knows no bounds and I will look back at this six-year experience as the most treasured performance moments of my life. Bev Jensen designed and built the striking art installation for the Home seasons, dedicating hundreds of hours of work, creating a Perspex world, adding visual projections, fanciful props and costumes. Aaron Barton designed and built two dramatic Eve sets for seasons 2012 and 2017, inventing an adventurous and daring playground for Eve to

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