OPENING THE SPACE: INVESTIGATING RESPONSIVITY IN THE EXPERTISE OF APPLIED THEATRE PRACTITIONERS A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2017 ELIZABETH K HEPPLEWHITE SCHOOL OF ARTS, LANGUAGES AND CULTURES Contents Page number Prologue Proposing Responsivity 8 Chapter 1 (Un)Naming practitioners in applied theatre: reviewing the role in written and live literatures 25 Chapter 2 Reflective dialogue and practice-responsive method: researching the expertise of the ‘__’ 64 Chapter 3 Artists in Education: grafted expertise and the search for the golden nugget 94 Chapter 4 The personal is political: predetermined responsivity 127 Chapter 5 The beautiful mistake and the __ as clown 159 Chapter 6 Responsivity and the art of doing little 192 Chapter 7 Responsivity as a theory of the practices of the __ 212 Chapter 8 A conclusion of responsivity 256 Bibliography 275 Appendices: 1. Live Theatre Undercroft event, 2008 292 2. Short self-reflective video 2010, exploring modes of operating in practice, inspired by the film Zidane 294 3. A teaching and learning project 2011, using reflective video and images with Facilitation undergraduates 296 4. First stage conversations, 2011, research participant details and interview questions 300 5. Alchemists at Work symposium, 2012 302 6. Reflective dialogues, 2012-14, research participant details and stimulus questions 307 7. Reflective Dialogue films on Wordpress site 309 Final word count: 79,840 2 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the expertise of applied theatre practitioners and proposes a concept of ‘responsivity’ to define their skills, knowledge, qualities and understanding. Practice-responsive research methods were devised to analyse how artists make decisions in-action in a range of applied theatre practice in community, education and health contexts. Research included the use of reflective dialogues following observations of practice, stimulated by joint researcher-practitioner reflection on a video recording of the observed session. Working from detailed analysis of this observed practice and dialogic reflection, new vocabularies are introduced and developed, with the aim of better articulating particular skills and approaches. The role of applied theatre practitioners is multi-faceted and primarily focussed on facilitating positive outcomes for the participants. Planning activity is informed by projected outcomes for the work and the context of practice, such as environment, nature of the participants, individual identities, etc. Practitioner skills build on art form knowledge and the ability to guide activity to create performance outcomes, alongside a concern for aesthetic and ethical issues of the work, as well as social and political awareness of the context. Adaptations to moment-by- moment activity reflect their ability to facilitate engagement and nurture interactive exchange. I suggest that, to manage these multiple demands, practitioners demonstrate heightened attendance to issues of inter-subjectivity and empathy, thereby developing an enhanced expertise in response to the work and the people and contexts involved in that work. The thesis proposes that responsive approaches are common to practitioners and enable her/him to make good choices within the moments of practice. Applied theatre’s responsive-ness is indicative of a prioritisation of participant experience, however, the research also revealed the way in which a responsive ethos impacted and enriched the practitioners through supporting their own generative engagement with the work. The critical framework of responsivity proposed in this thesis acknowledges the importance of impact for all participants, including the artists. Whilst the methods and outcomes of applied theatre have received scholarly attention, this research focusses on how practitioners themselves define their expertise, embracing a consideration of skills learning and development. The concepts of response and dialogue informed this investigation in a number of significant ways, and as a result responsivity is proposed as a key methodological imperative for applied theatre research as well as the substantive focus of my thesis. This mode of operating as artists and researchers is particular to applied theatre’s overarching aims to be socially responsive, politically engaged, ethically considerate and emancipatory. Responsivity is offered as a way to distinguish applied theatre practice from other performance participation and as an underpinning ethos for understanding the expertise of applied theatre practitioners. 3 DECLARATION No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 4 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=24420), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/about/regulations/) and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses 5 Acknowledgements: Thank you to my supervisor Jenny Hughes, whose generous sharing of detailed knowledge, thorough guidance and infinite patience got me through. Thanks to Alison Jeffers and James Thompson for being brilliant on the wings. Thanks also for the generous support of colleagues at York St John and Northumbria Universities, to my proof-reading sister Jo who is a great writer, for Tony’s constant flow of dinners and pots of tea, to my women-friends network - I’ll be back soon. My gratitude to all the practitioners who kindly took part in the research - the thesis champions their voice. Dedication: For my mother Dee Hepplewhite with her love of new learning - she would be well chuffed. 6 The Author Following an undergraduate degree in Drama, Kay Hepplewhite was an actor and workshop leader in Theatre in Education and community theatre, also using drama in youth work, participatory settings and training services. Whilst continuing facilitation work, performance making and presenting, she has been a lecturer since 1990, completing a Cert. Ed. in 1992, an MA in Theatre and Performance in 2004, and an HEA Fellowship in 2008. Kay has been a university lecturer since 2005, researching, publishing and presenting alongside teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Drama and Applied Theatre. The PhD study for this thesis was undertaken part- time. Kay has written articles for Theatre, Dance and Performance Training journal and Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, and book chapters for Applied Theatre: Facilitation (2016, ed. Preston, S.) and Applied Theatre: Women and the Criminal Justice System (forthcoming in 2017, ed. McAvinchey, C.), both published by Bloomsbury Methuen. 7 Prologue Proposing Responsivity Bottom: I have a device to make all well. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to say, we will do no harm with our swords, and that Pyramus is not killed indeed; and, for the more better assurance, tell them that I, Pyramus, am not Pyramus, but Bottom the weaver Shakespeare (1988: 3.1, 17- 20) This thesis analyses the work of applied theatre practitioners and proposes a new notion of ‘responsivity’ to offer insight into their expertise. My research set out to investigate what makes up the skills and qualities enabling practitioners to operate well and to make good decisions in action. My thesis investigates their particular expertise by analysing the work in action and through practitioner- researcher reflective dialogues. The Prologue will outline concepts and vocabulary I have devised for the thesis with the aim of making more visible the detail of this particular blending of artistic and social performative work. Although already known to the audience, Bottom’s ‘devices’ (quoted above) serve to encourage a re-viewing of the conventions of theatre. I am examining the work of applied theatre practitioners that may be already known,