Engaging the power of the theatrical event by William Weigler B.A., Oberlin College, 1982 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Department of Theatre © William Weigler, 2011 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, by photocopying or other means, without permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Engaging the power of the theatrical event by William Weigler B.A., Oberlin College, 1982 Supervisory Committee Professor Warwick Dobson (Theatre) Supervisor Professor Emeritus Carole Miller (Curriculum and Instruction) Committee member Professor Pamela Moss (Studies in Policy and Practice) Committee member Professor James O. Young (Philosophy) Committee member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Professor Warwick Dobson (Theatre) Supervisor Professor Emeritus Carole Miller (Curriculum and Instruction) Committee member Professor Pamela Moss (Studies in Policy and Practice) Committee member Professor James O. Young (Philosophy) Committee member In this dissertation, I advance the question of what it means for applied theatre artists to give voice to the community members with whom they work. The study engages with some of the ethical and aesthetic tensions that emerge when one group of people (artists) is entrusted with giving dramatic form to the lived experience of another group (community members). The central premise of the dissertation is that when community participants increase their independent capacity to devise dynamic and compelling theatre, they achieve greater agency. Using a grounded theory analysis, I theorize qualities and characteristics that contribute to the staging of aesthetically arresting theatre, organized into a conceptual lexicon. This praxis-based study is intended to enable applied theatre practitioners to more directly give voice to their community partners. The dissertation presents a vocabulary that offers community participants and professional artists a mutually understood language with which to engage the power of the theatrical event. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee……………………………………………………………….……...ii Abstract………………………………………………………………………..……..………iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………….....iv List of Figures…………..…………………………..……………………………………....viii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………......ix Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………….x Some notes on usage…………………………………………………………………………xi Introduction.…………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1 Theoretical Foundations………………………………………………….………...3 Overview……………………………………………………………………………..………..1 Background on applied theatre…………………………………….……………………………......4 Relationships between artists and community members in applied theatre…………………….6 Relationships between teachers and students in Freirean pedagogy…………………………….9 Paulo Freire and the teaching of literacy……………………………………………....................10 What it means to have voice………....………………………………………………….………...…11 Vorsicht or “fore-sight”..……………………………………………………….…………………..12 Rationale for the study.…………………………………………………………………………......15 Aesthetic approaches to countering the grip of fore-sight………………………………............16 Shklovsky’s ostranenie……………….………………………………………………………….....17 Brecht’s verfremdungseffekt…………………………………………….…………………...18 Joyce’s aesthetic arrest and quidditas ……………………………………………………....19 Koestler’s bisociation ..……………………………………………………………………...20 Summary…………………………………………………………………………….…….....21 Purpose and significance of the study, and the research questions……….…………………22 Structure of the Dissertation: Five key categories of staging choices that arrest fore-sight ………………………………..23 Chapter 2 Methods and Methodology…………………………………………………………….26 Introduction .…………………………………………………………………………………26 Choice of methodology.….………………………………………………………..................26 Grounded theory: An inductive approach…………………………………………...……….29 v What does it mean to generate theory?……………………………………….……..……….32 Compiling the data set for this study..…………………………...……………….…………..33 The data..……………………………………………………………………………………..38 Recording and managing the strategies used for data analysis…………….……….………..40 Evaluating the study…………………..…………………………………………..………….46 Summary……………………………………………………………………………………..49 Chapter 3 Subverting (or Reconfiguring) the Contracts…………………..………………....50 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..50 I Subverting the Actor-as-Authority Contract………………………………………….………52 3.1 Risking personal emotional vulnerability—individual identity….…….……..……….52 3.2 Risking personal emotional vulnerability—group identity………….…….………….55 3.3 Decentred or lowered status……………………………………….……… ……….58 3.4 Abdicating authority of command—the actor as steward…………………. ……….60 3.5 Fostering connection through believable characters………………………. ……….62 II Subverting the Spectator-as-Recipient Contract…………………………………………65 3.6 Reconfiguring the venue……………………………………………………………65 3.7 Neutral space………………………………………………………………………..68 3.8 Enveloping the spectators in the game……………………………………………...69 3.9 Spectators as allies or pupils.………………………………………………………..70 3.10 Explicitly re-negotiating the contract with the event…………….………..……….74 3.11 Implicitly re-negotiating the contract with the event……………………………....75 Summary…………………………………………………………………………..................77 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………………....77 Implications for teaching ………………………………………………………………………..…83 Chapter 4 Compelling ……………………………………………………………...…….…86 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..86 Compelling…………………………………………………………………………………...88 4.1 Display of generosity or love that requires personal sacrifice…...……….…………..88 4.2 Hilarity……………………………………………………………………………...96 4.3 Display of injustice and unfairness…………………………………………………97 4.4 Taboo……………………………………………………………………………………....99 4.5 The destabilized body ………………………………………………………………..…101 vi 4.6 Beauty…………………………………………………………………….……….103 4.7 Cultivating an image through language…………………………………………...106 4.8 Cultivating suspense through language………………………………………….........108 4.9 Personal connection to the experience………………………………….…………110 Summary………………………………………………………….………………………...111 Discussion…………………………………………………………………….…………….112 Implications for teaching …………………………………………………………………...117 Chapter 5 Gest ……………………………………………………………………………..122 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………...122 Gest……………………………………………………………………………………………….…125 5.1 Relationship………………………………………………………………………..125 5.2 Emotional state ……………………………………………………………………129 5.3 Non-naturalism…………..………………………………………………………...131 5.4 Contradiction ..…………………………………………………………………….133 5.5 Scenic elements …………………………………………………………………...135 5.6 Staging concept …………………………………………………………………...136 Summary ...……………………………………………………………………………………...…138 Discussion ………………………………………………………………………………………....139 Implications for teaching….....……………………………………………………………..141 Chapter 6 Heuristics ………………………………………………………………………146 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………...146 I Revelation-based recognition heuristics ………………………………...………………150 6.1 Incidental recognition heuristics ..…………………………………………….…..152 6.2 Simultaneous recognition heuristics…………………………………………...………156 6.3 Oscillating recognition heuristics.……………………………………………………...160 II Affective punch………………………………………………………………………………....163 6.4Affective punch—scent and taste...……………………………………………………..163 6.5Affective punch—tactile …..……………………………………………………….165 6.6 Affective punch—sound……………………………………………………...……167 6.7 Affective punch—words and pauses………………………………………...………....172 III Subtraction heuristics…………………………………………………………………...173 6.8 Subtraction heuristics—sight mediated or sight denied…………………………….174 vii 6.9 Subtraction heuristics—language mediated or language denied …………………177 6.10 Subtraction heuristics—periods of silence………………………………. ……….179 Summary……………………………………………………………………………………180 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………………..182 Implications for teaching………………………………………………………….. ……….184 Chapter 7 Touching the Live Wire……………...……………………………….. ……….189 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………189 Touching the Live Wire…………………………………………………………………….187 7.1 Minimal incursions ………………………………………………………………..189 7.2 Going off the rails………………………………………………………………….191 7.3 Deliberate breach………………………………………………………….……….198 7.4 Real world bodies enter the fictional world…………………………………….….205 7.5 Now you don’t see it, now you do …………………………………………….......210 7.6 The world of the play shifts …………………………………………...……….….216 Summary …………………………………………………...………………………………219 Discussion…………………………………………………………….…………………….220 Implications for teaching ……………………………..………………………………...….224 Chapter 8 Conclusions and Contributions……………….…..……………………………...…228 Overview……………………………………………………………………………………226 Summary of the core categories…………….…..…………………………………………..229 Contributions to contemporary understandings of theatre theory…………….…………….230 Contributions to grounded theory methodology …………….……………………………..233 Contributions to applied theatre…………….………………………………………………236 Contributions to radical pedagogy…………….……………………………………………237 References…………………………………………………………………………………..239 Appendix A Query letters and data collection …………………………………...………..255 Appendix B List of Axial codes………..…………………………………………………...276 Appendix C Annotated list of moments of aesthetic arrest described in the study...…….....277 viii List of Figures Figure 1. Landing page for the website www.aesthetic-arrest.com.………….…………….36 Figure 2. Initial data sources……………………………………………………………….37 Figure 3. Secondary data sources.….……………………………………………………....38