Abstracts
Abstract
This article addresses the question: What are the expansive possibilities offered by a trans-informed Research-based Theatre (RbT) creation framework? Drawing on excerpts from an autoethnographic playscript which centres on my experiences as a graduate student while coming out as a nonbinary trans woman, I explore specific and adaptable strategies for trans-informed RbT playwriting. Playwriting is an essential component of the RbT creation process, and the strategies explored in this article may inform RbT practitioners’ approach in the classroom and beyond.
Keywords:
- Research-based theatre,
- playwriting,
- mental health,
- trans joy,
- trans studies,
- trans graduate students
Résumé
Cet article se demande quelles opportunités supplémentaires offre un cadre de création théâtrale axé sur la recherche (RbT en anglais) et informé par les expériences trans. En m’appuyant sur des extraits d’unepièce autoethnographique centrée sur mon expérience en tant qu’étudiante aux cycles supérieurs lors de mon coming out en tant que femme trans non binaire, j’explore des stratégies spécifiques et adaptablespour l’écriture dramatique RbT informée par les expériences trans. L’écriture dramatique est un élément central du processus de création en RbT. Les stratégies présentées ici peuvent éclairer la démarche despraticien·ne·s du RbT, que ce soit dans une salle de classe ou ailleurs.
Appendices
Bibliography
- Adams, T. E., Holman Jones, S., & Ellis, C. (2022). Introduction: Making sense and taking action: Creating a caring community of autoethnographers. In T. E. Adams, S. Holman Jones, & C. Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of autoethnography (2nd ed., pp. 1–19). Routledge.
- American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style (7th ed.).
- Balfour, M., & Hassall, L. (2022). The return: Research-based theater with and for ex-military personnel experiencing posttraumatic stress. Qualitative Inquiry, 29(2), 332–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221101587
- Beck, J. L., Belliveau, G., Lea, G. W., & Wager, A. (2011). Delineating a spectrum of research-based theatre. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(8), 687–700. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800411415498
- Belliveau, G., & Lea, G. W. (Eds.). (2016). Research-based theatre: An artistic methodology. Intellect.
- Belliveau, G., Lea, G. W., & Westwood, M. (Eds.). (2020). Contact!Unload: Military veterans, trauma, and research-based theatre. UBC Press.
- Butterfield, L. D., Borgen, W. A., Amundson, N. E., & Erlebach, A. C. (2010). What helps and hinders workers in managing change. Journal of Employment Counseling, 47(4), 146–156. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2010.tb00099.x
- Campbell, A. (2020). Queering pedagogies. Theatre Topics, 30(2), 117–124. https://doi.org/10.1353/tt.2020.0018
- Cattaneo, A. (2021). The art of dramaturgy. Yale University Press.
- Chu, A. L. (2019). Females. Verso.
- Chu, A. L., & Harsin Drager, E. (2019). After trans studies. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 6(1), 103–116. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-7253524
- Cook, C., & Borgen, W. (2020). Give me your hands: Therapeutic experiences of collective theatre creation in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 54(3), 324–348. https://cjc-rcc.ucalgary.ca/article/view/69478
- Dolan, J. (2005). Utopia in performance: Finding hope at the theater. University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.119520
- Ellis, C. (2007). Telling secrets, revealing lives: Relational ethics in research with intimate others. Qualitative Inquiry, 13(1), 3–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800406294947
- Fitzpatrick, C. (2016). Glamourpuss. Topside Press.
- Goldberg, A. E., McCormick, N., Matsuno, E., Virginia, H., & Beemyn, G. (2022). Transgender graduate students: Considerations, tensions, and decisions in choosing a graduate program. Journal of Homosexuality, 69(9), 1549–1575. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2021.1919476
- Harris, D. E. (2015). Decorus. Boundary 2, 42(4), 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1215/01903659-3155746
- Halberstam, J. (2018). Female masculinity. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11cwb00
- Hyde, J. S., Bigler, R. S., Joel, D., Tate, C. C., & van Anders, S. M. (2019). The future of sex and gender in psychology: Five challenges to the gender binary. American Psychologist, 74(2), 171–193. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000307
- Jarus, T., Mayer, Y., Gross, E., Cook, C., Bulk, L. Y., Hershler, L. A. D., Nichols, J., Zaman, S., & Belliveau, G. (2022). Bringing disability experiences front stage: Research-based theatre as a teaching approach to promote inclusive health education. Nurse Education Today, 115, Article 105408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105408
- Keenan, H. B. (2017). Unscripting curriculum: Toward a critical trans pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 87(4), 538–556. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-87.4.538
- Keyes, L., Mantoan, L., & Schiller, A. F. (2021). Introduction: In a trans time and space. In L. Keyes, L. Mantoan, & A. F. Schiller (Eds.), The Methuen drama book of trans plays (pp. 1–7). Methuen Drama.
- Kontos, P. C., Miller, K. L., Gilbert, J. E., Mitchell, G. J., Colantonio, A., Keightley, M. L., & Cott, C. (2012). Improving client-centered brain injury rehabilitation through research-based theater. Qualitative Health Research, 22(12), 1612–1632. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732312458370
- Lea, G. W., Belliveau, G., Wager, A., & Beck, J. L. (2011). A loud silence: Working with research-based theatre and a/r/tography. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 12(16). http://www.ijea.org/v12n16/v12n16.pdf
- Leavy, P. (2023). Re/invention: Methods of social fiction. Guilford Press.
- Chilton, G., & Leavy, P. (2020). Arts-based research: Merging social research and the creative arts. In P. Leavy (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 601–632). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190847388.013.27
- Malatino, H. (2019). Future fatigue: Trans intimacies and trans presents (or how to survive the interregnum). TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 6(4), 635–658. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-7771796
- Malatino, H. (2020). Trans care. University of Minnesota Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/78334
- Mosher, D. K., Hook, J. N., Captari, L. E., Davis, D. E., DeBlaere, C., & Owen, J. (2017). Cultural humility: A therapeutic framework for engaging diverse clients. Practice Innovations, 2(4), 221–233. https://doi.org/10.1037/pri0000055
- Nichols, J., Cox, S. M., Cook, C., Lea, G. W., & Belliveau, G. (2022). Research-based theatre about veterans transitioning home: A mixed-methods evaluation of audience impacts. Social Science & Medicine, 292, Article 114578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114578
- Owis, B., Baer, P., Salisbury, J., & Goldstein, T. (2023). Out at school: Imagining a slow ethic of care in research-based theater. Qualitative Inquiry, 29(2), 323–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221097633
- Raun, T. (2014). Trans as contested intelligibility. Lambda Nordica, 19(1), 13–37. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/trans-as-contested-intelligibility/docview/2424524422/se-2
- Riggs, D. W., Pearce, R., Pfeffer, C. A., Hines, S., White, F., & Ruspini, E. (2019). Transnormativity in the psy disciplines: Constructing pathology in the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders and standards of care. American Psychologist, 74(8), 912–924. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000545
- Rossiter, K., Kontos, P., Colantonio, A., Gilbert, J., Gray, J., & Keightley, M. (2008). Staging data: Theatre as a tool for analysis and knowledge transfer in health research. Social Science & Medicine, 66(1), 130–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.07.021
- Smiley, S. (2005). Playwriting: The structure of action (Rev. ed.). Yale University Press.
- Spoon, R., & Coyote, I. (2014). Gender failure. Arsenal Pulp Press.
- Spring, L. (2022). Ethical implications of using research-based theater to challenge hegemonic narratives about mental health. Qualitative Inquiry, 29(2), 354–364. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221097638
- Springgay, S., & Truman, S. E. (2018). Walking methodologies in a more-than-human world: WalkingLab. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315231914
- Steinbock, E. (2021). Embodiment. In A. E. Goldberg & G. Beemyn (Eds.), The SAGE encyclopedia of trans studies (pp. 229–232). SAGE Publications.
- Stone, S. (1992). The empire strikes back: A posttranssexual manifesto. Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies, 10(2), 150–176. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-10-2_29-150
- Stryker, S. (2006). (De)subjugated knowledges: An introduction to transgender studies. In S. Stryker & S. Whittle (Eds.), The transgender studies reader (pp. 1–17). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203955055
- Stryker, S. (2017). Transgender history: The roots of today's revolution (2nd ed.). Seal Press.
- Stryker, S., & Currah, P. (2014). General editors’ introduction. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 1(4), 467–468. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2815102
- Stryker, S., Currah, P., & Moore, L. J. (2008). Introduction: Trans-, trans, or transgender? Women's Studies Quarterly, 36(3/4), 11–22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27649781
- Truman, S. E., & Shannon, D. B. (2018). Queer sonic cultures: An affective walking-composing project. Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Inquiry, 1(3), 58–77. https://doi.org/10.22387/CAP2018.19
- Weil, A. (2017). Trans*versal animacies and the mattering of Black trans* political life. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 22(2), 191–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2017.1322837

