Reflective Practitioner Diary: Issues of Documentation

Have been thinking a lot over the last few days about how I can record the audience’s experiences of the performance. There are a few issues that present themselves with some of the more Cartesian techniques of recording oral histories in this way:

1. The Interview
If I interview the audience it is inevitable that my questions will affect the audience member’s response. My questions and style of asking will lead and structure their answers...it will inflect their responses. Also my line of questioning, whatever that may be will neglect to address some of the things that the audience member may have felt were important. No matter how well I plan or pre-pare this will be the case. Also this type of intimate questioning may make some people nervous or uncomfortable and thus create a barrier to our communication. There is also the possibility that they will try and say what they think I wish to hear by reading my expressions, tone and body language. For these reasons I have decided that I will not be employing these techniques to record the individual phenomenological aspects of the audience’s experience of my work.

2. The Questionnaire
There are several issues that I can foresee in this method of gathering the audiences experiences...many of which are similar to that of the oral interview. As before, the questions and their style, will structure and inflect the response...I want a much more personal and raw account of their experiences. Questionnaires can be so impersonal and again I may not hit the nail on the head with the questions that I ask. There is a tendency for people to dash off questionnaires quickly and with little thought, again not helpful. So I will not be using this method either.
I want a personal expression and response of their experience of the performance work, this means a method that allows for this to happen...I really want the audience to be able to express themselves in a personal and individual way...as I am only really interested in qualitative information this will not restrict how I gather my data.

So here’s the thing....after much thought and deliberation...as well as a long conversation with my mum (she is my muse, creative, smart and very practical!)...I have settled on a methodology that I feel will address all of these issues and it comes in two parts:

1. The Group After Show Discussion
I have been to many of these in my time studying theatre and they always have a relaxed atmosphere where the attending parties do not hold back. I think that this will create a forum with the actors; audience and director can all throw things into the mix and will be an indication of the things that affected people during the performance. I will film it as well as the performance itself.

2. Documentary Booth
At the same time as the discussion, I will explain to the audience that the documentary booth is available and to feel free to pop along at any point after the show to leave either a video diary, audio diary or textual document_ So basically the booth will be private, it will have a voice recording device, a video camera and a note book...I will put instructions on how to work everything in there...along with a notice that will ask the audience to leave me a document of their experience of the performance...and that they are free to express it in any form they like, using any of the documentary tools they like...obviously I will think of a better way of wording it....
I think that both of these methods will give me a chance to really capture the audience’s expressions and impressions of how they experienced the performance. It then makes the documentation performative in its own right...the audience will be re-enacting their own experiences of the show....the show re-enacted...remediate through the audiences perspective. This is really exciting...

I text Joe today about soundscape bits..no reply will have to call him I think.
I drafted e-mails to send to:
Sharon Armstrong-about perf space
Rob Conkie-about performers