Verbatim theatre: Difference between revisions
Tide rolls (talk | contribs) m Reverted edits by 60.231.28.176 (talk) to last revision by SummerWithMorons (HG) |
No edit summary |
||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Refimprove|date=May 2009}} |
{{Refimprove|date=May 2009}} |
||
'''Verbatim theatre''' is a form of [[documentary theatre]] in which plays are constructed from the precise words spoken by people interviewed about a particular event or topic. |
'''Verbatim theatre''' is a form of [[documentary theatre]] in which plays are constructed from the precise words spoken by people interviewed about a particular event or topic. Vebratim theatre is gay |
||
==Definition== |
==Definition== |
Revision as of 00:17, 22 July 2011
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2009) |
Verbatim theatre is a form of documentary theatre in which plays are constructed from the precise words spoken by people interviewed about a particular event or topic. Vebratim theatre is gay
Definition
The playwright interviews people that are connected to the topic that the play is focused on and uses their testimony to construct the piece. In this way they seek to achieve a degree of authority akin to that represented by the news. Such plays may be focused on politics, disasters or even sporting events.
A verbatim style of theatre uses the real words from interviewees to construct the play. Campion Decent, Australian playwright and author of the verbatim theatre play Embers, said it is “not written in a traditional sense… but is... conceived, collected and collated”.[1]
Examples
Recent, high profile pieces of verbatim theatre include Talking to Terrorists by Robin Soans, My Name is Rachel Corrie by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner, Deep Cut by Philip Ralph and Katharine Viner and The Permanent Way by David Hare. A recent example is Counted (2010) by LookLeftLookRight. [2]
Another recent example is Black Watch (play), a piece that integrated interviews taken with actual members of the Black Watch with dramatized versions of their stories and dance pieces. The piece originated in the Edinburgh Festival and was created by the National Theatre of Scotland and Gregory Burke.
Recorded voice delivery is an extension of verbatim theatre in which actors have recorded interviews played back to them during the performance, allowing them to directly mimic the accents and manner of speech, as well as the words, of the people they portray. This technique was pioneered by American actress Anna Deavere Smith in her play Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 about the 1992 Los Angeles riots.[citation needed] A more recent example is Grandpa Sol and Lily's Grandma Rosie by Lana Schwarcz, in which Schwarz portrays the residents of a retirement home via puppetry and playback of interviews via iPod.
External links
Paul Taylor's article on Counted and the rise of verbatim theatre, The Independent 2010 [3]
The Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators' Verbatim Theatre unit.
References