A Review of Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage

In Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage (2011), Johnny Saldana, Professor Emeritus of Theatre at Arizona State University, establishes ethnotheatre as a research method and art form in qualitative inquiry. Envisioned as an ethnotheatre textbook, various aspects of arts-based inquiry are intertwined in the six chapters, including ethical issues, artistic performance, adaptations of empirical materials in theatrical plays, monologue and dialogue construction, scriptwriting, theatrical design, production rights, copyright registration, and aesthetic language. Drawing on theatre-based studies, each chapter is grounded in literature and provides step-by-step guidelines to how traditional research and data can be reinterpreted, staged, performed, produced, and disseminated as theatrical play. Additionally, each chapter includes a list of recommended readings of annotated playscripts, books, research articles, playwriting script excerpts, online and multimedia resources, playwriting, and storytelling exercises, as well as endnotes. Both the structure of the book and variety of activities and recommended readings make this book suitable for both teaching and research. In Chapter One, the concepts of ethnotheatre or theatrical performance and ethnodrama or dramatized, written script are introduced within existing literature on performative social research. The author discusses the pedagogical, documentary, social equity, reflexivity, and aesthetic purposes of this arts-based research genre. Drawing from his research and teaching experience, Saldana justifies that ethnotheatre captures the complexities of the social world in a more nuanced way and allows for alternative representations of empirical data: "if the art form has this ability, this power, to heighten the representation and presentation of social life, and if our research goal with a particular fieldwork project is to capture and document the stark realities of the people we talked to and observed, then the medium of theatre seems the most compatible choice for sharing our findings and insights" (p. 15). Through examples of plays based on social issues, the author illustrates that the goal of ethnodrama is to create a truthful representation of a culture and ongoing dialogue through performance and visual language between participants, researcher, and the wider community about relevant issues. Examples of plays discussed include Maybe Someday: Voices of HIV-Positive Women (Sandelowski, Trimble, Woodard, & Barroso, 2006), an adaptation into a script and DVD of lived experiences of HIV-positive women, Second Chair (Saldana, 2008), an autoethnodrama about the evolving negotiation of ethnic, gender, and social identities in a high school band, or The Laramie Project, a play and drama film based on over two hundred interviews related to a hate crime. Chapter Two recommends a series of ethnodramatic exercises to stimulate improvisation, script writing, character development, and observation skills. The purpose of these activities is to help the reader transform mundane dialogues and events to stage performance for the audience credibility. For example, the goal of conversational dramatism activity based on My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student (Nathan, 2005) is to enhance observation and storytelling by creating an improvised or scripted scenario with dialogue based on this play and reader experiences. Additional activities promote writing from another person's perspective or developing scenarios, characters, conflicts, or photographs based on existing media stories and local events. The following two chapters outline how everyday stories can be adapted "into an economic and aesthetic shape" (p. 70), in monologues and dialogues. Specifically, Chapter Three expands on the elements of monologues, including point of view, relationship with audience, the character's objectives, tensions, and strategies, subtexts, and the labovian storyline structure. …