Get Real

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Alison Forsyth, Chris Megson

   Pages 1-5

3. The Promise of Documentary

   • Janelle Reinelt

   Pages 6-23

4. Mediating the 1930s: Documentary and Politics in Theatre Union’s Last Edition (1940)

   • Ben Harker

   Pages 24-37

5. History in the Driving Seat: Unity Theatre and the Embrace of the ‘Real’

   • Colin Chambers

   Pages 38-54

6. The Documentary Body: Theatre Workshop to Banner Theatre

   • Alan Filewod

   Pages 55-73

7. Living Simulations: The Use of Media in Documentary in the UK, Lebanon and Israel

   • Carol Martin

   Pages 74-90

8. Looking for Esrafil: Witnessing ‘Refugitive’ Bodies in I’ve got something to show you

   • Alison Jeffers

   Pages 91-106

9. Remembering the Past, ‘Growing Ourselves a Future’: Community-Based Documentary Theatre in the East Palo Alto Project

   • Liberty Smith

   Pages 107-121

10. Ngapartji Ngapartji: Telling Aboriginal Australian Stories

    • Maryrose Casey

    Pages 122-139

11. Performing Trauma: Race Riots and Beyond in the Work of Anna Deavere Smith

    • Alison Forsyth

    Pages 140-150

12. History, Memory and Trauma in the Documentary Plays of Emily Mann

    • Attilio Favorini

    Pages 151-166

13. When Heroes Fall: Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife and the Challenge to Truth

    • Nels P. Highberg

    Pages 167-178

14. The Performance of Truth and Justice in Northern Ireland: The Case of Bloody Sunday

    • Carole-Anne Upton

    Pages 179-194

15. Half the Picture: ‘A Certain Frisson’ at the Tricycle Theatre

    • Chris Megson

    Pages 195-208

16. Verbatim Theatre in South Africa: ‘Living History in a Person’s Performance’

    • Yvette Hutchison

    Pages 209-223

17. The ‘Broken Tradition’ of Documentary Theatre and Its Continued Powers of Endurance

    • Derek Paget

    Pages 224-238

18. Back Matter

    Pages 239-256

    PDF

Over the past two decades, theatre practitioners across the West have turned to documentary modes of performance-making to confront new socio-political realities. The essays in this book place this work in context, exploring historical and contemporary examples of documentary and 'verbatim' theatre, and applying a range of critical perspectives.

• essay
• media
• theatre

“Get Real is an extremely timely and valuable collection of essays that highlights the historical trajectories and developing poetics of documentary theatre and performance. It is a must-read text for arts/humanities academics and students, and performance practitioners.” (Kerrie Schaefer, Studies in Theatre & Performance, Vol. 30 (3), November, 2010)

'This is a timely book. Following hard on the heels of the 2006 TDR special issue on documentary theatre, and at a time when public and critical interest in documentary theatre has - in the UK at least - never been higher, the editors have produced a collection of essays that sets out (in their words) 'to re-evaluate the historical traditions' of the genre, and 'to examine the remarkable mobilization and proliferation of documentary forms across Western theatre cultures in the past twodecades'. In this the book, with very few reservations, succeeds...The standard of writing is uniformly high.' - Anthony Jackson, New Theatre Quarterly

'Academic interest in documentary theatre has been slowly growing and this anthology, the first book-length study of the subject in a decade, offers an overdue and distinctive contribution to disciplinary knowledge...Get Real is an extremely timely and valuable collection of essays that highlights the historical trajectories and developing poetics of documentary theatre and performance. It is a must-read text for arts/humanities academics and students, and performance practitioners.' - Kerrie Schaefer, Studies in Theatre and Performance

'Get Real explores reality-based theatre in two main directions. The first presents a historic overview of the hybrid nature of Western documentary theatre since the 1930s... The second direction points to insightful analysis of a range of current practices, with a specific interest in British verbatim theatre.' - Katia Arfara, Theatre Research International

'Like the documentary plays it analyses, Get Real presents a multiplicity of voices and a diversity of viewpoints...the selection and organisation of these essays indicate an acute eye.' - Caroline Wake, Performance Paradigm

• Aberystwyth University, UK

  Alison Forsyth

• Royal Holloway College, University of London, UK

  Chris Megson

MARYROSE CASEY is a Lecturer at the Centre for Theatre and Drama Studies at Monash University, Australia COLIN CHAMBERS is Reader in Drama at Kingston University, UK ATTILIO FAVORINI founded the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh, USA ALAN FILEWOD is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph, Canada BEN HARKER is a Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Salford, UK NELS P. HIGHBERG is Assistant Professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Professional Writing at the University of Hartford, USA YVETTE HUTCHISON is Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Warwick, UK ALISON JEFFERS is a Teaching Fellow in Drama at the University of Manchester, UK CAROL MARTIN is an Associate Professor of Drama at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, USA DEREK PAGET is Reader in Theatre and Television, University of Reading, UK JANELLE REINELT is Professor of Theatre and Performance at theUniversity of Warwick, UK LIBERTY SMITH manages the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, the world's largest repository of information on service-learning and campus-community educational partnerships CAROLE-ANNE UPTON is Professor of Drama at the University of Ulster, UK

Policies and ethics