Performing synergy : the use of playback theatre in exploring personal and dominant discourses amongst adolescents

Abstract

This dissertation explores the ways in which playback theatre can interrogate the relationships between dominant and personal discourses within an adolescent focus group with specific reference to personal responsibility and interpersonal communication. It further investigates how playback theatre can encourage a process of self-reflective discursive repositioning, which may encourage participants’ to envision alternative possibilities that may assist them in re-imagining themselves within their social circumstances. Through playback theatre this mini-dissertation aims to explore participants’ views on their social context(s) and establish the dominant and personal discourses within those views and what holds them in place. In order to understand how playback theatre can facilitate this process, it is placed within the relevant field of study and reflects on existing literature. Working with adolescents as a focus group required an exploration of adolescent development, which would allow me to place participants’ stories within the relevant framework. Playback theatre is dependent on personal stories and is interactive. I use the methodological approach of participatory action research in this study to engage with participants’ stories. In analysing the personal stories, narrative analysis is used, which can act as a means to map out dominant and personal discourses within the participants’ narratives. The history of playback theatre as deduced from relevant literature, describes how playback theatre creates a space for re-examining personal stories. The study further explores the way in which personal discourses can possibly be re-imagined and re-negotiated through witnessing and aesthetic distancing, with specific reference to personal responsibility and interpersonal communication. It also investigates how effective communication can promote personal responsibility through reflection upon the participants’ personal discourses and in doing so, re-evaluate and re-negotiate their understanding of their social circumstances. Twelve playback theatre performances with a group of 15 adolescents were held with a focus group in 2013. The stories that were told during the performances were analysed in terms of observation, participants’ journaling, focus group discussions and the use of narrative analysis. Playback theatre elements are used as a tool to negotiate new avenues pertaining to voiced issues, as presented through the participants’ personal stories. Overall, the study concluded that playback theatre can interrogate the relationships between dominant and personal discourses, with specific reference to personal responsibility and interpersonal communication.