Thirteenth International Conference on The Arts in Society

Abstract

What is going on in drama rehearsals? How do theatre groups work, learn and perform? Drama processes such as drama classes and theatre rehearsals are complex and rely on the spoken communication between the participants (such as actors, directors, and performance artists). The research focus in drama often lies on the performance rather than on the process, e.g. in the rehearsal space or in the studio, during which the piece is being developed. In this paper I will present the general approach and method I have developed for analysing drama working processes that involve two or more people. I will explain how it can be applied in the various fields of communication in drama such as in drama education. This method allows me to break drama processes down into phases and analyse them using linguistic-communicative categories which I will demonstrate by showing some short video-clips of different drama working processes. This paper is based on a new approach to drama and performance arts processes that use a communicative perspective to look at rehearsals and other preparational interactions involving a spoken artistic text production process (Milde 2007; 2012). This approach draws on a combination of spoken discourse analysis (e.g. Cameron 2001; Jaworski and Coupland 1999; Schiffrin 1994), and an adapted version of critique génétique (or genetic criticism) (Grésillon 1999; Deppman/Ferrer/Groden 2004), a contemporary critical movement in France.