Performing Research: Tensions, Triumphs and Trade-Offs of Ethnodrama

Ethnographic performance has been enthusiastically embraced by qualitative researchers as a powerful way to bring a research report to life, especially in the fields of education, health and community studies, where it is being increasingly employed in research and post-graduate training.

Most accounts are of successful projects and barely acknowledge the complex problem at the heart of ethnodrama. In blending the demands of research with the aesthetic of theatre and other agendas like education or therapy, research is inevitably compromised: choices and trade-offs are constantly made. In this book, the authors explore the paradoxes of the form–and its usefulness and appeal. Five groups of researcher/performers have bravely offered their projects up for critical examination to provide case studies for the book.

Performing Research is valuable and thought-provoking reading for qualitative researchers looking for innovative and imaginative ways of presenting research and engaging with communities in its reporting. It is essential reading for anybody thinking of using live or theatrical methods of reporting research.