Hello all,

I am responding to Kip's suggestion to dance the work.

As as faculty in dance at Rutgers University, specializing in oral history
interviewing theory/methods and the development of performance works from
ethnographic materials, I want to second that motion.

If you are interested, the Mid-Atlantic Oral History Association in the
U.S. is producing a 2 day conference on oral history and performance at
Columbia University in New York City on March 14 and 15, 2008.

You will find program information, registration materials and a
description of over 80 presenters from all over the U.S., Canada, and
Europe.  Many of these presenters are offering performative papers with
excerpts from performance works.  An informal performance event on Friday
evening the 14th will focus on 3 selected works.  We are hoping to publish
an on-line proceedings with video and print text presentations in the
future...  Please let me know if you have questions or comments.

On another note, if you are interested in an overview of this sort of
work, in addition to Saldana's recent book, I published a chapter in the
Oral History Reader (Altamira Press, 2006) that covers converting oral
history materials into not only theater, but dance and sound art.  There
is also a brief theoretical framework historicizing my case studies. 
Regards dance in particular, you can also check out my article in the
British Oral History Society's journal from 2005 titled Muscle Memory,
generated from a plenary performance at University of Bournemouth.

I hope these are useful resources for future discussion and
creative/theoretical work.

best,

Jeff Friedman


> Dear Mary,
>
>
>
> Really nice to hear from you and Kip. I'm glad I joined this group as I/we
> (Nigel and Liam) would like to turn the Borderlands piece into a
> performance
> art form, but don't really know where to start. I like Kip's idea of
> turning
> it into a play or open scripted event, but am also enthused by what you
> describe (any ideas?). It would be great to have some help with this, and
> to
> do some inter-HEI collaboration on it. I've attached a piece I wrote
> before
> the first published story of my psychosis God and Planes. I did it in a
> creative writing workshop and it was very cathartic. I suppose it was
> about
> alienation from my family of origin, amongst lots of other things, as a
> direct consequence of moving into Higher Education. I plan to include it
> in
> my next autoethnography, but - as always - I'm struggling with the
> relational ethics involved.
>
>
>
> Anyway, it's great to be in this group. Look forward to hearing more from
> you (all).
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Alec
>
>
>
> From: Performative Social Science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Mary Smail
> Sent: 02 February 2008 12:13
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Introducing myself and a query
>
>
>
> Alec
>
>
>
> Welcome to this very alive and interesting e group.
>
>
>
> I am interested in the "doing self" you describe and this prompted me to
> introduce myself as a dramatherapist/psychotherapist working through a
> method called the Sesame approach - the name taken from the ancient Ali
> Baba
> story where the door to inner resources is opened through the password
> "Open
> Sesame".
>
>
>
> Sesame uses drama and movement as a means of "doing" to connect to the
> inner
> s/Self, story image,  with the return to words or "therapeutic outcome"
> arriving later.  For this approach to be effective, people need to feel
> both
> at home/comfortable  in the  movement, sound work, story making, myth
> enactment etc we offer, so that their story can emerge  less from a
> presented, performance head place but more in the raw stuff of the
> creating
> unconscious.  What Kip was suggesting about the dancing without words and
> the other forms are very exciting ideas - my addition would be about
> building in time so that your potential workshoppers are secure in the art
> forms and  more likely to be s/Self directed rather than simply coming up
> with the goods!
>
>
>
> Just a thought and good luck with the Borderlands!
>
>
>
> Mary
>
> Mary Smail
> Director
> Sesame Institute for Drama and Movement in Therapy
>  <http://www.sesame-institute.org> www.sesame-institute.org
>  <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---- Original Message -----
>
> From: Kip Jones <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 9:40 AM
>
> Subject: Re: Introducing myself and a query
>
>
>
> Dear Alec
> You bring up a good topic for discussion here on the list.  I too look
> forward to input from members.
>
> I know your article and salute your bravery in writing it and the journal
> (and particularly editor,  Dawn Freshwater) for publishing it.
>
> As far as turning it into ethnodrama, I have a few suggestions/comments.
>
> I first would suggest considering more than one possibility for
> 'performing'
> your piece.  You may want to consider more than just a play of your
> material.  The tools from the arts available to us are of a wide variety.
> I
> sometimes jokingly remind people of Judy and Mickey's response to saving
> the
> farm: "I know  what we'll do!  We'll put on a show!"   I doubt that they
> covered the mortgage!  Sometimes putting on a play is but a first
> response.
>
> You might start by workshopping your piece.  The upcoming masterclass with
> Kim Dark here at BU might offer a good opportunity.  If Ethnodrama is your
> chosen outlet in the end, you might attend our conference 8-10 Sept where
> Johnny Saldana will be a keynote and available to talk informally with
> delegates about their work.
>
> I would also suggest seeing Andrew Sparkes present his paper on the RAE
> fiasco.  I suggest see rather than read, because Andrew presents it with a
> passion and theatricality that goes beyond 'giving a paper' and becomes
> performative.
>
> I would also suggest considering other media, particularly new media.
> Could
> your paper become a radio play, for example?  Or could it be turned into
> an
> open scripted community event with participants moving from audience to
> player and back again?  In the end, could the audience 'write' the play?
>
> How could the paper be represented visually?  Could it be danced without
> words?  Is there music that comes to mind when you think about the
> narrative
> and how could these be used to collage the story aurally?
>
> These are just a few suggestions for exploration.  I hope that you will
> join
> us for one of our events in future where your ideas could be developed
> further.
>
> The joy of Performative Social Science is that it is collaborative and
> there
> is no longer need to only work in scholarly isolation.
>
> Cheers and thanks for joining the list,
> Kip
>
>
> Dr Alec Grant <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Dear list members,
>
>
>
> Hello to you all; I've just joined. I'm attaching our paper that's
> recently
> been published. Someone from the autoethnography jiscmail list said they
> thought it would make a good ethnodrama play. We thought about this a
> while
> back ourselves, but the people at our uni (Brighton) were luke warm about
> the idea.
>
>
>
> I'm still interested in this idea, but don't really know where to start.
> So,
> any feedback from you about this idea would be well received by us.
>
>
>
> I look forward to replies.
>
>
>
> Best to all,
>
>
>
> Alec
>
> Dr Alec Grant
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dr Kip Jones
> Reader in Qualitative Social Science
> Leader, Performative Social Science Group
> Centre for Qualitative Research
> Bournemouth University United Kingdom
> *************************
> Website: www.kipworld.net
> *****************************************
> To join the PerformSocSci newsgroup go to:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=performsocsci&A=1
>
>
>   _____
>
>
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