Research Proposal

Unit 43 -Research Proposal

            A few years ago, I went to see a musical called London Road about how the residents of London Road in Ipswich reacted to the murders of girls in their area. The musical was in the style of verbatim theatre; ever since seeing this musical, I have been very interested in this style of theatre, and for that reason, am basing my research around verbatim theatre. I am also hoping to go into acting after school, and I would really love to be a cast member of a verbatim style play or musical in the future, because I think it would be a extremely fascinating experience to play a character who is a real person. I think it would be a challenge because you’d have to get the character spot on, in order to actually convey the feelings and emotions of the interviewee.

            Verbatim theatre is a style of documentary theatre where a play or musical is constructed from the exact words spoken by people interviewed about a particular event or topic. The characters in the play/ musical copy the rhythm and tone of the interviewees’ voices, which gives a realistic quality to the piece of theatre and also makes the audience think more, especially if the topic is emotive; knowing the characters are real people, allows you to empathize with them much more. I will consider research into other people’s opinions and reviews of different verbatim plays and musicals to find out what audiences think of the style and compare it to my own opinions.

            For this unit I am going to look into what it is like to create a piece of verbatim theatre for a play write or director; I’d imagine it would be incredibly interesting to learn about the creative process and how interviews with people turn from just audio recordings into a whole script of dialogue and sometimes songs. I’d also like to find out what it’s like to be a cast member of a verbatim play or musical because, like I said, I’d love to be a part of one in the future. To do this, I will set up an interview with a member of the cast of the verbatim musical London Road, as I know her through my family. It would be interesting to find out what it was like to be a part of the production. I’d like to do this because it will give me an insider’s view into being involved in a verbatim show, and she might be able to give me some advise for being cast in a verbatim piece and what casting directors look for in actors.

            I am considering writing a short review of a resent verbatim play I went to see at the national theatre called John. The dialogue in the script was taken from interviews from Frank, and the play followed the life of one man and how he turned to drugs and alcohol because of depression. Writing a review of the play, will help me to evaluate and expand my knowledge on the director and actors’ approach to verbatim theatre, which will, in turn, greater my understanding of the style. I will also ask for the opinion of another person who saw the play to compare mine and their thoughts and opinions of the play. Getting another person’s view might enable me to consider ideas I hadn’t thought of yet, which will again, expand my knowledge and understanding of verbatim theatre.

            I would like to research into the theatre companies Record Delivery and DV8 because these are the companies which put on the two verbatim productions that I have seen, London Road and John; I really enjoyed them and would be interested to find out if they have put on any other verbatim plays in the past, and if so, what they were. I’d like to know this because it will help me to expand my knowledge of the theatre companies and what their style is.

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After researching a little into the theatre company DV8, I decided to go no further, as they are not a verbatim theatre company, but physical theatre, and therefore, do not link to my research of verbatim theatre. However, I will continue to look into reviews of the verbatim play, John, as I said I would.