The making, performing and appreciating of The Journey provides the research context for the research project in that it included the whole school community. Their participation and response to the project generated data relating to the level of commitment by the school community at large.
The production was a challenging task; involving 450 students and 43 staff members, The Journey was difficult to successfully create within a school. The study is also challenging as it is difficult to analyse and measure the effect of the performance; largely due to the huge number of participants in the performance work. The performance was produced by me as director, artist and educator. No actual research was conducted during the performance rehearsal or production; the research for this study began after June 2013.
At the outset of my study, I considered quantitative research as my chosen mode to adequately canvass the opinions of such a vast number of participants through structured surveys, statistics and analysis. However, upon further reflection on the nature of The Journey, I opted for qualitative research to explore the quality of the experiences of participants and to understand how individual perspectives were formed and transformed through participant involvement in The Journey. I wanted to take a holistic, comprehensive and dynamic approach to the study of the complex relationships at work within my selected phenomenon (Corbin, & Strauss, 2015, p. 4) a NSW Public High School; Duruga High School.
The School
The context for the enquiry is Duruga High School8; a comprehensive rural high school
established in 1988 on the South coast of NSW. The school’s feeder area has a population of 10,845 and has a ‘Socio-Economic Index for Areas’ or SEIFA score of 906; making it one of the largest socio-economically disadvantaged areas in the region.9 Income levels in the area
are low to medium on average, with higher than average rates of unemployment and families receiving government benefits (NSW Department of Education. 2012 report on Duruga High School National Partnerships on Low SES School Communities-Situational Analysis Report, 2010).
Duruga High School’s population of 678 students and 45 teachers features a very broad socio-economic background. However, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are over represented; with 21 students in the special education program and approximately 100 students identifying with the Indigenous community10.
The Performance
The performance central to this research took place from the 25th to the 28th of July; Week 2,
Term 3, 2012. No formal research took place during this performance; however, I will outline
8 Duruga working as a pseudonym which means “falling star” in local aboriginal dialect.
9 SEIFA is an instrument used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to establish the socio-economic status of a
region and is derived from attributes such as low income, low educational attainment, high unemployment, jobs in relatively unskilled occupations and variables that reflect disadvantage rather than measure specific aspects of disadvantage. (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012).
the production design as it plays an intrinsic part in understanding the methodology selected for analysis.
A case study based on a large-scale, site-specific performance that involved the whole school would ordinarily be classed as “community theatre”, and there are several examples of similar work existing in communities (see chapter 2). The Journey was a celebratory piece of community theatre based on Homer’s The Odyssey that was designed to be both physically and metaphorically a journey for the school’s inhabitants and the community within which it resides.
The evaluation of the performance project pre-supposes the knowledge that The Journey was in ‘promenade form’ and asked the audience to move through the school grounds. The
audience experienced different scenes in different locations, thus seeing the school as a series of stages, not classrooms. Mason (1992) argues that this kind of promenade theatre has the potential to redefine a space that is not always associated with whole school communication and unity: “The audience not only has to make the effort, it also has to place considerable trust in the performers because it may be transported away from familiar surroundings with no easy possibility of opting out” (p. 145). This is largely why this style of theatre evoked such powerful reactions from the study participants and inspired this research.
Every faculty, and thus every student and teacher in the school, was asked to be involved in the performance in a way that incorporated their individual strengths and area of speciality within class time; rather than conforming to one central art form or style, difference was both embraced and encouraged. This level of whole school participation required a significant shift in the organisational and social thinking at a school and departmental level.
For example:
1) CAPA: Students were involved in drama, dance, music and art throughout every
phase of the production.
2) Maths: Students designed and created three dimensional lanterns through geometry
unit for lantern procession.
3) English: Students consulted in preliminary script stages and wrote “Journey” based
4) Industrial Arts: Students researched, designed and constructed historically correct
armour and props for the performance.
5) Physical Education: P.E. students were asked to research Ancient Greek
Philosophers/Scientists/sports and play out these characters in the ‘market place’ and Classical Greek Olympics.
6) Science: The science department provided special effects (e.g.: smoke/dry ice/
animals for atmosphere, etc). Also, the catering for the show contained crops which came from the Agriculture Department and had been grown by students.
7) Circus: The school has run a successful in-school circus program “Clyde Circus” for
eight years and included a large representation of this work within the site-specific performance; including aerial work, fire performers, adagio performers, acrobats, stilt walkers and manipulation artists.
Initial consultations with the school’s Aboriginal Community Engagement Officer, generated suggestions for production/ performance areas to include traditional Aboriginal culture and the newly created medicine plants/ bush tucker gardens constructed on the school grounds. The Aboriginal students who wished to be involved in The Journey were encouraged to participate in all and any areas of production and performance and had the added opportunity of writing and participating in cultural installations for performance at intervals throughout the lantern procession. These installations took the form of traditional art, dance, music and living sculpture with an Indigenous smoking ceremony11 performed by local Aboriginal
Elders being included in the procession process.
Members of the local community were also asked to be included in the whole school project in the form of volunteers to aid in prop and costume construction, catering supplies and assistance, sponsorship and promotion/publicity and support by attendance.
The other areas of the production were budgeted for and appropriate time allocated by various faculty teachers. The staff members involved in directorial roles were worked into teams and continued to be consulted about their designated section of the whole school project via emails and weekly meetings regarding progress, development and commitment.
11 A smoking ceremony is one of the most significant ancient ceremonies performed by Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people. The ceremony involves smouldering native plants to produce smoke which is believed to have healing properties and the ability to ward off evil spirits (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erJaQ_b09zI
This rigorous communication process was vital to effectively monitor such a wide variety of producers and section administrators, and ensure everyone was moving towards the
completion of the project; The Journey.
When the performance concluded, key informants for the case study were identified (after SERAP12 and the University of Sydney Ethics Approval13, approved 21st, June, 2013)
according to their role within the production and within the school community. These informants provided the foundations from which to gather research data to effectively form an understanding of The Journey and its effects on the individual participants and their surrounding community.
The Researcher
Prior to working at Duruga High School, I trained and worked as a physical theatre and circus director and performer and so have a strong foundation in this area of the arts as a means of expression and understanding. My disposition to this particular kind of theatre comes through years of exploration of this art form and through witnessing its potential for the establishment of physical identity and connection amongst its participants.
With regard to The Journey as a work of site-specific, physical theatre; by participating in the project as a director, producer and performer I have developed a firsthand, empathetic
understanding of the process of participation and development throughout my study. In particular, the inversion of previously established ‘power relationships’ and long-standing beliefs regarding educational hierarchy in educational spaces and their communities (Finley, 2005). I have worked at Duruga High School for fifteen years and so I have become
immersed in the culture of the environment which provides the context for my study. It was this understanding which led me to think this project (The Journey) and its effects on the participants would be a substantial foundation for a qualitative investigation. I noticed the immediate reactions to the whole school arts project of the school’s inhabitants and was encouraged to further investigate the legacy of these responses through qualitative research.
12 SERAP or State Education Research Approvals Process is a process which must completed through the New
South Wales Department of Education and Communities, and in accordance with the National Statement of Human Ethics, before any research can begin undertaken in New South Wales Schools.
13 The professional Sydney University Ethical process and standards had to meet satisfactorily before any
Every step of the ‘art-making’ process during The Journey was developed in collaboration with staff, students and community members. This collaboration is relevant to the study as it established a working relationship of reciprocated trust and understanding which opened up communication channels; channels which were utilised through the interview process. Epstein et al. (2006) argues that this relationship is particularly relevant in a school context were the students being interviewed are often scared to be honest in their responses for fear of getting the answer ‘wrong’ and are often intimidated by adult authority (Epstein et al., 2006). I approached my research with an attitude of courtesy and respect and attempted to establish and maintain the working relationship recommended by Saldaña (2011) of
“comfort, security and equity” (p. 39). Saldaña argues sometimes the hierarchical nature of interviewer and interviewee can create an underlying politic where the researcher is deemed as the ‘expert’ and so the respondent is afraid to get the question incorrect in an interview situation.
However, due to the collaborative nature of The Journey, where I had been part of the artistic process from its foundations and though I played the part of the director in the production, the staff and students in the production were treated as experts in their fields. They were
encouraged to have input into every aspect of the production process; thus breaking down the traditional director/performer hierarchy. As the barriers of authority were somewhat broken down through a shared artistic experience, the process of the participants in the study was explored, recorded and analysed through a critically reflective approach to qualitative case study research:
The overall purpose of qualitative research is to achieve an understanding of how people make sense out of their lives, delineate the process (rather than the outcome or the product) of mean making and describe how people interpret what they experience... the researcher is the primary instrument of data collection and analysis and the product is richly descriptive (Merriam, 2009, p. 14).
I wanted to design a research project that would be richly descriptive to investigate if site- specific, community theatre can create change within an educational framework and how can this change be demonstrated.