Ethnography and the audition: Performance as ideological critique
- 1 January 1993
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Text and Performance Quarterly
- Vol. 13 (1) , 21-43
- https://doi.org/10.1080/10462939309366030
Abstract
This essay documents an experiment in the performance of ethnography based on research collected on the audition process. I used a variety of scripting and performance techniques combined with insights from cultural theory to evoke, dramatize, and critique a practice within the institution of theatre. Additionally, I describe the entry of other actors into the process, our rehearsal, the experience of performance, and the evaluation and reflection of post‐performance “aftermath.” Along the way, critiques of “objectivist” ethnography resonate with critiques of the brand of objectivism reified in the audition process. Finally, this essay argues in a more general way for performance as an alternative mode of scholarly representation.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- Rethinking ethnography: Towards a critical cultural politicsCommunication Monographs, 1991
- Telling the Told: Performing Like a Family1The Oral History Review, 1990
- PERFORMING THE TEXTJournal of Contemporary Ethnography, 1990
- Performance ScienceSocial Problems, 1990
- The Efficacy of Performance Science: Comment on McCall and BeckerSocial Problems, 1990
- Theatres and Communities: Three ScenesSocial Problems, 1989
- Health Theatre in a Hmong Refugee Camp: Performance, Communication, and CultureTDR: The Drama Review, 1988
- Documenting performance knowledge: Two narrative techniques in grace Paley's fictionSouthern Speech Communication Journal, 1987
- Performing as a moral act:1Ethical dimensions of the ethnography of performanceLiterature in Performance, 1985
- Performing EthnographyThe Drama Review: TDR, 1982