User:Polymathematics/investigative theater

Investigative theater is a collaborative creative process that produces a modified form of documentary theatre.

History
Though theater as creative nonfiction has existed in many forms, investigative theater in its current incarnation is a direct descendant of the Joint Stock method. The phrase was coined by Steve Cosson to describe the methods he was using to create a new, more "outwards-looking" theatrical genre. The goal of investigative theater is to use theatrical artifice as a means of interrogating the vital questions of the present

The Process
The investigative theater process is distinguished by its collaborative nature and issue of journalistic techniques.

Research
The company collectively decides on a topic that they then investigate. Though other research is conducted, the primary focus is interviews.

When interviewing, four rules are usually employed:
 * avoid value statements
 * let people talk about what they want to talk about
 * try to get them to talk about what is most interesting to them
 * get people to talk past their 'scripts.'

Development
After an artist conducts an interview, they recite the interviews from memory. As the bulk of the play consists of these interviews, seeing them performed is crucial for the process of editing and re-assembling them into a play.

This also begins the process of adapting the interviewees into characters. The act of recalling creates a more instinctual understanding of the characterization, which leads to genuine performances instead of rote recitation.

In the case of the Civilians, some interviews are adapted into songs, both for the emotional potential and the additional layer of distance between the primary sources and the art created from them. Both of these factors help audiences engage in complex or abstract subject matter.

Because of the volume and diversity of material collected, the scripts are very accommodating to substantial revisions and workshopping at various points in production.