Creating Verbatim Theatre from Oral Histories
Practicing Oral History Series

Offering a roadmap for practicing verbatim theatre (plays created from oral histories), this book outlines theatre processes through the lens of oral history and draws upon oral history scholarship to bring best practices from that discipline to theatre practitioners.

This book opens with an overview of oral history and verbatim theatre, considering the ways in which existing oral history debates can inform verbatim theatre processes and highlights necessary ethical considerations within each field, which are especially prevalent when working with narrators from marginalised communities. It provides a step-by-step guide to creating plays from interviews and contains practical guidance for determining the scope of a theatre project: identifying narrators and conducting interviews, developing a script from excerpts of interview transcripts and outlining a variety of ways to create verbatim theatre productions. By bringing together this explicit discussion of oral history in relationship to theatre based on personal testimonies, the reader gains insight into each field and the close relationship between the two.

Supported by international case studies that cover a wide range of working methods and productions, including The Laramie Project and Parramatta Girls, this is the perfect guide for oral historians producing dramatic representations of the material they have sourced through interviews, and for writers creating professional theatre productions, community projects or student plays.

Introduction Part 1: Overview 1. What is Verbatim Theatre? 2. Oral History and Verbatim Theatre: Similar but Different 3. Discussions within Oral History that Inform Verbatim Theatre Processes Part 2: Ethics and Verbatim Theatre 4. Ethical Considerations and Guidelines for Verbatim Theatre Processes 5. Ethical Considerations in the Creation of Plays from Interviews with Members of Marginalised Communities and Vulnerable Narrators Part 3: Creating a Play from Interviews: Step by Step 6. Getting Started 7. The Interview 8. After the Interview: Transcribing and Preparing for the Scripting Process 9. Sculpting your Play: From Transcript to Playscript 10. Scripting Options and Techniques 11. Beyond the Script 12. Rehearsal and Experience 13. Over to You, Now! Part 4: Examples of Work by Verbatim Theatre Playwrights and Companies 14. Examples of Plays Created from Interviews Checklist for Producing your Verbatim Play Appendices Appendix 1: Approaching your Narrator – Examples Appendix 2: Sample Consent Form for an Audio Recorded Interview Appendix 3: Scripting Exercise Appendix 4: Projected Production Expenditure Appendix 5: Glossary Appendix 6: Suggested Sources for Further Information on Verbatim Theatre, Documentary Theatre, and Oral History

Clare Summerskill is an independent academic researcher who has recently completed her PhD at Royal Holloway University of London in the Drama department. She is chair and co-founder of the UK’s Oral History Society LGBTQ Special Interest Group. She is also a playwright, stand-up and singer-songwriter.