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Documentary Theatre

“Documentary theatre … goes beyond pure documentation: it’s about questioning the meaning and significance of truth and information,” writes Mona Mehri in “Staging ‘the Document’ at the Avignon Festival.” Documentary theatre uses existing nonfiction sources—interviews, oral histories, articles, governmental reports, etc.—to create works of performance. In this section, you’ll find content about pieces created this way and thoughts from artists working in this form.

The Latest

How LUNG Is Breathing Radical Joy into Theatre in the United Kingdom
Essay
How LUNG Is Breathing Radical Joy into Theatre in the United Kingdom
by verity healey, Matt Woodhead, Helen Monks
5 March 2024
Negotiating the Migrant Self in Maia Novi’s Invasive Species
Essay
Negotiating the Migrant Self in Maia Novi’s Invasive Species
by Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas
15 August 2023
Anti-Terror Feminist Director Is in Russian Jail for “Justifying Terrorism”
Essay
Anti-Terror Feminist Director Is in Russian Jail for “Justifying Terrorism”
by VIKTOR VILISOV
2 August 2023
Five actors in suits stand in front of TVs reading The Iraq Inquiry
How LUNG Is Breathing Radical Joy into Theatre in the United Kingdom
Essay

How LUNG Is Breathing Radical Joy into Theatre in the United Kingdom

5 March 2024

verity healey speaks to Matt Woodhead and Helen Monks, co-directors of LUNG, about LUNG’s work making campaign theatre that uses verbatim theatre strategies and associated political work to explore issues impacting the United Kingdom.

A woman looks skeptically toward the camera.
Negotiating the Migrant Self in Maia Novi’s Invasive Species
Essay

Negotiating the Migrant Self in Maia Novi’s Invasive Species

15 August 2023

Maia Novi’s testimonial play Invasive Species tells the story of one Argentinean immigrant’s experience constructing her sense of self in the United States in the face of the limitations on her identity that she encounters in her new home. Sebastián Eddowes-Vargas, a Peruvian living in the United States, reviews the production with an eye toward the way that Invasive Species embraces complexity, humanity, power imbalances, and even humor.

A woman wearing a lacey crown stands alone on a carpeted floor with a hand extended in a "halt" gesture.
Anti-Terror Feminist Director Is in Russian Jail for “Justifying Terrorism”
Essay

Anti-Terror Feminist Director Is in Russian Jail for “Justifying Terrorism”

2 August 2023

After Russian courts found that Svetlana Petriychuk’s documentary theatre piece Finist the Brave Falcon “justified terrorism” due to its feminist aims, Petriychuk and director Zhenya Berkovich were jailed. Viktor Vilisov discusses the production, clarifying the production’s aims to amplify the experiences of Russian women whose attempts to flea Russian patriarchy has landed them in oppressive marriages to Syrian ISIS fighters.

A group of people surrounds recording equipments in a radio station.
Turning Political Violence into Entertainment in Hate Radio
Essay

Turning Political Violence into Entertainment in Hate Radio

27 July 2023

Through a combination of testimony and reenactment, Milo Rau’s Hate Radio stages a broadcast from a notorious media operation that spread racist propaganda during the Rwandan genocide. Joseph Dunne-Howrie discusses the way that Rau’s work, when produced in 2023, reveals a contemporary parallel in the rightwing radicalization that is facilitated by networks like Fox News and GB News.

From the Ground Up Podcast Teaser image featuring guest profile image.
Turning City Council Meetings into Performance
Podcast

Turning City Council Meetings into Performance

10 May 2023

Creatives and book authors Mallory Catlett and Aaron Landsman dig into their new book based on their piece City Council Meeting, an exciting performance, rooted in a commonplace bureaucratic event, that develops dynamic participatory relationships with audiences and local government.

An illustration of a clothesline with a film strip in front of it.
Making Then Is Now During a Pandemic with Our Chinese Canadian Feminist Elders
Essay

Making Then Is Now During a Pandemic with Our Chinese Canadian Feminist Elders

28 March 2023

Julia Hune-Brown and Keira Loughran discuss crafting Then Is Now, a concept album/video playlist they created through conversations with Chinese Canadian women who grew up in Toronto’s Chinatown during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

One performer stands next to four seated performers who hold sunflowers in their laps.
How Kyiv-Based Documentary Theatre Amplifies Ukrainian Resilience
Essay

How Kyiv-Based Documentary Theatre Amplifies Ukrainian Resilience

28 February 2023

Lisa Rafferty sits down with Ukrainian documentary storyteller Alem Kent to discuss Kent’s Our Response Ability and upcoming work with ProEnglish Theatre. Through documentary and verbatim theatre practices, these productions detail experiences of Ukrainians living under siege and working as war persists around them.

Five children in a dark room surrounded by cots.
Nothing About Us Without Us
Essay

Nothing About Us Without Us

How Theatre and Performance Art Can Help Migrants and Refugees in Situations of Uncertainty

27 October 2022

Theatremaker Viktor Vilisov examines the important role theatre can play in supporting migrants and refugees.

PUHA Podcast Teaser.
Autobiography
Podcast

Autobiography

12 October 2022

In this episode, hosts Zsófi and Bíborka take apart autobiographical theatre with stage director Panni Néder, actress Judit Tarr, actor and director László Göndör, and director and dramaturg Kristóf Kelemen. Together they delve into their approach to autobiographical material, playing themselves versus acting, their lives after creating a highly personal show, and the nuances of someone else playing them onstage.

A woman sitting with her hands clasped in front of her at a table.
Amplifiers and Takers: Approaches to Interview-Based Playmaking
Essay

Amplifiers and Takers: Approaches to Interview-Based Playmaking

6 January 2022

Michael Dewhatley sits down with playwright and director KJ Sanchez to talk about her experiences making plays based on real events. They discuss process, responsibility, perspective, and how to create without an agenda.

From The Ground Up Title.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Resident Ensemble Theatre: UNIVERSES
Podcast

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Resident Ensemble Theatre: UNIVERSES

22 December 2021

Alison Carey, formerly of Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Mildred Ruiz-Sapp and Steven Sapp, co-founders and artistic directors of UNIVERSES, discuss putting ensemble producers inside a major producing entity and the capacity necessary for things to fall into place.

event poster for no summary with headshots of artistic director Sahar Assaf and playwright Adam Ashraf Elsayigh.
NO SUMMARY: Adam Ashraf Elsayigh
Video

NO SUMMARY: Adam Ashraf Elsayigh

Sahar Assaf in conversation with playwright Adam Ashraf Elsayigh, author of Drowning in Cairo

Friday 3 December 2021
United States

Golden Thread presented NO SUMMARY with Adam Ashraf Elsayigh livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network on Friday 3 December 2021 at 11 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 1 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 2 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

event poster for voices of afghanistan.
The Voices of Afghanistan
Video

The Voices of Afghanistan

A Verbatim Theatre Piece from the LA Writers Center

Friday 29 October 2021
Los Angeles, California

LA Writers Center interviewed Afghan and Afghan-American citizens about the situation in their homeland and how it has effected their lives and the lives of their loved ones. We consider this a call to action, and we are eager to share these voices with you. Livestreamed on the commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Friday 29 October 2021.

Actress Tawana Montgomery playing Deborah Scott. Photo credit: Greg Mooney
Organizing History in the Alliance Theatre’s Working: A Musical
Essay

Organizing History in the Alliance Theatre’s Working: A Musical

17 August 2021

Margarita Kompelmakher details the Alliance Theatre’s process of adapting Working into a community-engaged production that both modeled grassroots organizing and told the story of the work of organizers in the city.

an actor onstage with a large projection behind her
In Search of Complexities
Essay

In Search of Complexities

Documentary Theatre in Today’s Russia

13 May 2020

Anastasia Patlay talks about creating documentary theatre with the Moscow-based company Teatr.doc.

two actors onstage
The Power of Transcripts
Essay

The Power of Transcripts

Waterwell and Immigration

22 April 2020

Lee Sunday Evans, the artistic director of New York City’s Waterwell, discusses the power of transcripts in performance, the topics of immigration and deportation, and the urgent attention that needs to be paid to the United States border right now.

three actors onstage
Stories from America’s Death Row
Essay

Stories from America’s Death Row

A Conversation with Lynden Harris

29 January 2020

Summer Robinson interviews playwright Lynden Harris about her work creating theatre with men on death row across the United States.

an actor onstage
How the way she spoke Resuscitated the Power of Storytelling Through Minimalism
Essay

How the way she spoke Resuscitated the Power of Storytelling Through Minimalism

10 November 2019

Sean Anthony Chia examines the impact of a powerful story—one without spectacle—through the lens of Isaac Gomez’s the way she spoke.

three actors onstage
Raising the Dead and Staging the New
Essay

Raising the Dead and Staging the New

Democracy and Identity at Finland’s Tampere Theatre Festival

7 October 2019

Sam Williams dives into several of the productions at Finland’s Tampere Theatre Festival, which ran between August 5 and 11 and which was curated based on the theme of bravery.

four actors in rehearsal
We Didn’t Have Any Role Models
Essay

We Didn’t Have Any Role Models

An Interview with the Founders of Wry Crips Disabled Women’s Theatre Group

21 August 2019

Michaela Goldhaber, current artistic director of Wry Crips, talks to the founding and early members of the disabled women’s theatre group about their history.

close up of an actor playing the cello
The Search for Truth in Putin’s Russia
Essay

The Search for Truth in Putin’s Russia

How Teatr.doc’s “Civil Theatre” Is Exposing Injustice

4 June 2019

verity healey looks at Teatr.doc’s latest show, Torture, and the vital need for “truth-telling” theatre.

actors on stage dressed as military
A performance of The Telling Project
Video

A performance of The Telling Project

by Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College

Thursday 4 April 2019
Keene, New Hampshire

Redfern Arts Center at Keene State College presented a performance of The Telling Project livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 4 April at 4:30 p.m. PDT (San Francisco) / 6:30 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 7:30 p.m. EDT (New York).

The Revolution is Here and Now
Essay

The Revolution is Here and Now

The Revolution is Roma, Queer, and Feminist

12 March 2019

Arman Heljic uses the play Roma Armee to discuss how European Roma are rejecting their colonial legacy and reclaiming their narrative.

group of people onstage
The Other Role
Essay

The Other Role

On the Representation of Roma on the Hungarian Stage

11 March 2019

Katarzyna Pabijanek reflects on Roma presence in Hungarian theatre, both throughout history and today.

Seven Romani actors sit together looking at the camera
From Cultural Appropriation to Self-Representation
Essay

From Cultural Appropriation to Self-Representation

A History of Roma Theatre in Romania

10 March 2019

Mihaela Drăgan looks at the way Roma are and have been portrayed in theatre in Romania and how Romani artists are working to reclaim their stories.