Performing Our Lives: An investigation of Solo Autobiographical Performance from the Performer’s Perspective

Abstract

This practice-led research project investigates the genre of solo autobiographical performance by documenting and analysing my own practice and that of nine other Australian solo autobiographical performers. It seeks to understand the questions and challenges unique to creating and performing solo autobiographical performance, and to locate the genre within current theoretical discourse in the interconnected fields of performance studies, practice-led research/practice-as-research, autoethnography, autobiography and psychology. As the autobiographical component of the research drew heavily on my own lived experience and involved a high degree of self-search, I drew on elements of Clark Moustakas’s (1990) methodology of ‘heuristic inquiry’, where ‘the focus in a heuristic quest is on recreation of lived experience; full and complete depictions of the experience from the frame of reference of the experiencing person’ (p. 38). Here I was guided by two principal research questions: How do I, as a performer, investigate my life by performing it? and What motivates or inspires me, as a performer, to investigate my life by performing it? The heuristic approach led me to immerse myself in my inquiry—a process that consisted of periods of intense life-writing and broad, relevant reading. The next stage, acquisition, involved me viewing a number of solo autobiographical performances and interviewing nine Australian performers who have worked in the genre; these processes provided me with valuable insights and knowledge about the performers’ creative methods and motivations, which, for all performers, drew strongly on their relationships with their families. The creative methods informed my own practice-led enquiry central to this study. To arrive at a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities of solo autobiographical performance as a genre and to test these creative methods, I wrote and presented a work-in-progress performance of an original script, Can I Come Home Now? This second immersive period led to the realisation stage: a ‘creative synthesis’ expressed in the form of the performance script. As a practitioner seeking to research and gain first-hand knowledge of this particular genre of performance, it was essential that I engage in the actual practice and performance. Through this experiential process, I developed an in-depth embodied knowledge of the application of the creative methods, dramaturgical process, performance style and the distinctive performer–audience relationship of this genre. Like the other performers—who acknowledged the vulnerability inherent in the process of writing, workshopping and performing stories drawn from their own life—I recognised the importance of working with a dramaturg and director whom I could trust and who created a safe environment for the work. Although the practice-led research component is fundamental to this research, it remains one of three interlocking circles; the other two of which are the theoretical considerations and the interviews with performers working in the genre. Through its combination of creative practice, theory and performer interviews, this research provides new knowledge and insights into the motivations, creative methods and experiences of solo autobiographical performers in Australia. It also provides new knowledge about the emergence of the genre in Australia and how it offers Australian solo performers a vehicle to explore questions about identity, family, culture and agency; and to share these insights with an audience.