ABSTRACT

Playwrights crafting work from real-life sources have heightened links with both the affective subject material of such work, and the sources themselves, particularly when the life stories derived from such sources are traumatic in nature. Being drawn to and dealing with difficult individual, social, historical and political stories implies a complex writing process of reflexive iterations of responsibility to sources and subject. Such a process requires ethical sensitivity to the concept of ‘truth’ as an amalgam of subjectivities and attention to ‘authenticity’ as a complex and accurate encapsulation of that truth. Creativity demands ongoing highly conscious self-knowledge to develop and strengthen both practice and product. This essay explores the point of view and experience of an artist-practitioner working with traumatic subject matter. Drawing on theory from theatre studies and trauma studies and discussing the process and centrality of ethics in relation to creative methodology, the essay reflects on the personal impact of the making of fraught work, and the uncovering, sharing and responsible transformation of fraught stories for a wider audience. It offers an outline of this experience that is relevant for other, similar artist-practitioners and researchers.

摘要

剧作家从现实生活中创作作品与此类作品的情感主题材料以及来源本身的联系都得到了加强，特别是当来自这些来源的生活故事本质上是创伤性的时。被困难的个人、社会、历史和政治故事所吸引和处理意味着一个复杂的写作过程，即对来源和主题的责任进行反思性迭代。这样的过程需要对作为主观性混合体的“真理”概念的伦理敏感性，以及对作为该真理的复杂和准确封装的“真实性”的关注。创造力需要持续的高度自觉的自我认识，以发展和加强实践和产品。本文探讨了一位艺术家从业者处理创伤性主题的观点和经验。本文借鉴戏剧研究和创伤研究的理论，讨论与创造性方法相关的伦理过程和中心地位，反思制作令人担忧的作品对个人的影响，以及对令人担忧的故事的揭示、分享和负责任的转变。更广泛的受众。它提供了与其他类似的艺术家从业者和研究人员相关的这种体验的大纲。