Seal Wife saga: Rewriting O’Neill’s Melbourne workshop in role

ABSTRACT

The main content of this article is a piece of rewriting-in-role. This factionalised dramatic text allied with narrative inquiry and performance ethnography grounded is accounts of Cecily O’Neill’s 1992, Seal Wife workshop in Melbourne, Australia. A brief introduction explains the rationale for this approach and its connection to the wider methodology of critical arts based research. This example of rewriting-in-role details the workshop through a fictional character, raises new questions about a familiar drama work, and echoes beliefs about the potential of drama to critically unsettle and enlighten our world.

KEYWORDS:

• Process drama
• seal wife
• drama-based research
• critical fiction

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claire Coleman

Claire Coleman is a lecturer in drama and education at the University of Waikato. She began her career in education as a disability awareness puppeteer and discovered process drama through her postgraduate studies. Her doctoral thesis ‘Dancing through the fourth wall’ explores the potential relationship between the principles of critical pedagogy and process drama. She is passionate about embodied and creative pedagogies for transformative education. Her current research examines the shift to ILE spaces within schools and the cultivation of learning cultures for collaboration and creativity.