Theatre of the 4th Dimension: Making Meaning in a Digital Space
Date
2022
Authors
Allen, Michael James
Editors
Advisors
Skuse, Andrew
Rodger, Dianne
Rodger, Dianne
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Thesis
Citation
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
Abstract
This is a PhD thesis consisting of written dissertation and creative thesis. It investigates
practices and methods of theatre making in the multimodal environment of internet social
media platforms, specifically mediated via ‘live-streaming’. Embedded throughout the text, the
reader will be guided towards hyperlinks to video content of cited sections from fieldwork and
the creative analysis performance outcomes (plays).
Between 2017-2019 I conducted a creative development project with the aim of investigating
if and how the various technologies of social media platforms were transferrable and effective
in theatre making practice. This research was conducted as an auto-ethnography to capture the
complexity of this creative process and the ethnodramatic analysis which resulted. And, as
research investigating the complexity of performance behaviour in web-based environments,
this emulates a digital humanities perspective “of the plasticity of digital forms and the way in
which they point towards a new way of working with representation and mediation” (Berry
2012). This perspective is important to remember because, by its nature, the experience of
engaging on social media is a mixture of private and public presentation (Berry, Harbord et al.
2013, Hookway 2014), which emulates the perspective of an actor or performer on a drama.
The project is therefore presented as a hybrid written thesis and creative analysis in the form
of a recording of a live performance of the ethnodrama, which is derivative of my participantobserver
experience.
This research was a valuable exercise in performance theory and media. At the time of
fieldwork, I observed a taken-for-granted correlation between my work as a theatre and film
maker and web-based performance platforms such as Twitch and YouTube, in that both shared
transferable production methods. However, my assumptions that performance techniques were
as easily transferable was mistaken. The nearly eighteen-month creative
development/fieldwork process deeply investigated these complimentary and opposing
practices. The results of these findings were reconstituted into a dramatic narrative for
performance, a stage play for a live audience. The plays were derived from conversations with
informants, employing colloquial social media communication cues as literary (script) devices.
The plays were developed via a script development process with the ensemble informants, then
rehearsed and performed for invited audiences over a nine-month period. These performance outcomes of ‘Lunch with Jenna episode 27: Who the Hell is Samantha Deen’ and two
subsequent sequels, were a valuable exercise in performance analysis using ethnodrama and
mixed media.
Key results and findings reveal challenges to assumed theatrical customs and relationships
between performers and audience, specifically the notion of the fourth wall. I conclude that
this abstract performance convention which is observed across theatre, film, and television,
needs to be recalibrated with an adjusted dynamic between audience and performer, which is
unique to the live-streaming environment. My account also establishes complimentary features
of performance such as acting style, character within narrative, and technical production that
required adaptation to spatial and temporal distinctions unique to social media engagement
practices.
This work is significant because it contributes to new ways of conceiving social scripts that
exist between the actor/audience for ‘suspension of disbelief’ to occur. Significantly, this grassroots-
style creative practice offers suggestions and questions for further exploration of
ethnodramatic research. Anthropologically, the archival material and creative analysis
outcome, derived from fieldwork experiences, will contribute to continuing ethnodramatic
discourse.
Throughout the thesis, footnotes indicate hyperlinks which are embedded within the text. These
hyperlinks connect to fieldwork recordings of creative development, rehearsals, and
performances. Readers of digital publications should be able to click on the link within the text
to see footage which exemplifies the point being made in the text. If links have become
disconnected due to file corruption, or this thesis has been printed on paper, links can be typed
into search browsers.
DISCLAIMER: Some content contains sexual themes and representations. The reader is
advised to employ their own discretion.
School/Discipline
School of Social Sciences
Dissertation Note
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2023
Provenance
This electronic version is made publicly available by the University of Adelaide in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. This thesis may incorporate third party material which has been used by the author pursuant to Fair Dealing exceptions. If you are the owner of any included third party copyright material you wish to be removed from this electronic version, please complete the take down form located at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/legals