
Standing Ovation
Performing Social Science Research About Cancer
AltaMira Press
Published on 14. July 2002
Book
Paperback/Softback
208 pages
978-0-7591-0146-3 (ISBN)
Description
Is theatrical performance an effective way to communicate the results of social science research to health practitioners and the public? Ross Gray and Christina Sinding describe how their studies about metastatic breast cancer and prostate cancer were transformed into Handle with Care? and No Big Deal?, plays conveying the cancer experience to physicians and community audiences. People with cancer were among the actors, and the words they spoke were taken from individual and group interviews and from the dialogue between cancer survivors, researchers and dramatists that informed the script. The book tells the story of these two productions, outlining the theoretical basis of research as performance art, the process and problems of turning field notes into scripts, the delights and traumas of performance, and the results of research-based theatre experiments on audiences and participants alike. With the book is an 80-minute VHS videotape showing a performance of each drama.
Reviews / Votes
Standing Ovation is less a how-to guide for other research-based theatre than an inspiration for such work. Each project, the authors realize, must find its own way; there is no method. But here is a look backstage at the fears, frustrations, and ultimately the triumphs of production. -- Arthur W. Frank * From The Foreword * Hats off to these investigators for reflecting both physician and patient perspectives with humor, in a manner that is neither reductive nor competitive, and for honoring profound needs. -- Barbara Mains * Medscape Women's Health Ejournal, (Posted 10/03/2002) * It is a compelling, informative, and uplifting experience to witness this performance and to read how it was constructed... The book and videotape are valuable additions to the small but lively performance ethnography scene. . . . In addition to bringing forth very helpful ideas about how to do performative/research work, they also are very provocative in terms of helping people live with disease and relate to others who are afflicted. -- Mary Gergen, Penn State University * Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Vol. 4, No. 3, Sept. '03 * The authors, a social scientist and a psychosocial and behavioral health administrator, describe the process of blending the experience of living with cancer and the dissemination of their findings through a live theater audience...The authors are careful to create a vivid description of the cast members' involvement in the process and their emotional responses to being so closely aligned with the disease...[They] answer "yes" to the question, "Is the use of theatrical performance an effective way to communicate the results of social science research to healthcare providers and the public?" -- Janic Phillips, PhD, RN, FAAN * Oncology Nursing Forum, Vol. 30, No 5, 2003 * [The book is] a successful attempt to link social-science research to drama and carries out in practice what many social scientists only do in theory: it listens. . . . A very useful tool to convey the cancer experience to physicians, patients and carers. -- Lorraine Fincham, Middlesex University * Medical Sociology Online, Vol. 29, No. 3, Winter 2003 * Bravo! Humanistic psychology at its best! The authors of Standing Ovation have shown the power of group search and driven the golden spike in the railway to spiritual consciousness. -- Duncan B. Blewett, PhD, author of <I>The Frontiers of Being<I> An original and courageous attempt to make patient-centered research and its results more readily available to those whose concerns really are at stake. . . . The process of describing the dramas is impressively described. . . . The authors of Standing Ovation must be complimented for a very personal, honest and thoughtful account of what they went through: fears and concerns, joys and victories, ambivilence and uncertainties, struggles and unclarities, nearness and loyalty, -- Hanneke de Haes, University of Amsterdam * Health Expectations *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
California
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 132 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
472 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7591-0146-3 (9780759101463)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Ross Gray is Co-Director of the Psychosocial & Behavioural Research Unit at Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre and Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto. Christina Sinding is a social scientist with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Community Research Initiative and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto.
Content
1 Acknowledgements/ 1: And Now Introducing.../ 2: Social Science Meets Performance/ 3: The Meaning of "Metastatic"/ 4: They Had to Cry/ 5: Scripting/ 6: Stepping into the Spotlights/ 7: We Behaved Badly/ 8: Blocking Notes/ 9: Travelling, Unraveling/