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Three Research Poems
Monica PrendergastLesleyUniversity
Prefatory Note
1 These three research poems are included as part of an interdisciplinary dissertation project in theatre and curriculum: "Audience in Performance: A Poetics of Pedagogy of Spectatorship" (Prendergast). The study, to be published under the title Teaching Spectatorship: Essays and Poems on Audience in Performance, offers a curriculum theory that attempts to bridge what I see as the alienating abyss that lies between performers and their audiences in much of our contemporary North American theatre culture. The fourth wall is breached and broken down through the mediating influence of education as the teacher of pedagogy of the spectator facilitates meaningful drama-based activities (mirroring exploratory rehearsal processes), dialogues, and other interactions between students and performing artists.
2 Other poetry from this study has been previously published in drama/theatre and education arts education journals. However, it is my intention to elicit some reflection and response amongst my colleagues in theatre with the placement of these poems in this particular setting.
3 The longer poem raises the key problem addressed in my dissertation, which is reflected upon and responded to by the two poems that follow it.
the stranger
in our midst
in theatre
is the spectator
we open up the doors
of our
dark and secretive
creative process
and then what?
(we let in anyone?
everyone?)
these strangers
walk in
sit down
gawp
gape
guffaw
grumble
gag
pass judgments
in applause
(or lack)
trot back home
they are
too strange
estranged (our problem)
they are not part of us
we are apart
we are not part of them
the abyss lying
between actor
&
audience
(of our own creation)
must be brought down
disrupted
dissolved
in the name of art
of authenticity
of meaning
of performance
(from estrangement to intimacy)
to care
to know
not to market
but to mark
audience attendance
becomes
attending to audience
(as we do our own creations)
with great care
with passion
with all our collective
creative powers
our very lives
depend
on the banishment
of the stranger
in our midst
#1
what remains (substance)
left after combustion/
evaporation
(Concise Oxford Dictionary)
#2
what remains
from engagement
with performance?
what residua?
for me
what remains?
the undeniable force
of essential loneliness
within the protection
of the audience
around me
it is final moments
alone
that mark me
haunt me
in conspiracy
with actors
connecting to
characters
who embody meanings
(all for
one
one for
all)
the storytellers
who suffer
fail
die
loveandhateandfeelanddesire
too much
& are left on stage
or exiting
solitary and silent
breathing to their last breath
with (and
for)
me
Vital performance?
Attend to the audience:
All purpose sits there.
Works Cited
Prendergast, Monica. Teaching Spectatorship: Essays and Poems on Audience in Performance. Youngstown, NY: Cambria. In press.
— . "Found poetry as literature review: Research found poems on audience and performance." 2006. Qualitative Inquiry 12.2 (2006). 369-88.
— . "Audience in Performance: A Poetics and Pedagogy of Spectatorship." Diss, U of Victoria, 2006.
— . "Prologue: The Theatre." Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theatre. Ed. Johnny Saldaña. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, xiii-xvi.
— . "‘Shaped like a question mark’: Found Poems from Herbert Blau’s The Audience." Research in Drama Education 9.1 (2004). 73-92.
— . "Inquiry and poetry: Haiku on Audience and Performance in Education." 2004. Language and Literacy 6.2 (2004). N. pag. 18 January 2008 http://www.langandlit.ualberta.ca/archivesDate.html.
— . "‘I, me, mine’: Soliloquizing as Reflective Practice." International Journal of Education and the Arts 4.1 (2003). N.pag. 18 January 2008 http://www.ijea.org/v4n1/index.html.
— , and Carl Leggo. "Astonishing Wonder: Spirituality and poetry in educational research." The International Handbook of Research in Arts Education. Ed. Liora Bresler. New York: Springer, 2007. 1459-80.