“Weaving a body out of words”:Playwriting strategies for trans-informed research-based theatre
Keywords:
Research-based theatre, playwriting, mental health , trans joy, trans studies , trans graduate studentsAbstract
This article addresses the question: What are the expansive possibilities offered by a trans-informed Research-based Theatre (RbT) creation framework? Drawing on excerpts from an autoethnographic playscript which centres on my experiences as a graduate student while coming out as a nonbinary trans woman, I explore specific and adaptable strategies for trans-informed RbT playwriting. Playwriting is an essential component of the RbT creation process, and the strategies explored in this article may inform RbT practitioners’ approach in the classroom and beyond.
References
Adams, T. E., Holman Jones, S., & Ellis, C. (2022). Introduction: Making sense and taking action: Creating a caring community of autoethnographers. In T. E. Adams, S. Holman Jones, & C. Ellis (Eds.), Handbook of autoethnography (2nd ed., pp. 1–19). Routledge.
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style (7th ed.).
Balfour, M., & Hassall, L. (2022). The return: Research-based theater with and for ex-military personnel experiencing posttraumatic stress. Qualitative Inquiry, 29(2), 332–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221101587
Beck, J. L., Belliveau, G., Lea, G. W., & Wager, A. (2011). Delineating a spectrum of research-based theatre. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(8), 687–700. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800411415498
Belliveau, G., & Lea, G. W. (Eds.). (2016). Research-based theatre: An artistic methodology. Intellect.
Belliveau, G., Lea, G. W., & Westwood, M. (Eds.). (2020). Contact!Unload: Military veterans, trauma, and research-based theatre. UBC Press.
Butterfield, L. D., Borgen, W. A., Amundson, N. E., & Erlebach, A. C. (2010). What helps and hinders workers in managing change. Journal of Employment Counseling, 47(4), 146–156. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2010.tb00099.x
Campbell, A. (2020). Queering pedagogies. Theatre Topics, 30(2), 117–124. https://doi.org/10.1353/tt.2020.0018
Cattaneo, A. (2021). The art of dramaturgy. Yale University Press.
Chu, A. L. (2019). Females. Verso.
Chu, A. L., & Harsin Drager, E. (2019). After trans studies. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 6(1), 103–116. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-7253524
Cook, C., & Borgen, W. (2020). Give me your hands: Therapeutic experiences of collective theatre creation in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 54(3), 324–348. https://cjc-rcc.ucalgary.ca/article/view/69478
Dolan, J. (2005). Utopia in performance: Finding hope at the theater. University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.119520
Ellis, C. (2007). Telling secrets, revealing lives: Relational ethics in research with intimate others. Qualitative Inquiry, 13(1), 3–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800406294947
Fitzpatrick, C. (2016). Glamourpuss. Topside Press.
Goldberg, A. E., McCormick, N., Matsuno, E., Virginia, H., & Beemyn, G. (2022). Transgender graduate students: Considerations, tensions, and decisions in choosing a graduate program. Journal of Homosexuality, 69(9), 1549–1575. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2021.1919476
Harris, D. E. (2015). Decorus. Boundary 2, 42(4), 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1215/01903659-3155746
Halberstam, J. (2018). Female masculinity. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11cwb00
Hyde, J. S., Bigler, R. S., Joel, D., Tate, C. C., & van Anders, S. M. (2019). The future of sex and gender in psychology: Five challenges to the gender binary. American Psychologist, 74(2), 171–193. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000307
Jarus, T., Mayer, Y., Gross, E., Cook, C., Bulk, L. Y., Hershler, L. A. D., Nichols, J., Zaman, S., & Belliveau, G. (2022). Bringing disability experiences front stage: Research-based theatre as a teaching approach to promote inclusive health education. Nurse Education Today, 115, Article 105408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105408
Keenan, H. B. (2017). Unscripting curriculum: Toward a critical trans pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 87(4), 538–556. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-87.4.538
Keyes, L., Mantoan, L., & Schiller, A. F. (2021). Introduction: In a trans time and space. In L. Keyes, L. Mantoan, & A. F. Schiller (Eds.), The Methuen drama book of trans plays (pp. 1–7). Methuen Drama.
Kontos, P. C., Miller, K. L., Gilbert, J. E., Mitchell, G. J., Colantonio, A., Keightley, M. L., & Cott, C. (2012). Improving client-centered brain injury rehabilitation through research-based theater. Qualitative Health Research, 22(12), 1612–1632. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732312458370
Lea, G. W., Belliveau, G., Wager, A., & Beck, J. L. (2011). A loud silence: Working with research-based theatre and a/r/tography. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 12(16). http://www.ijea.org/v12n16/v12n16.pdf
Leavy, P. (2023). Re/invention: Methods of social fiction. Guilford Press.
Chilton, G., & Leavy, P. (2020). Arts-based research: Merging social research and the creative arts. In P. Leavy (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 601–632). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190847388.013.27
Malatino, H. (2019). Future fatigue: Trans intimacies and trans presents (or how to survive the interregnum). TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 6(4), 635–658. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-7771796
Malatino, H. (2020). Trans care. University of Minnesota Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/78334
Mosher, D. K., Hook, J. N., Captari, L. E., Davis, D. E., DeBlaere, C., & Owen, J. (2017). Cultural humility: A therapeutic framework for engaging diverse clients. Practice Innovations, 2(4), 221–233. https://doi.org/10.1037/pri0000055
Nichols, J., Cox, S. M., Cook, C., Lea, G. W., & Belliveau, G. (2022). Research-based theatre about veterans transitioning home: A mixed-methods evaluation of audience impacts. Social Science & Medicine, 292, Article 114578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114578
Owis, B., Baer, P., Salisbury, J., & Goldstein, T. (2023). Out at school: Imagining a slow ethic of care in research-based theater. Qualitative Inquiry, 29(2), 323–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221097633
Raun, T. (2014). Trans as contested intelligibility. Lambda Nordica, 19(1), 13–37. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/trans-as-contested-intelligibility/docview/2424524422/se-2
Riggs, D. W., Pearce, R., Pfeffer, C. A., Hines, S., White, F., & Ruspini, E. (2019). Transnormativity in the psy disciplines: Constructing pathology in the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders and standards of care. American Psychologist, 74(8), 912–924. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000545
Rossiter, K., Kontos, P., Colantonio, A., Gilbert, J., Gray, J., & Keightley, M. (2008). Staging data: Theatre as a tool for analysis and knowledge transfer in health research. Social Science & Medicine, 66(1), 130–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.07.021
Smiley, S. (2005). Playwriting: The structure of action (Rev. ed.). Yale University Press.
Spoon, R., & Coyote, I. (2014). Gender failure. Arsenal Pulp Press.
Spring, L. (2022). Ethical implications of using research-based theater to challenge hegemonic narratives about mental health. Qualitative Inquiry, 29(2), 354–364. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221097638
Springgay, S., & Truman, S. E. (2018). Walking methodologies in a more-than-human world: WalkingLab. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315231914
Steinbock, E. (2021). Embodiment. In A. E. Goldberg & G. Beemyn (Eds.), The SAGE encyclopedia of trans studies (pp. 229–232). SAGE Publications.
Stone, S. (1992). The empire strikes back: A posttranssexual manifesto. Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies, 10(2), 150–176. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-10-2_29-150
Stryker, S. (2006). (De)subjugated knowledges: An introduction to transgender studies. In S. Stryker & S. Whittle (Eds.), The transgender studies reader (pp. 1–17). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203955055
Stryker, S. (2017). Transgender history: The roots of today's revolution (2nd ed.). Seal Press.
Stryker, S., & Currah, P. (2014). General editors’ introduction. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 1(4), 467–468. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2815102
Stryker, S., Currah, P., & Moore, L. J. (2008). Introduction: Trans-, trans, or transgender? Women's Studies Quarterly, 36(3/4), 11–22. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27649781
Truman, S. E., & Shannon, D. B. (2018). Queer sonic cultures: An affective walking-composing project. Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Inquiry, 1(3), 58–77. https://doi.org/10.22387/CAP2018.19
Weil, A. (2017). Trans*versal animacies and the mattering of Black trans* political life. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 22(2), 191–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2017.1322837
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 McGill Journal of Education / Revue des sciences de l'éducation de McGill

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
License
Copyright (c) 202X McGill Journal of Education / Revue des sciences de l'éducation de McGill
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.