How can theater be used to share the words and stories of real people?

The other night I sat at the dining table while my mom did a puzzle and continued watching the hours of video from Harlan. So far I had felt unexcited about the videos in terms of my project. It had been fun to relive moments of the trip but I still wasn’t feeling like I found a story I could write about. That night, I got to the videos Elisabeth took at Portal 31. It is run by a man, Nick who is unbelievably passionate about the mine and its history and we had probably close to an hour of footage of just him (in real life his tour went so long that we had to change our afternoon plans). He talked not only about the technicalities of mining but also about the historical culture of a company town and the current politics and culture of modern day Lynch. 

Watching the videos from Portal 31 I still didn’t feel like I had uncovered an overall story or event. However it solidified the connections between the philosophy of documentary theater and the pedagogy of our junior trip that I have been exploring. They both share a focus on the humanity of the characters. Nick is a strong character yet he comes across as completely real. He is also entrenched in the place he lives and is from. Lynch was central to every part of the tour we received including Nick himself. This focus on place is something that I have also realized is often at the core of a documentary piece and what unifies the shows I have most enjoyed reading. 

Watching the videos from Portal 31 was the first time I could fully verbalize this connection. While this was motivating I also felt more stuck because despite all of the connections between our trip and documentary theater there is still part of the link missing. After Cohort on Monday I think this is the lack of a clear “event” and my plan is to spend this week trying to understand what is the “event of our trip or if it even exists.