While my project is focused on documentary I am very glad that my question is not specific.  I spent the first two weeks of my project reading documentary theater and journal articles that helped me understand how the art form takes responsibility for and is able to tell the words and stories of others. Unlike fiction work documentary theater often not only is about real subjects but it also uses their own works. The weight of this responsibility for another person’s story is what I have really been trying to understand through this project. Many shows also address this. They include the thoughts of company members and writers as they figure out how to tell the story they are uncovering. The messiness of figuring this out often becomes part of the script. I feel that my question has given me the room to explore how theater is a space to not only tell stories but also think about what are the responsibilities of a storyteller.

I have also begun creating my own piece of documentary theater. Before this project I had decided that I thought our junior trip would lend itself well to this form. After a bunch of conversations with Allison and Joan I have realized the trip, like documentary theater, is about learning how to do another person’s story justice. When you come back from the trip you are tasked not only with re-articulating the stories you heard about others on the trip but also tell the story of being on the trip. As I continue piecing together transcripts I am also starting to figure out which places need my own voice and which pieces of the trip are missing that I don’t have video of.