Cirrus@Austlit

'Verbatim theatre involves interviewing a community of storytellers based on a topic or event, recording these conversations, and using the stories as stimuli to create performance. In 2014, I wrote and performed in a verbatim play titled 'bald heads and blue stars', and triangulated a documentation of this process through a 'Reflective Practitioner Case Study' methodology to research a theory, model and impact of verbatim theatre practice for my PhD. I identified that there was a significant gap in the field of research concerning the impact that involvement in a verbatim theatre process had on a community of participants. To address this gap, my research included a series of anonymous surveys with the interview participants (who I refer to as the community of storytellers) who shared their stories in the creation of 'bald heads and blue stars'. This community of storytellers were fifteen women from across Queensland who have experienced alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that results in varying degrees of hair loss. At three key junctures across their involvement in the verbatim theatre process the community of storytellers were invited to complete a survey about their experience. This article analyses their responses in reference to the broader academic field and suggests that involvement in a verbatim theatre process intervened in the storytellers' self-awareness, enriched their interpersonal communication around the central themes of the performance, and created stronger community connections.'(Abstract)