Staged Conversations : Using dialogue as both method and form when staging documentary material for theater and film

Abstract: Between 2017 and 2024, I have conducted an artistic research PhD project at Stockholm University of the Arts resulting in a feature length documentary film (The Raft, 2018), a documentary based theater play (The Invisible Adventure, 2020) and a book with my work diaries documenting the process of creating the two works (Staged conversations, 2024). The research project focuses on using the conversation as both method and form for staging documentary material for theater and film. The Raft reunites seven people who were all part of a social experiment crossing the Atlantic on a raft in 1973. The film mixes archive footage from the original journey with scenes shot in a studio, where participants share memories onboard a scenographic replica of the real raft.In The Invisible Adventure three characters – a scientist, a video artist and a transplantation patient – meet for an intimate conversation on identity and transformation. The performers who interpret the characters through repeating dialogue from a sound script in hidden ear-pieces, sit together with the audience members in a circular scenography, where there is no separation between stage and audience seats.Both the film and the play are using the staged conversation as a shape for the storytelling and share similarities in their visual expression with wooden scenographies set in a black box studio environment. In the film it is the real people from the raft journey who reunite 43 years later in the studio. In the play the script is based on three separate interviews with people who have never met, but who are interpreted by performers.The research project will be finished and presented publicly in January 2024. The film and play will be presented together with the release of the book at Gothenburg International Film Festival in collaboration with Gothenburg City Theater.