From Social Research to Verbatim Theatre – Is your Research Data Art?

June 7th, 2010

Professor Stephen Coleman of the Institute of Communication Studies at the Universityof Leeds found an innovative way to raise the impact of his AHRC funded research project The Road to Voting.

During his research, he conducted nearly 60 research interviews with British residents from a range of social and economic backgrounds on attitudes to voting and democracy.He then gave the interview transcripts to artists from theatre, film, visual art, and a range of other disciplines, to use as material for projects seeking to engage members of the general public with the electoral process.

Look Left Look Right productions created Counted, a tightly directed, well performed documentary drama, that insists democracy can only function practically if people know or believe their actions can change the system. their votes are totted up on election day, but how far do they really count?

Counted has just finished a début season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and will be touring the UK, being performed in “unusual political spaces”. Next stop, City Hall, London.