An exploration of the information literacy of Irish theatre actors.

Information literacy (IL) from a sociocultural perspective is understood as being the ability to understand and interpret a given environment, and to use information to perform increasingly complex socially embodied tasks therein towards expertise in any field. Empirical IL studies of diverse working populations are influential in demonstrating and espousing contextually situated and tacitly embodied knowledge as the meaningful foundation upon which professional knowledge and practice are built. To date however, there have been no IL studies exploring the explicitly embodied work of actors. The aim of this research is to investigate the IL of Irish actors working in the theatre. The established rhetorical framework for examining working populations is Workplace Information Literacy (WIL). However, this study suggests that the terminology and consequent perspective of IL, rather than WIL, is appropriate in approaching actors, as their workplaces are unpredictable, differentiated and transitory by design. As a result, actors' practice is flexible and adaptive towards the many contexts in which they work, thus a study of a single workplace would omit inclusion of this diversity and limit empirical insight. Furthermore, as freelance workers, actors' IL necessarily extends beyond formal workplaces of rehearsal and performance, into varied formal and semiformal professional contexts, and informal socially networked environments. Therefore, IL offers a simplified, holistic and inclusive lens with which to consider the complex diversity of actors' professional lives and practice. This study examines how influential WIL theory and research exploring embodied and sociocultural workplace learning applies to the context of actors' experience of formal practice. It critically examines the use of IL as a conceptual framework for a study of actors across the diverse formal and informal contexts of their freelance careers by means of a holistic exploration of actors' experience of professional life. An inductive, constructivist philosophical orientation, employing a qualitative, multimethodological approach and phenomenological design was followed. Interviews with a sample of twelve participants, each interviewed three times, using a different interview technique for each meeting, was conducted. Open-ended constructivist, and collective, constructionist questions about the experience of professional life and practice were asked, avoiding questions explicitly pertaining to IL, so that participants could express their IL-related experience authentically. Interview to the Double, the second interview technique, challenged participants to describe their individualised practice in subjective detail. The cumulative and durational nature of the interview cycle allowed participants to reflexively offer insight into the data gathering process and their contribution to the research. Data was analysed following thematic coding using NVivo software, and findings validated through a process of self-examination supported by heuristic inquiry. The findings show that actors working in the theatre experience IL in three interdependant contexts: in Theatre Practice, within the Theatre Industry, and as a Theatre Artist. In theatre practice, IL is instance-dependent upon engagement with each company uniquely assembled to develop a production. The rehearsal process requires a sophisticated and robust negotiation of the social environment towards the realisation of a shared value held in common that is the unifying vision for the production. This is a socially embodied process in which the body is a practical workplace tool and source of finite, carefully managed and deployed energy, as well as the somatic site of attentive play towards presence in the moment of performance. Within the theatre industry, beyond formal theatre practice, IL is practiced by actors as freelance artists across the various landscapes of the industry, in interactions with their agents, auditioning as part of the casting process, staying informed, and self-motivated professional development. The theatre industry is experienced as a community of practice within which mentors, peers and friends inform practice and decision-making, and professional engagement occurs across the socially networked landscapes of the arts. As a theatre artist, across the multifarious, unpredictable diversity of these formal, informal and semi-formal landscapes, actors develop a personal belief system within which to intuit meaning, validation and value based on an experiential, reflexive passion for and commitment to both the theatre-making process, and life as an artist. The belief system is robust and individualised, adaptive and responsive to new contexts, and supports spontaneous, transformational lifelong learning, through which a complex, resilient and self-sustaining identity as an artist may emerge, independent of external authorisation. Based on these findings, a foundational model of actors' IL is presented. This thesis builds upon emergent empirical and theoretical work in the field of IL espousing the significance of the sociocultural approach to illuminate diverse working populations and that foreground embodiment and tacit, experiential knowing as being key to the universality of IL in all contexts. This study is unique in approaching the population of actors in order to illuminate IL, and offers a model of such that may be applied, tested and developed across diverse acting, arts and freelance contexts. The model of actors’ IL emphasises the essential connective tissue of a constructive, individualised belief system grounded in a commitment to praxis to support learning and identity across contexts. The methodologically distinctive contribution of this study is that the researcher too is an actor steeped in the culture, language, norms and conventions of the sample and population, allowing for a rare interdisciplinary study and the novel application of heuristic inquiry, lending a consequent transparency and validity to the thesis.

Author dc:creator

• Radmall-Quirke, Natalie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• K. Martzoukou and S. Burnett

• Workplace information literacy
• Acting profession
• Irish theatre
• Theatre practice
• Theatre industry
• Theatre artists

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:rgu-repository.worktribe.com:3020684
https://doi.org/10.48526/rgu-wt-3020684

Author Identifier

0000-0001-7222-9312

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:rgu-repository.worktribe.com:3020684