A Guide to Creating Documentary Theatre using a Fictional Database

Abstract

It is often said that good fiction requires at least some grounding in fact in order for readers to allow a suspension of disbelief and comfortably engage with the fictional work. When it comes to Documentary Theatre, works are usually created using factual data. But what if your dataset is a fictional database? What if you were to create a work using a database of historical fiction?

This guide is designed to aid in engaging with a database of historical fiction such as the To be continued: The Australian Newspaper Fiction Database to create new works of Documentary Theatre. This guide breaks down the process into steps falling under the following three phases - Writing, Workshopping and Editing - that can be followed to help shape a new work of Documentary Theatre. The guide has been developed through reflexive creative practice and has been informed by, and adapted, from the Documentary Theatre methodology used and outlined by La Transplanisphere theatre company in their work with the Polart Circle.