Affect Theatre: A Workshop at the Boundaries of Theatre and Anthropology
A recent Methods@野狼社区 / Methods North West event introduced the method of Affect Theatre, offering a new way to engage with empirical research material.
By Meghan Rose Donnelly (University of 野狼社区) and Pete Carruthers (University of Central Lancashire)
Affect Theatre is an interdisciplinary method of research analysis and curation that decentres text and engages directly with the material elements of fieldwork.
A recent event introduced the method of Affect Theatre, offering a new way to engage with empirical research material, organised by researchers Meghan Rose Donnelly and Pete Carruthers, and led by the method鈥檚 creators, Cristiana Giordano and Greg Pierotti.
When writing up our fieldwork in academic outputs, it can be too easy to follow the conventions of text - and to lose some of the essential liveness of research along the way.
Affect Theatre is an interdisciplinary method of research analysis and curation that addresses this problem. By decentering text and engaging directly with the material elements of fieldwork鈥攕ounds, objects, lighting, dress, architecture, etc.鈥攖he method helps researchers explore the affective qualities of their subject matter, before boxing them into a linear analysis. Designed with anthropologists and ethnographers in mind, the method also provides a way for artists to create meaningful performances out of empirical research, true stories, and real people.
The workshop
In March 2025, participants in 野狼社区 had the opportunity to experiment with Affect Theatre in a workshop led by the method鈥檚 creators: Cristiana Giordano and Greg Pierotti.
Giordanno and Pierotti have been for over a decade to develop the method, presenting workshops around the world and producing two full-length plays (one on police violence in the US and another on illicit migration into Italy). on the method was recently published with Bloomsbury.
Over 3 days in 野狼社区, Giordano and Pierotti walked participants鈥攔esearchers and students, anthropologists and artists鈥攖hrough the steps of Affect Theatre. Participants created short theatrical 鈥榚pisodes鈥� highlighting the affective and material qualities of research elements. How does a scarf sound when you snap it through the air? How does light shift from warm to cool on a person鈥檚 skin?
After being presented to the group, each episode was then analysed both for its affective qualities and for the kinds of stories it seemed to tell.
On the final day of the workshop, participants began to join multiple episodes together to make short sequences that transitioned into each other.
They also added another level of detail and context by having Meghan Rose read out small sections of text from her field notes, relating to her anthropological research on the lives of Catholic nuns on the Indonesian island of Flores. In the photos you can see the participants working in small groups to create one of these sequences.
The first episode was connected to a description of nuns at evening prayer, where some of the nuns had a fit of giggles whilst 鈥榩raying the rosary鈥�.
The three panel lights and the Indonesian scarves, brought by Meghan Rose to the workshop, were used to create a sense of ritual, structure and repetition, evoking the formality and choreography of the liturgy, contrasting against the giggles of the nuns.
This episode transitioned to another previously unrelated episode, which the group connected to an extract from a story about a trip to the beach, where the nuns were required to cover their heads as they watched children splashing in the sea.
Feedback from attendees of the full workshop, as well as from those who only attended the masterclass at the end of day 3, was universally positive, with many people expressing a desire to learn more about the Affect Theatre method and apply it to their own research in the future.
Here are just a few examples of the written and verbal feedback from the workshop:
Through this workshop I find out that my mind is the most clear and active when I am physically engaged!
The process of creating episodes turned out to be incredibly insightful, allowing us to think about certain issues from new perspectives.
The work opened my eyes to the exciting possibilities of devising using just a few crumbs of research material and seeing what we can discover.
It鈥檚 like the material starts to tell you what it wants to be rather than, like, you decide it, right?
What鈥檚 next?
The workshop on Affect Theatre galvanised the University of 野狼社区鈥檚 anthropology department鈥檚 research focus on performance and highlighted the interest in interdisciplinary methods between anthropology and drama amongst researchers and students across the North West. We can expect future explorations, including a longer workshop, next academic year when Giordano returns to 野狼社区 as a Simon Visiting Professor.
Participants in the workshop are already beginning to work Affect Theatre into their projects, including a Masters鈥� project on taxi drivers in 野狼社区, a PhD engaged research project on mental health training for nurses, and a faculty-led collaborative project bringing ethnographic research to the stage. You can catch that show, .
Meghan Rose and Pete will reflect on the workshop at a as well as in the School of Social Sciences (SoSS) Scholarship Showcase on 25 June. Come along to find out more and to register your interest in future workshops.
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