Standing Ovation: Performing Social Science Research About Cancer (Ethnographic Alternatives) [Hardcover]

Ross Gray (Author), Christina Sinding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2002 | ISBN-10: 0759101450 | ISBN-13: 978-0759101456 | Edition: Har/Vhs

Is theatrical performance an effective way to communicate the results of social science research to health practitioners and the public? Ross Gray and Christina Sinding describe how their studies about metastatic breast cancer and prostate cancer were transformed into Handle with Care? and No Big Deal?, plays conveying the cancer experience to physicians and community audiences. People with cancer were among the actors, and the words they spoke were taken from individual and group interviews and from the dialogue between cancer survivors, researchers and dramatists that informed the script. The book tells the story of these two productions, outlining the theoretical basis of research as performance art, the process and problems of turning field notes into scripts, the delights and traumas of performance, and the results of research-based theatre experiments on audiences and participants alike. With the book is an 80-minute VHS videotape showing a performance of each drama.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Standing Ovation is less a how-to guide for other research-based theatre than an inspiration for such work. Each project, the authors realize, must find its own way; there is no method. But here is a look backstage at the fears, frustrations, and ultimately the triumphs of production. (Arthur W. Frank, from the Foreword )

Hats off to these investigators for reflecting both physician and patient perspectives with humor, in a manner that is neither reductive nor competitive, and for honoring profound needs. (Barbara Mains Medscape Women's Health Ejournal (Posted 10/03/2002) )

It is a compelling, informative, and uplifting experience to witness this performance and to read how it was constructed... The book and videotape are valuable additions to the small but lively performance ethnography scene. . . . In addition to bringing forth very helpful ideas about how to do performative/research work, they also are very provocative in terms of helping people live with disease and relate to others who are afflicted. (Gergen, Mary Forum: Qualitative Social Research Vol. 4, No. 3, Sept. '03 )

The authors, a social scientist and a psychosocial and behavioral health administrator, describe the process of blending the experience of living with cancer and the dissemination of their findings through a live theater audience...The authors are careful to create a vivid description of the cast members' involvement in the process and their emotional responses to being so closely aligned with the disease...[They] answer "yes" to the question, "Is the use of theatrical performance an effective way to communicate the results of social science research to healthcare providers and the public?" (Janic Phillips, PhD, RN, FAAN Oncology Nursing Forum, Vol. 30, No 5, 2003 )

[The book is] a successful attempt to link social-science research to drama and carries out in practice what many social scientists only do in theory: it listens. . . . A very useful tool to convey the cancer experience to physicians, patients and carers. (Lorraine Fincham Medical Sociology News, Vol. 29, No. 3, Winter 2003 )

The authors, a social scientist and a psychosocial and behavioral health administrator, describe the process of blending the experience of living with cancer and the dissemination of their findings through a live theater audience...The authors are carefulto create a vivid description of the cast members' involvement in the process and their emotional responses to being so closely aligned with the disease...[They] answer yes to the question, Is the use of theatrical performance an effective way to communicate the results of social science research to healthcare providers and the public? (Janic Phillips, PhD, RN, FAAN Oncology Nursing Forum, Vol. 30, No 5, 2003 )

Bravo! Humanistic psychology at its best! The authors of Standing Ovation have shown the power of group search and driven the golden spike in the railway to spiritual consciousness. (Duncan B. Blewett, PhD )

An original and courageous attempt to make patient-centered research and its results more readily available to those whose concerns really are at stake. . . . The process of describing the dramas is impressively described. . . . The authors of Standing Ovation must be complimented for a very personal, honest and thoughtful account of what they went through: fears and concerns, joys and victories, ambivilence and uncertainties, struggles and unclarities, nearness and loyalty, (Hanneke de Haes Health Expectations, 7, 2004 )

About the Author

Ross Gray is Co-Director of the Psychosocial & Behavioural Research Unit at Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre and Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto. Christina Sinding is a social scientist with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Community Research Initiative and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Altamira Press; Har/Vhs edition (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759101450
• ISBN-13: 978-0759101456
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,546,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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