ABSTRACT
The interview is the main area of overlap between oral history practice and verbatim theatre processes, and this chapter examines this process, exploring some of the key differences in this stage of work between both disciplines. Subjects covered at the beginning of this chapter include the following: determining who will conduct the interview and how it will be recorded; addressing subject matter of a sensitive nature with narrators; offering advice on how to find people to interview; and estimating how many interviews will need to be undertaken.
The way in which any interviewer conducts and develops their relationship with a narrator is always important since it is reflective of the level of care that a playwright is willing to demonstrate towards those who share their experiences to be employed in theatre scripts. Best practice in oral history interviews as outlined on many oral history websites and publications can seamlessly be transferred over to the interview situation for a verbatim play. In this chapter, advice is provided on what to bring to an interview, what to do when you arrive, how to guide the narrator onto the topics you need information about for your script, how to work with narrators who have varying levels of self-confidence and what to do when a narrator presents the interviewer with written documentation of their memories. The chapter concludes by addressing the important matter of the implications of interviewing people about topics that are likely to trigger traumatic memories.
