abstract
In the anthropological study of humans and other primates, it is generally considered desirable to observe subjects in as close to their "natural" habitat as possible, while at the same time acknowledging that the presence of a researcher interferes in complex ways with the "natural-ness" of the behaviors being observed. Systematic observations and analyses of humans in performance, however, have generally been limited to public, finished performances, but I would argue that the green room, the backstage and wing areas, and perhaps most of all the rehearsal room are the most "natural" of theatre artists' habitats.
The amount of scholarly research being done on actors and directors in rehearsal is increasing slowly, thanks in part to the interest in learning about the working processes of renowned or groundbreaking artists. Analytic research that attempts to study theatrical rehearsal, acting, or directing in general through the observation and documentation of relatively "anonymous" rehearsals is really quite rare. The "liveness" of the subjects being studied makes those rare attempts to study backstage spaces and rehearsals fraught with sensitive political and ethical concerns. Still, faculty and students in the Department of Performance Studies at the University of Sydney (Australia) have spent nearly twenty years developing a method, an ethics, and an institutional framework to study a wide range of theatre artists in rehearsal, as well as to train new researchers in these techniques. In this paper, I will discuss the fundamental principles of the Sydney method, as well as sharing some of my own research observing professional Australian theatre artists within the methodological and institutional resources of the University of Sydney's program.