Lifelong learnings: Pedagogy, research-based theatre and the ongoing performance of teacher / teaching narratives

This article details the ongoing and re-defining relationship between playwright / play, Research-based Theatre (RbT) and teacher / teaching narratives. Adapted from an invited talk at the University of British Columbia, July 2024, and adopting a creative autoethnographic practitioner lens as teacher / playwright / researcher, the article explores the creation of the author’s play, Pedagogy, centred on early-career teaching and learning. It describes its shifting position as a performance text within mainstream theatre then educational and academic settings –and the relationship between playwright / teacher identities –suggesting a complex relationality between plays, playwright and their iterations across time. Simultaneously, it considers narratives –and identities -of teaching and learning as similarly shifting for practitioner / researchers as a kind of ongoing performance.