RESEARCHING POPULAR THEATER IN SOUTHERN AFRICA - COMMENTS ON A METHODOLOGICAL IMPLEMENTATION

Popular theatre exists throughout the world as a local organizing strategy whereby specific groups of people collectively express their histories and aspirations through the creation of a drama or story. Popular theatre is a process which builds self-confidence, self-esteem and analytical skills. It can help make the connections between theory and practice, and between local and global phenomena. This paper discusses my experience when I investigated two southern African community groups' use of popular theatre as an emancipatory participation strategy for local organizing. Feminist-cross-cultural-participatory-research is identified as the research framework while expected and actual research methodology are compared. Finally, I evaluate the impact of the research project both for ''the researched'' and ''the student researcher.''