Research-Based Theater in Schools: Ethical Challenges, Conundrums, and Choices

This article focuses on the ethical challenges which may arise when a research-based theater (RbT) project is undertaken with students in a school or in another educational setting. It focuses on three case studies where I worked as an RbT practitioner with students in a single-sex boys' school and Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) in a Master of Teaching program. For over 15 years, I have worked as an RbT practitioner, and I have developed a set of ethical principles pertaining to the writing and the performance of the RbT piece. I discuss in this article that even with such ethical principles in place, unforeseen critical incidents of an ethical nature may arise in an RbT project that may lead the RbT practitioner to reappraise the effectiveness of these principles in their work.