F.A.Q.’S – Verbatim Performance Lab

Looking for a video about what we do? We’ve got you covered below:

What is verbatim performance?

Good question. We define verbatim performance as the precise portrayal of an actual person using their exact speech and gestural patterns as a data source for investigation, literally “word for word” & “gesture for gesture.”

So it’s like an impression or a caricature?

Not really. We usually think of an impressionist as an entertainer. We want our work to be theatrically engaging, but that’s not our only goal. And a caricature is an exaggeration. We’re actually working to do the opposite. A VPL actor works to capture the essence of the person they are portraying through intense study and by performing as much like them as humanly possible.

Similar to what they do on S.N.L.?

What they do tends to be satire, which is a great tool for commentary, but we’re not interested in commenting on people, just presenting them as they appear to be, with as much objectivity as possible.

And how do you do that?

Let’s start with the basics. As theatre makers, we think about our work as sitting under the umbrella of documentary theatre which means that we work with different forms of cultural media: interviews, videos, court documents, letters, newspaper articles, and various primary and secondary source documents. Within an academic context, our work can also be called arts-based research and ethnodrama.

Right. What does that look like?

It can look like a variety of things, for example, for The Kavanaugh Files, we took video excerpts from the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings featuring testimony of Christine Blasey Ford and then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and we had actors perform those sections verbatim.

But it’s not exactly like it was?

Correct! When we work with media artifacts we change an identity variable in the equation to see how it affects an audience’s perception. So how does your perception of Brett Kavanaugh’s opening statement in those hearings change when his speech and gestural patterns are performed by a woman? Identity variables that we experiment with include age, gender, race, or a combination of those.

Do you only work with media that features recognizable public figures?

No, our other work is interview-based. For example, our Portraits US series uses interviews conducted with people from around the country to capture an array of experiences and viewpoints during historical events and happenings. In some cases, we have interviewed international participants as well.

They’re real people?

Yes, the interviews are conducted with real people, they are recorded, transcribed verbatim, and notes are taken on their gestural patterns (think body language and movement). Our actors then use all of that information to create a living portrait of this person by embodying their speech and gestural patterns. Those portraits can be recorded on video as solo pieces, or they can be combined with other portraits into a script that can be performed for a live audience in a theatre.

What’s the point of all this?

VPL’s mission is to disrupt assumptions, biases, and intolerances across a spectrum of political, cultural, and social narratives. Meaning that we believe that verbatim performance helps viewers identify the effects of how someone communicates a message, understanding that how someone says something is just as important as what they say.

So do you only work with other theatre makers?

No, we’ve had lots of exciting collaborations with colleagues in political science, economics, sociology, business, law, history, international education, social work, healthcare, prison reform, media, and documentary film. And through those collaborations we’ve created work with professional actors, community members, college and university students, and middle school and high school students.

How do I get involved?