Megan McConville Shone

My Master's research was entitled "Performance, Liminality and Kinship: A Study of the effect of Theatre Involvement for LGBTQ+ Persons on Identity Formation". I conducted semi-structured interviews with 9 participants who identified themselves as belonging to the LGBTQ+ community and as being involved in some form of theatre practice. The research aimed to examine the notion of the theatre as being tied to the LGBTQ+ community historically, and looked to unpick the reasons for why this might be the case. The interviews were coded and analysed and major themes of kinship-like relationships, catharsis, and a sense of belonging pervaded the data.

My PhD research is entitled "Collaborative Theatre with Local Communities in Coventry: Models for Sustainable Practice" and I am working with the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry to investigate the relationship of gender to participatory theatre practices. I am aiming to conduct a number of semi-structures interviews with participants in the programmes run by the Belgrade, alongside those helping to design and run them, and utilise creative workshops to investigate the impact that these programmes may have in unpicking traditional gender roles through allowing particiapants to experience a different form of socialisation that is not reflective of that of wider society.