Verbatim Consent Withdrawal
A devising ensemble of six students has built a 20-minute verbatim piece, Arrival, from interviews with recent migrants. One interviewee, Ana, signed a consent form permitting use of her words and recorded voice. After a preview, Ana asks for her story to be removed: she says she did not realise her employer would be in the audience. Her recorded voice opens the piece and her words appear in two central scenes. The ensemble has three weeks until opening and one actor argues that 'the work is more important than one person's discomfort'. Another wants to cut the whole migrant storyline. The piece has been selected for a regional festival. The group has one 90-minute rehearsal left this week before exams.
1. What do you do about Ana's request, and how do you decide? Set out the process, not just the outcome.
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Treat consent as ongoing, not a one-off form. Ana's request is not a public-relations problem; it changes the ethical basis of the work, and the employer's presence makes the risk concrete. First, meet Ana without the ensemble, listen, and confirm what she wants removed: her voice, identifying details, or the two scenes. Do not ask her to justify it or bargain. Second, take the decision to the group with the principle stated plainly: the piece is about dignity, so it cannot be built on overruling her. Third, check every other interviewee's consent for the same preview condition. Fourth, document the change and inform the festival producer. If Ana withdraws entirely, remove the recording and rewrite the scenes. If she is willing, offer anonymisation and re-recorded, composite lines with her approval. The process matters because the ensemble must own the principle, not just obey a teacher. The deadline is real but does not outweigh the harm.
2. Propose a dramaturgical solution that keeps the piece's structure and theme without Ana's identifiable material. Explain how you would handle the actor who calls this censorship.
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The structure can survive because Ana's material does two jobs: opening the piece and personifying one stage of arrival. Replace the opening recording with a soundscape of consenting voices, or with silence and a physical image of waiting. In the two central scenes, use a composite drawn only from interviewees who have agreed, and say so in the programme; do not invent. If no material fits, shift the protagonist to another consenting story and let the missing voice be a visible gap - an empty chair, a held pause. That is not weaker; it makes the theme of who gets heard explicit. To the actor: distinguish censorship by an authority from a participant withdrawing consent. Censorship is imposed from above; consent is a condition of taking someone's story. The piece argues that migrants are heard on their own terms; coercing Ana contradicts that argument on stage. Acknowledge his fear of losing a good scene, then ask him to solve the problem rather than defend it.
3. What do you change in the programme note and in the post-show discussion to reflect the decision, and why does that matter to the work's integrity?
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The programme should state the method honestly: the piece is based on interviews, one contributor withdrew after the preview, and the material has been reworked with her consent or removed. Do not imply that every voice on stage is a single real person if the scenes now use composite material. In the post-show discussion, name the principle: participants can withdraw, and the work is designed to allow that. This matters for integrity because verbatim theatre trades on the audience's belief that these are real people's words. If the production hides a withdrawal, it damages the trust that makes the form work. It also protects future projects: interviewees will be more willing if they see that consent is taken seriously. Keep the discussion focused on the work, not on Ana's identity. The ensemble should agree on two or three sentences and rehearse them so nobody improvises a defence that undermines the decision.