Making Oral History Interviews

Aims

Interviewing theatre professionals can bring new knowledge about current and past working practices, techniques and technologies.

Students doing interviews will also learn:

• how to organise and structure an interview
• verbal communication skills
• research skills, while preparing for the interview
• planning skills
• technical skills using audio and/or video recording equipment
• teamwork

Key Information

Number of learners	Interviews can be done by a single person working alone. If the interviews are being done by students, the recommended group size is up to 4.
Number of staff	One teacher or researcher to support the preparation of the questions and structure of the interview.
ECTS Credits (if applicable)

Learning process

	Lecture/seminar	Lecture, presentation, discussion (face-to-face or online)
	Making project	Making a model, mock-up, plan or design (physical or digital)
	Performance project	Making a performance or demonstration (live or mediated)
X	Records and Archives	Interviews, photographs and videos of artefacts, annotating archives, creating learning materials (physical or digital)
	Independent study	Reading, researching, analysing and evaluating learning materials (physical or digital) in groups or alone

Type of learner

X	Student of technical theatre
X	Student of theatre design, architecture
X	Student of theatre arts
X	Professional
X	Researcher
X	General public

What You Will Need

Duration and schedule

Phase 1: instruction on how to perform interviews and how to develop structure and questions (4 hours)

Phase 2: research and development of interview (4-8 hours)

Phase 3: test interview and equipment (2 hours)

Phase 4: conduct interview (4-8 hours)

Phase 5: post-production (depending on the chosen medium and expected result)

Room or type of space

Chose the space to fit the professional interviewed. Ideally this is a space that is quiet, makes the interviewee at ease and that they are familiar with.

If video is recorded, it is nice to have a professional environment as the background.

Equipment

Depending on the type of interview you need:

• Only writing equipment
• A good microphone and audio recorder with enough batteries
• Videorecorder, microphone, stand, basic light set

Materials (consumables)

Data storage, as required.

Learning resources (books, websites)

The Oral History Society offers very useful guidance on conducting oral history interviews:

https://www.ohs.org.uk/for-beginners/

Process

Preparation

There are many things that you need to consider when recording interviews with professionals, whether you are a solo researcher or a teacher working with students. These considerations include:

• Planning how the interviews will be recorded and stored, including ethical and legal data protection requirements relevant to your country.
• Ethical working, to ensure interviewees are not harmed or disadvantaged in any way by the process, and have the opportunity to leave the process at any time.
• If you are a university researcher, or a teacher working with students, your university or school is likely to have regulations governing research ethics, which you will need to comply with.
• If you are an independent researcher, the UK-based Oral History Society has useful advice and guidance: https://www.ohs.org.uk/for-beginners/

The learning activity

The following process is designed for teachers working with students. If you are a researcher working on your own, the stages will be similar, but you will be able to work at your own pace.

1. Briefing, with instructions on how to perform interviews and how to develop structure and questions, as well as discussion of the ethical, regulatory and legal considerations (4 hours)
2. Research the background of the people to be interviewed, and develop the interview questions (4-8 hours)
3. Test interviews and equipment (2 hours)
4. Conduct the interviews (4-8 hours)
5. Post-production (depending on the chosen medium and required form of the output)
6. If needed, debrief, discussion and evaluation of the results and the process.

Assessment and feedback

This learning activity is not designed to be assessed, but if necessary, you could assess students by direct teacher observation, or by self- or peer-evaluation afterwards.

Our Experience

Tips

Interviewing people about their professional experience can raise important ethical issues, to do with data protection, privacy, consent, and so on. Make sure you have prepared fully for these before you start interviewing.

Make sure you have a clear purpose for the interview – what are you hoping to find out from the person you are interviewing? If you are researching the impact of a particular technology on working practices, you will need to ask different questions than if you want to know how the person developed their career.

Make sure you have researched the interviewees carefully – they will expect you to know who they are and their main professional achievements and experience.

Recording interviews (audio or video) can be very useful, even if you don’t intend to publish the recording. You can then transcribe as much or as little as you want of the recording. Make sure the interviewee knows if the recording will be made public or not.

Credits

This learning method was made by:	Chris Van Goethem, Dr Nick Hunt
Institution:	RITCS (EhB), Rose Bruford College