The Etheatre Project: The Director as Researcher

The aim of this paper is to investigate the original methodologies that are developed in a practice based research (PBR) in digital performance, by the compination of theatre directing and research methodologies. Referring to the case of Etheatre Project, the in-progress PhD research of the author, this paper
discusses emergent issues of the PBR new academic dicipline, such as mediation, documentation and originality. Etheatre Project explores the interactive and political potentials of cyberformance by the use of free internet spaces as theatrical stage, aiming to redefine the characteristics of theatre and the methodologies of theatre directing within the phenomenon of ‘remediation’ of cyberculture. The paper discusses the use of the creative process as research methodology and the role of the director as researcher, as dealt with by Jamieson (2008), Leavy (2009) and Dixon (2011).