在他人故事看見自己：自傳劇觀眾經驗之研究

Seeing Oneself in Others’Stories: A Study on Audience Experience in Autobiographical Therapeutic Performance

自傳劇是戲劇治療中重要的一環，強調由當事人自主選擇戲劇媒材與形式，在舞臺上重新演繹過往生命重要回憶。現有自傳劇文獻多探討戲劇治療師與演出者的角色與作用，從觀眾角度出發的研究明顯較少。本研究旨在探討觀眾觀看自傳劇時的內在經驗，進而從個人自身經驗出發，探究觀眾與演出者情感連結的內在經驗及自我對話。本研究採主題分析法，深入分析3名觀眾觀看4部自傳劇的經驗。研究結果發現：觀眾的觀劇期待易抱持「預期為真」的觀劇心理，進入與回應演出者的生活世界，藉由類比生活經驗產生的情感連結，帶來重回過往經驗的心理效應。而觀眾個人生命經驗與演出者作品的連結與對話，在相似經驗中，觀眾較容易在劇情共鳴中，同步上演內心戲，甚至將自我置身於演出者角色，呈現宛若他者的狀態。至於相異經驗中，觀眾會透過積極的想像力疼惜演出者的苦難；面對超出理解範圍的表演手法與劇情，則會選擇截斷自身的情感連結。在觀看自傳劇後，觀眾也會針對自傳劇的演出，產生自我對話與意義生成。最後，本研究提出幾點建議，有助於戲劇治療師深化議題討論，增進觀眾在自傳劇中生命經驗的探索與交流。

Autobiographical therapeutic performance (ATP) is a key aspect of drama therapy that combines self-exploration, drama, and psychotherapy. ATP involves participants choosing dramatic content and forms to reenact significant past memories, aiming for therapeutic and transformative outcomes. Drama therapists, performers, and audience members are essential components of ATP. Drama therapists help performers convey their life experiences to audience members through autobiographical plays. This approach creates a“relational aesthetic”between performers and audience members, which in turn facilitates self-exploration and transformation for performers. Most of the literature on autobiographical drama focuses on the roles and functions of drama therapists and performers, emphasizing facilitators’practical knowledge and methods and performers’experiences. Few studies have explored audience members’perspectives.
Recent studies have indicated a shift in how humans perceive audience roles. Audience members are no longer viewed as passive observers in the theatrical experience, who simply witness performers’transformative healing processes. Instead, audience members can reflect upon their own life roles through the performers’creations and presentations. Audience members are increasingly acknowledged as active cocreators, integral to the performance. Research has started exploring the audience members’participation in drama therapy. This study specifically examined the audience members’perspective, exploring the rich inner experiences that unfold within audience members as they engage with ATP. It also investigated the emotional connections between audience members and performers, the self-dialog within spectators’minds, and the long-lasting meanings that theatrical encounters impart.
This study employed a phenomenological qualitative approach divided into two stages: performance and interviews with audience members. In the first stage, the primary researcher prepared and planned a public ATP. In group workshops, four volunteer performers were invited to explore their life journeys and identify core life issues. Subsequently, they engaged in script creation and rehearsals for their individual ATPs. In the second stage, semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted after the performances. A thematic analysis was used to examine the experiences of three audience members who watched four ATPs. After more than a year, a follow-up survey was conducted, in which audience members were invited to share their postviewing experiences and the effects of the ATPs on their daily lives outside the theater.
According to the research findings, ATPs enable performers to arrange and present their personal life experiences through drama, providing a pathway for audience members to understand these experiences. While watching a theatrical performance, the audience prepares mentally, setting psychological expectations regarding their engagement with the performer’s actual experiences, thereby focusing their attention.
When audience members watch ATPs, they typically expect the performances to authentically reflect the performer’s reallife experiences. This expectation helps them form a“you and I”connection with the performer, which immerses them in the performer’s world. By establishing a relationship between the performance and their own life experiences, audience members create emotional connections that can lead to revisiting past experiences.
When the experiences of audience members are similar to those in the performance, their emotional projections tend to generate resonance and establish shared feelings. However, if the performance’s content is unrelated to the audience members’life experiences, the audience members tend to select different internal experience pathways because of their unfamiliarity with the performer’s life experiences. In dissimilar experiences, understanding is enhanced as audience members create connections and dialogs between their own life experiences and the performer’s work.
In similar experiences, audience members tend to resonate with the plot, internally enacting their own drama and even imagining themselves in the performer’s role. This approach enables them to re-experience unresolved psychological issues. By contrast, in dissimilar experiences, audience members tend to use their imagination to empathize with the performer’s suffering. When presented with unfamiliar performance techniques or plot elements, audience members may experience emotional detachment or choose to disconnect emotionally.
After watching an ATP, audience members tend to engage in self-dialog, reflecting upon the performer’s perspective. This process increases their sense of agency and affects their daily lives. Even more than a year later, audience members continue to relate their own experiences with those of the performer, thereby offering support and reparative experiences. They also tend to respond to their viewing experiences with concrete actions that reflect ongoing engagement and personal growth, and they tend to find meaning in life and complete their journey of self-healing within the ATP.
This study visualizes and integrates various findings to create a structural diagram of the audience members’internal experiences, demonstrating how proactive engagement enriches their interaction with ATPs. The findings highlight how audience members’experiences in ATPs differ from those in conventional theaters. Recommendations are offered to inform future research methodologies and drama therapy practices, specifically for ATPs. These recommendations enhance the artistic process of ATPs. They also mitigate potential alienation due to disparate life experiences and foster meaningful therapeutic effects for audience members, thereby promoting personal growth and self-reflection while encouraging discussions on societal and personal issues raised by ATPs. Ultimately, these recommendations aim to link audience experiences with the therapeutic process, optimizing the transformative potential of ATPs.
Further research is required to increase the diversity of audience experiences and analyze the nuanced interactions between performers and audience members in real time. Additional research is also required to explore how these shared experiences influence and shape life experiences inside and outside the theater. As a dynamic and evolving field, drama therapy should refine the artistic process of ATPs by reducing alienation and focusing on the audience members’psychological processes, emotions, and cognitive responses as an integral component of the drama therapy framework. This approach would enhance the exchange and integration of life experiences between performers and audience members in a profound and transformative manner.