Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2014
Poster Presentation
Oklahoma!: An Ethnographic Study on the University Theatre Discourse
Community
Theodore Mueller
Faculty Mentor: Barbara Harroun and Jeannie Woods
English and Theatre
Theatre in general is a very wide community and encompasses many elements of art,
but university theatre is a distinct academic discourse community in that it shares the
common goal of learning and creating art, while sharing common spaces and creating a
close-knit community of students and faculty. With specific ethnographic research
(careful observation, analysis, immersion, and interviewing), I examine people’s
behaviors and communications in order to understand how this particular group of
people create meaning together. As an on-going research project for an English 280
composition class, I prove that through the analysis of the rehearsal process of
Oklahoma!, a university theatre production, there is a clear discourse community that
happens to be more interconnected and complex than many other communities in the
university, despite it being temporary in nature due the limits of a school theatrical
production. This research project’s goals are to 1) Analyze a discourse community’s
practices and communications; 2) Share information, ideas, and insights effectively as a
researcher; 3) Understand the difference between and value of both “insider” and
“outsider” knowledge and perspectives; 4) Develop the curiosity and skills for learning
about and for communicating and working with other from different groups,
communities, and cultures; 5) Use empirical evidence to support a written analysis; and
6) Develop skills for writing about primary research. Exploration of the university theater
discourse community has led to some very interesting discoveries regarding
communication and the production process of a musical.