Research-based theatre, also known as verbatim theatre, uses real words spoken by real people to create a play. These words are gathered from interviews or written texts such as articles or diaries, and they help playwrights to identify key themes and characters. The goal of verbatim theatre is to present an honest and authentic picture of the community that has participated in the research.

Participants must have current or prior experience of living, working, or supporting someone living in long-term care in the last 18 months. Due to the scope of this project, we will only be interviewing participants who have experience with long-term care homes in Ontario. Participants must also be able to hold a conversation in English.

You can sign up for an interview by emailing mysunshinestudy@mcmaster.ca. In your email, let us know your name and the role you play in long-term care. Our Project Director will get in touch with you to confirm your participation and clarify any questions you might have.

During the interview, you will meet the Project Director on Zoom (or, if you would prefer, over a phone call). She will ask you questions about your background in long-term care and what a day living, working, or supporting someone in long-term care is like for you. Questions might include: What about life in your long-term care home brings you joy? What about life in your long-term care home do you find difficult? How has your nursing home been impacted by COVID-19? How has this affected you personally? If you could change something about your nursing home, what would it be? Your conversation can be up to an hour long if you would like to share for that amount of time. During the interview, the Project Director will be taking hand-written notes and have the audio recorded to help her better remember your story.

Yes. We value having the opportunity to hear your story and will send you an $25.00 gift card to thank you for your time.

Yes. Your participation in this study is voluntary. If you decide to be part of the study, you can stop (withdraw) from the study for whatever reason, even after giving consent or part-way through the interview or up until [ 2021]. If you decide to withdraw, there will be no consequences to you. In cases of withdrawal, any data you have provided will be destroyed unless you indicate otherwise. If you do not want to answer some of the questions you do not have to, but you can still be in the study.

Once interviews are completed, we will read the anonymized transcripts to identify common themes and issues. The Project Director will use these themes to create scenes and characters for the play. A carefully selected group of actors and long-term care stakeholders will then give feedback to help the Program Director to finalize the play script.

Yes. We will remove any information that could identify you from your story before we begin to use it in writing the play. This will protect your identity from the actors and researchers who are helping our Project Director create the script. Only the Project Director and the Faculty Supervisor will have access to the full script, which will be stored securely according to McMaster Research Ethics Board standards. Every effort will be made to protect your confidentiality and privacy. However, we are often identifiable through the stories we tell. Please keep this in mind in deciding what to tell us.