I have been involved in Practice as Research for over 20 years now in Nigeria under various names. I employed the term Participant Observer in my PhD research work. However now I use the term Practice as Research and openly refer to myself as a Pracademic. I am pioneering this in Nigeria currently.

Theatre itself involves research in various contexts—such as script analysis, character development, scenographic study, and historical inquiry. Therefore, play production should be recognized as a form of research. At the university level, the academic system typically prioritizes written research papers or theses; however, we have long advocated for play production to be considered a valid and rigorous mode of research in its own right. Theatre practice demands engagement with creativity, imagination, sensory perception, emotional expression, and audience response. As such, it transcends traditional qualitative and quantitative approaches, necessitating a performative methodology.

This performative approach aligns with the framework of Practice as Research (PaR), which I consistently employ in my own work. When shifting from professional theatre to community or participatory theatre, Practice as Research becomes even more crucial. This is because it draws directly from lived experiences—those of performers, designers, and audiences—situated within the frameworks of positionality, retrospective analysis, and reflexivity, particularly through autoethnographic, phenomenological, and action research perspectives.