devising

definitions

• questioning of hierarchies• resistance to text and naturalism• drama – theatre – performance• reasons for making (aesthetic – political –

social)

devising is

‘best understood as a set of strategies’ (Heddon and Milling 2006: 2)

‘devising is most accurately described in the plural –as processes of experimentation and sets of creative strategies – rather than a single methodology, it defies neat definition or categorisation’ (Govan, et al 2007: 7)

historical emergence

• the historical avant-garde• counter-culture of 60s and 70s• political, questioning of orthodoxies• actor training and the body• multimedia

People often ask where we begin. We always begin with a text. But that text can take many forms - I mean it can equally well be a visual text, a text of action, a musical one as well as the more conventional one involving plot and characters. Theatre, says Aristotle, is an act and an action. Action is also a text. As is the space, the light, music, the sound of footsteps, silence and immobility. All should be as articulate and evocative as each other.

I have often heard people say that as a company we are fascinated by action and image. But that is only because what people DO must be as clear as what they SAY. I do not mean that what they do must copy language.

Simon McBurney

It is often extremely unstructured, though paradoxically quite disciplined. The room is crammed full of stuff; on the walls pictures, text, photographs, videos, objects, clothes and paper everywhere… But this is by no means a consistent picture. Often we reach a moment when there must be nothing in the room at all. It has to be bare, empty and uncluttered. So when rehearsing a piece I do not have a method, no single approach. Ultimately the material dictates each rehearsal.

Simon McBurney

• story-telling• autobiographical• political theatre• community theatre• site specific• visual-physical aesthetic/'total theatre'

stimulusmaking

dramaturgy – editing refinement - rehearsal

‘we have discovered a performance by making it’ (ww.goatislandperformance.org)

‘Chaos is a necessary aspect of devising, not least because truly creative work makes uses of chance’ (164)

‘Any group wanting to devise a piece has to discover what they want to say. Devising is a ‘way of working to find out and develop ideas …that involves stepping out of the conventional roles’ … But it does not necessarily mean knowing what your intended outcome is at the start’ (164)

Through the Body, Dymphna Callery

‘find a way’

of purpose – why?

of approach – how to proceed?

of performance – what is made?