Devising/Performance Art Introduction

Devising/Performance Art Introduction

What is devised theatre?

It is an idea that comes from a stimulus. These ideas then undergo a creative and collaborative process (whereby there is no “official” positions, e.g a director, everyone helps with everything) to create a performance. It is also free form meaning that it crosses multiple disciplines and can include other aspects such as dance, multimedia and puppetry.

What problems can it throw up?

Ø  You can become stuck when you run out of/ lose track of ideas.

Ø  You can have too many ideas, making decisive decisions hard.

Ø  You may not have a stimulus.

Ø  You may not know where or how to start.

Ø  Too much focus on imagery can result in a lack of content.

Ø  As this area of theatre is more subjective, it is more open to criticism.

What is exciting about devised theatre?

Ø  It is an experimental process

Ø  There is no right or wrong way

Ø  Group may create ideas that you may not have thought of yourself

Ø  There is no set out “ending” so you don’t know where your group will end up

Ø  Every piece is unique and original – you have complete ownership over what you have created.

“Devised theatre can start from anything. It is determined and defined by a group of people who set up an initial framework or structure to explore and experiment with ideas, images, concepts, themes or specific stimuli that might include music, text, objects, paintings or movement… A devised theatre product is work that has emerged from and been generated by a group of people working in collaboration…devising is liberating and allows you to create anything.”
                                                                                                                                                     - Allison Oddey.

The Framework of devising includes:

Ø  Structure (episodic, linear etc.)

Ø  Style/ form (physical, natural, epic, total etc.)

Ø  Practitioners (relating to particular chosen style)

Ø  Genre (comedic, tragedy, horror, dramatic etc.)

Examples of devising companies include…

Forced entertainment

The Wooster group

Idle motion

Station house opera

From watching these companies I realised that devising doesn’t always have to make sense and it doesn’t necessarily match up to the stereotypical conventions of what people perceive theatre to be. For example, the Station Houses Opera created a piece where dominos are toppling over around London, and the word or concept of ‘theatre’ didn’t even cross my mind.

Classwork

 In class we redid our short devised pieces but added aspects of physical theatre to my groups piece. We did this by adding aspects of mirroring, shared speech and physical representing an argument by pulling the person trapped in the middle of it from side to side. Different groups had different aspects to embellish their original pieces, so as my group worked on physical theatre, other groups focused on adding aspects such as multimedia puppetry and performance art.

We also looked at making a puppet with five plastic cups. From this short exercise we learn that it can be quite difficult to bring objects to life and make all the different parts of it move with perfect synchronicity.

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We also looked at the roles that different people take within a group.

What role do I take within the group?

According to Meredith Belbin’s ideas on the roles within teams…

I am a plant:

®     Introverted but intellectually dominant

®     Source of original ideas and proposals

®     Very imaginative and intelligent

®     Resents criticism