This workshop is designed to provide multiple entry points into the world of devised performance, uncovering every participant’s unique creative instincts in a supportive yet challenging environment. We incorporate elements of ensemble games, actor training, physical storytelling, ensemble building, design, creative prompts and reflective exercises as we move from the spark of an idea to the foundational structure of a performance piece. Each session touches upon a different element or building block of performance, experimenting with its possibilities and layering upon them session after session culminating in short self-devised pieces by the participants.

• Learn about and experiment with different elements of theatrical language such as architecture, lights, sound, objects and more

• Build a repository of material to draw from in devised projects

• Devise a short performance piece either collaboratively with fellow participants or as an individual

• Develop a practice and sensitivity towards observing and reflecting upon oneself and others

Session #1: Defining Concepts

• Generating “material” and building a repository of ideas

• Structural vs Interpretive Analysis

• Theatrical Language (Sensory, Evocative, Visceral, Metaphoric, Symbolic, Aesthetic, Transformative, Narrative and Poetic)

• Dramatic Tension vs Theatrical Tension

Session #2: Architecture & Space

Session #3: Lights

Session #4: Sound (Song, Voice, Scoring)

Session #5: Movement, Gesture and Chorus

Session #6: Objects: Props & Costumes

Session #7: Still Images & Moving Images

Session #8: Story

Session #9: Text I – Generating Text

Session #10: Text II – Responding to Text