Hello Phillip:
I'll just my own perspective to this. There are as many ways to devise as there are teachers/theatre companies who use it. After much experimentation, I have done devised pieces every year for the past 10 years with my 8th grade students, I notice that even for me each year is different and that's the beauty and the difficulty of working in this way. But I do have a general process that I follow(very outlined):
1 Begin with ensemble training--viewpoints and much of the ideas from Rohd's book (already mentioned and an absolute must--see my own bibliography at the end of this) to build a sense of ensemble, trust and community. I believe this is the key and is often skipped.
2. Develop material. Generally we begin with physical work--boal and rohd are good on this. I might suggest general ideas to begin our work, for example last year we worked with the idea of: Things that astonish us. Other times I use viewpoints and have 10 students "doing" the activities from that training method and the rest of us observe and discuss what we "notice". Out of this we make lists, create images with our bodies, interpret each others images, which leads to more lists. finally I see what ideas are creating the most heat, or interest for the group. I tell the group what I've been noticing in their physical work. From that we might have a list of a 5 things, big ideas. (observe that I never say: we are going to create a piece about......, or what do you want to create a piece about.). Out of these "hot topics" we begin devising poems, scenes, monologues, movement pieces, songs, (whatever the group wants to in order to explore), we present these to each other and the group decides which one will become our "theme".
3. Then we use this theme and go back to Boal and Rohd's image work, using the agreed on theme or idea and continue working that way, each day creating more material (I have 5 notetakers each day who write what they are observing and give me their notes, which I compile and collate and try and make sense of every saturday in a cafe or bar, whichever works for you). Groups will create scenes, etc. based on this work.
4. I have a sub group that meets at this point that is composed of students interested in developing a frame story, something that ties all the individual pieces that are developing into a coherent story. Example: one year we explored the ideas of secrets, and secrecy, and our frame story was about a girl who was disappointed in how many secrets there were in the world and she soon found out that she was able to "see" the secrets everyone had (which were our individual scenes, monologues, etc.).
5. I take all this and for better or worse I compile it into a 60-75 minute play and then treat it as a play--cast, rehearse, etc.
Here are some of the books that informed my approach.
The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition, Anne Bogart and Tina Landau
Young at Art: Classroom playbuilding in practice: Christine Hatton and SarahLovesy
Strategies for Playbuilding---Will Weigler
Theatre for Community, Conflict and Dialogue: Michael Rohd
Games for Actors and Non-Actors—Augosto Boal
House of Games—Chris Johnston
Acting, Learning & Change: Creating original plays with adolescents—JanMandell and Jennifer Lynn Wolf
At Play: Teaching teenagers theater—Elizabeth Swados
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Richard Silberg
Berkeley CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-22-2015 06:09
From: Phillip Goodchild
Subject: Devised Theatre
thank you, wonderful suggestions!
I am familiar with Boal...but it's been a while! Need to dust off my copy and re-read it! I also have the Theatre for Conflict book on my shelf, also unread...sheesh!
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Phillip Goodchild
Theatre Arts Instructor/Assistant Department Head of English
Hillsborough County Schools
Ruskin FL
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-21-2015 16:35
From: Robert DiMartino
Subject: Devised Theatre
Hi Phillip;
I have done several one acts this way and plan on doing one this year for my festival piece. I usually start with a general discussion about "what does the group want to say?" Once we know what our subject matter is, I assign monologue writing. From there, we start to examine what would happen if the character from this monologue had a conversation with the character from that one. Those "meetings" are improvised and tweaked. It's kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle after that. Where would all these people have met? Did any of them have relationships prior to the story? What is their back story? etc. I feel it is vital to have a very efficient AD or SM to take copious notes and convert improvised scenes into script form.
This is a very organic process and usually the results tell a completely different story than was originally conceived. Be flexible with the story, but not with your actors. They must produce the assignments (monologues and written scenes) and they must be aware that much of what they do will end up "on the cutting room floor." They must also realize that if they want substantial roles they must do substantial work.
Break legs and I hope this helps.
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Robert DiMartino
Theatre Teacher
Cumberland High School
West Warwick RI
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-20-2015 07:17
From: Phillip Goodchild
Subject: Devised Theatre
Anyone had any success is devising entirely original work with their students?
As a younger man/student, I was involved in creating several pieces of original, devised pieces, sometimes entire shows. I had excellent teachers, so I am having difficulty in trying to piece together how they went from 20-40 individuals in a room to a polished piece of theatre with a rough story arc that somehow magically came together.
I've read 'Strategies for Play-Building' and was able to get so far in terms of applying it to classroom practice. I think I will return to it, as it has excellent ideas for getting from point A to B. I also have Frantic Assembly's book on devising sitting in my Kindle library, and am about to test-out Jessica Swale's 'Drama Games for Devising' in a one-week summer camp coming up in two weeks.
What successes have any of you had with devised work? What process or processes, what book, what text, have you used that helped you create a sustained piece of theatre? I really want to be able to give my students the tools and guide them into creating original work, one because its an extremely valuable educational and life experience, and two, paying out the license fees for 8-10 shows a year is proving somewhat expensive.
Any advice or guidance, suggestions and such would be stellar!
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Phillip Goodchild
Theatre Arts Instructor/Assistant Department Head of English
Hillsborough County Schools
Ruskin FL
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