A Beginner's Guide to Devising Theatre

Winner of the 2021 Music & Drama Education Award for Outstanding Drama Education Resource Much of the theatre we make starts with a script and a story given to us by someone else. But what happens when we're required to start from scratch? How do we begin to make theatre using our own ideas, our own perspective, our own stories? A Beginner's Guide to Devising Theatre, written by the artistic directors of the award-winning young people's performance company Junction 25 and is aimed at those new to devising or wanting to further develop their skills. It explores creative ways to create original theatre from a contemporary stimulus. It offers a structure within which to approach the creative process, including ideas on finding a starting point, generating material, composition and design; it offers practical ideas for use in rehearsal; and it presents grounding in terminology that will support a confident and informed approach to production. The book features contributions from some of the young performers who have been a part of Junction 25's work to date, as well as key artists and companies that work professionally in devised theatre, including case studies from Quarantine, the Team, Mammalian Diving Reflex, Nic Green and Ontroerend Goed. The work of Junction 25 is used to illustrate the concepts and ideas set out in the book. Ideal for any student faced with the challenge of creating work from scratch, A Beginner's Guide to Devising Theatre offers constructive guidance, which supports the requirements of students taking Drama and Theatre Studies courses. The book includes a foreword by theatre critic Lyn Gardner.

Jess Thorpe is co-director of theatre company Glass Performance with Tashi Gore.

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Foreword by Lyn Gardner Part One: An Introduction to devising theatre with young people An Introduction to Junction 25 Who is this book for? Why devise theatre? Beginning to collaborate Part Two: Devising theatre in seven stages An overview Stage 1: Building the group dynamic Stage 2: Selecting an inquiry question Stage 3: Finding the frame Stage 4: Making original material for performance · Writing text · Movement and choreography · Performance images · Action · Music Stage 5: Structure and composition Stage 6: Reflection Stage 7: Production: Sharing your work with an audience Part Three: Five interviews and one running order Interviews with companies that devise theatre; an introduction Interview about the process of devising All the Sex I've Ever Had by Mammalian Diving Reflex with Artistic Director Darren O'Donnell Interview about the process of devising Wallflower by Quarantine with Artistic Director Richard Gregory Interview about the process of devising Mission Drift by the TEAM with Artistic Director Rachel Chavkin Interview about the process of devising £¥?$ (LIES) by Ontroerend Goed with Artistic Director Alexander Devriendt Interview about the process of devising Trilogy by Nic Green with Artist Nic Green An example of a running order - ANOESIS by Junction 25 Index List of Contributors