As a company we decided to create a unique devised piece instead of taking and performing or possibly adapting a ready-made script. The devising process will allow us to create and recreate ideas into something that we do not even know yet. I feel like this is going to be a tough but exciting process as Stage Manager due to its changing nature, I will have to be organised and note down everything that is important even if it is going to change as then we will have a reference in case there was a previous idea which could work but had been lost through the changes. ‘Devised work is a response and a reaction to the playwright – director relations, to text-based theatre, […] and challenges the prevailing ideology of one person’s text under another person’s direction. (Oddey, 1994, 4).
Throughout our process there will not be one set writer, it will be a case of individuals going away and finding material and then as a company we have a say in the ideas that we liked or what we thought could work. It is a case of collaborating ideas and then an individual of the company will go and write a draft script in which will be read through as a company, suitable actors chosen and then edited to performance standard, even then it shall still be changed as staging takes place.
The devising process has allowed the company to ‘stretch the limits of established practices’ (Govan, 2007, 3) in the sense that there is no linear narrative. As a company we have been able to fragment several techniques and stories together to create our piece. It has allowed us to play with different styles that normally would not be seen in the same performance ranging from puppetry to music.
Works Cited:
Govan, N., Nicholson H., Normington K. (2007) Making a Performance, Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, Oxford: Routledge
Oddey, A (1994) Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook, London: Routledge