Devising Theatre

Generation & Curation

 Generation Curation Response

LO1.1 Identify the possible situations, LO3.3 Manipulate the Fundamentals of LO3.2 Explain the relationship between
roles and relationships suggested by Drama to develop ideas and shape the the significant aspects of the
stimuli. dramatic actions. Fundamentals of Drama present in the
dramatic actions.

LO1.2 Experiment with the Fundamentals
of Drama to explore ideas, thoughts and
feelings, and to generate perspectives on
the situations, roles and relationships
suggested by the stimuli for performance
possibilities.
LO3.4 Select and structure the ideas and
dramatic actions (e.g., during devising
and playbuilding) into a coherent
performance to convey intended
meanings to an audience.

LO3.1 Apply the Fundamentals of Drama

during role-playing, improvising, devising
and playbuilding to generate and develop
ideas suggested by stimuli and script
(e.g., establish individual roles and
explore relationships between them
through planned, improvised and
rehearsed dramatic actions).
Story Structure
What happens next?
Why do we care?
Three elements of story:
● Conflict
● Reversal: change or contrast that challenges the views of the audience
● Delimitation: what aspect of a character’s life do you focus on?
Improvisation
LOs and LIs for Improvisation
The improvisation process (S1DFP)
● Can focus and stay in role during improvisation
● Can make (physical) offers:
○ To accept offers
○ To be spontaneous
● Can accept and extend (physical) offers
● Can extend and advance (physical) offers
● Can yield (give way without blocking)
Devising from a visual stimulus (painting)
Character
Setting
The fundamental elements of improvisation (S2DFP)
● Can make, accept, and extend vocal offers
● Can establish the given circumstances:
○ Who am I Where am I What do I want What
am I doing to get what I want
● Can build a Jo-Ha-Ku narrative
● Can create inner and external conflict
● Can utilise status for dynamic relationships
Devising from a textual stimulus (open script)
Character
Conflict
Structure
The improvisation process
● Establishing focus
○ Exercise 1: Focus circle
○ Exercise 2: Identifying focus
○ Exercise 3: Tableaux (space jump)
● Making Offers
○ Exercise 1: Yes, let’s
○ Exercise 2: The free-association circle
○ Exercise 3: In the manner of the word
○ Exercise 4: Making a physical offer
● Accepting and Extending
○ Exercise 1: Caring and sharing
○ Exercise 2: Emotional offers
○ Exercise 3: Building a tableau
○ Exercise 4: Extending a tableau
● Extending and advancing offers
○ Exercise 1: Extending a verbal offer
○ Exercise 2: The alphabetical list
○ Exercise 3: Truth or lies?
The Improvisation Process
OFFER
make a suggestion that establishes the focus

ACCEPT
yield to the offer and the focus

↓
OFFER OFFER
EXTEND → ACCEPT → ACCEPT
use the offer while maintaining the focus
EXTEND EXTEND
↓

ADVANCE
when appropriate advance the offer with a
change of focus
The fundamental elements of improvisation
● The ‘Three Questions’
○ Exercise 1: Who am I?
○ Exercise 2: Where am I?
○ Exercise 3: What am I doing to get what I
want?
○ Exercise 4: Sets of cards
○ Exercise 5: Using a prop
○ Exercise 6: Using a prop as a symbol
○ Exercise 7: One-sentence wonders
○ Exercise 8: The hot seat
○ Exercise 9: Alter ego
● The elements of narrative
○ Exercise 1: Before, now and after
○ Exercise 2: Using first lines
○ Exercise: Using last lines
● Conflict
○ Exercise 1: Inner conflict
○ Exercise 2: The triad
○ Exercise 3: Opposing objectives
○ Exercise 4: Conflicts between characters
● Status
○ Exercise 1: The hunter and hunted
○ Exercise 2: Establishing status
○ Exercise 3: Status tableaux
○ Exercise 4: Hierarchies
○ Exercise 5: Cards
● Rehearsed improvisations
○ Exercise 1: Reworking an improvisation
○ Exercise 2: Improvisation as the process for
performance
 Narrative
Types of Devising Compilation
Approaches Issue-based
 GENERATION
CURATION
Characters
Selection
Conflicts
Arrangement
Scenes
Augmentation
Expressive moments
Generation
Where Do Ideas Come From?
● Familiar situations and conflicts — Consider a situation such as people dealing with a
death, weddings, reunions, holidays, and so forth. Ground a story in conflicts familiar
to you such as jealousy, betrayal, old wounds, misunderstandings, family crises.
● Existing stories — You don’t have to imagine an original story. Play imaginatively with
an existing story.
● News — Often police, legal and medical procedurals start with something that
actually happened. They change names and details and “open up” the story for the
sake of drama and efficiency
● History
● Adaptations of familiar stories and myths
● Adaptations of published material (plays, novels, stories, films, etc.)
● Interviews, letters, other materials
The question
The anchor
The structure
The question (or theme) motivates the entire process. This central
driving force should be big enough, interesting enough and relevant
enough to be attractive and contagious to many people. The
question emerges from personal interest and then spreads like a
virus to other people who come in contact with it.

The anchor is a person (or event) that can serve as a vehicle to get to
the question.

The structure is the skeleton upon which the event hangs. It is a way
to organize time, information, text and imagery.
Gathering Material
Once the basic building blocks of the project are established, it is time to collect material that might
be used in the production.

1. Make a list of everything that you know for sure about the project, including any ideas about
character, text, situation, story, development, imagery, etc.

2. Make a list of everything that you do not know. What you do not know can be as useful as what
you know. These gaps, these mysterious unknowns that make you uncertain and nervous about the
piece, constitute fertile ground.

3. Collect text, imagery, music, sound, objects and whatever else feels right in relation to the project.
It is fine to bring too much to the table. You are simply pointing at things to help your collaborators
into the Play-World. Everything you gather may become a clue or a vital component.
Compositions
Point of View

Architecture

Role of Audience

Storytelling Techniques

Genre

Framing Devices

Scale

Light and Color

Language

Character

Play-World
Marc Nair’s Approach

Observation

Defamiliarisation

Subversion
Creating Characters
Flipping Expectations or Unusual Combinations
● Themes
● Emotions *
● Locations *
● Characters *
● Others
1. Character creation
a. Attributes
b. Improvisation
i. Information about character
ii. Potential conflict
2. Development of character
a. Wants
b. Stakes
 Devising Attributes

How religious am I?

Character How prejudiced am I?

How much do I want to leave my home?

TNS: Playing with Character
How much do I love my country?

Attributes according to different aspects of a How vulgar am I?

character’s life:
How badly do I speak English?
Interpersonal
Social How much do I love to talk?
Political
How shy am I?
Spiritual
Different Aspects of Character: SPICE

Head Intellect Education level

Street-smarts
Not exam-smart or have education certs but has
high EQ or is socially well-connected or has high
social skills

Heart Emotion Detached

Emotional
Does s/he feel but behaves stoic?
Is she level-headed but emotional when talking
to some people?

Culture Ethnic group & cultural practices

Daily routine

Spiritual Religion
Worldviews
Convictions / beliefs/ values

Body Physical Speech

Manner / behaviour
Are there any physical traits that the character
has?
Appearance Posture & gait Does s/he limp or walk with a lisp?
Character-mood-intensity / physical state of Is s/he disabled in any way?
the character
Conflicts
Four Levels of Conflict
Type of conflict Definition

Physical The outward physical manifestation of conflict between characters

Eg. from shouting to hitting etc

Interest A clash between the things characters want

Eg. Macbeth doesn’t want to kill Duncan but Lady M wants him to, Vivian & Wayne want to move to
Australia but Ma and Pa don’t want them to.

Belief / Value system A clash between the things characters believe or value, priorities
Eg. Power vs self-interest, religion, power at all cost

Emotional The climax, where the protagonist has to make the last desperate choice
Eg, Anger, sadness, etc
Curation
Selection
Checklist for Selection
❏ Is there a clear crisis that spurs the characters to speak?
❏ Does the crisis allow for conflict of value-system?
❏ Are the characters all necessary? (ie do they contribute to the conflict?)
❏ Is there a premise?
❏ Can you find a dramatic question?
Premise & Dramatic Question
Premise
A sharp story or a story with focus can be summarised in one sentence that can be
applied to all characters.

Dramatic Question
Dramatic question is a means to check the conflict of a piece; to hone the dramatic
trajectory of the piece

A dramatic question is thus the transference of the premise into a question that
applies even to the audience and involves them in the decision making process
Arrangement
Structures of Arrangements
● Climatic / Well-made play structure / Cause and effect
○ Five act
○ Three act
○ Two act (Midpoint Reversal)
● Episodic
● Fragmentary
● Character
● Theme
Augmentation
Principles of Dialogue
Dialogue should achieve at least one of the following at any one point in time:
1. Reveal: Interpersonal relationships between characters
2. Reveal: Character’s response to a crisis at hand / or want <—>
3. Reveal: Character’s personality (revealed by not what she says but how she responds to the
crisis
4. Foreground information / plotline AND / OR repeat certain information as interesting emphasis
(motif)
5. “Variables” (dependant on the story / play / plotline)
Elements of Dialogue
● Ellipses (loss for words / lost in thought ）
● Dashes (interruption)
● Overlap
● Pauses / silences
● Rhythm / beats / shifts
Devising
Coursework Considerations
Theatre-maker intentions

Intentions for the piece of theatre should be formulated collaboratively. These must be
agreed by the ensemble and should include the following:
● the chosen starting point
● what the piece will address or explore
● the target audience for the piece
● the performance space and the positioning of the audience
● the effect the ensemble aims to have on their target audience (think, feel, react)
Assessment Outcomes
AO1 Knowledge and Understanding: Candidates will be assessed on their ability to apply their knowledge, skills and understanding to
explore, generate and structure ideas in the realisation of drama.
They should be able to provide
● an explanation of how the piece was collaboratively created by the ensemble with reference to significant instances from the
process
● an explanation of how they used their performance skills (body and/or voice) effectively contributed to one moment of tension,
emotion, atmosphere and/or meaning ("TEAM") visible in the video recording
● an explanation of how their own specific individual artistic contribution(s) to the development and/or staging of the piece as
creator, designer and/or director effectively contributed to the fulfilment of the ensemble's intentions in one moment seen in the
video recording
● their use of performance skills (body and/or voice)
● their contribution to the artistic development and/or staging of the piece.

AO3 Analysis and Evaluation: Candidates will be assessed on their ability to analyse and evaluate their own dramatic work and work
processes using appropriate terminology.
They should be able to provide an evaluation of the effectiveness of the final piece as a whole (in relation to how they consider the
ensemble's intentions were achieved) with reference to audience feedback.
 Exploration
Inquiring into effective processes of collaborative creation in
theatre and the working methods of at least one contemporary
theatre company.
Inquiring into at least one starting point and, in response,
collaboratively formulating theatre-maker intentions for an
01
original piece of theatre.
 TEAM
Tension
Moments of tension
These are the moments within a piece of theatre where
the performer finds themselves in a tense situation:
facing an obstacle, in conflict, in a state of anticipation,
negotiating internal or external struggles etc.
Moments of tension are also moments when an audience
feels tense or in suspense.
Atmosphere
These are moments that evoke a particular sensual and
emotional responses within us. It is what is commonly
used to position us within the context of particular setting
and is often the result of aesthetics.
Atmosphere is created by a variety of theatrical devices,
from rain falling on stage, mist rising from a grate, the
sound of a heartbeat, a group of performers walking
slowly across the space or a piece of music quietly
underscoring spoken words.
Emotion
These are moments within a piece of theatre
that either depict or communicate a
character(s)’ emotion or which evoke an
emotional response from the audience.
This might be an emotion arising out of a
situation, a character’s inner turmoil, or a
movement sequence that manages to
capture an emotion that we can’t quite put
into words.
Meaning
These are moments that are primarily
concerned with relaying and communicating
the key themes, ideas, messages and
concepts that the piece of theatre wishes to
communicate and engage the audience with.
Reflections
Theatre-Making Intentions Elements of Plays

What is your chosen starting point? ● Who are your characters?

● What is your setting(s)?
What would you like the final performance piece to address
● Is there a clear crisis that spurs the characters to
or explore? What is your piece saying about social media? /
speak?
How is your piece using social media?
● Does the crisis allow for conflict of value-system?
What performance space will you use and where will the ● Are the characters all necessary? (ie do they
audience be positioned? Why? contribute to the conflict?)
● Is there a premise?
What effect would you like your piece to have on the
● Can you find a dramatic question?
audience and why do you want to achieve this particular
● How has TEAMS been used?
effect?
● What works?
How will you achieve this particular effect? What style of ● What needs to be expanded or explored?
theatre will you use? ● What else do you need?