Reflective Practitioner: Devising and approach to the making process

Devising has been an approach to making theatre that I have been aware of and had an interest in since college. I wanted to really exercise the idea of devising and look at various approaches that others have taken to that way of making work. Gill Lamden suggests that we might understand devising as ‘a group of people working and rehearsing over a period of time to create a performance text’. I am not convinced that this is a sound enough explanation of the task that I am going to be undertaking, as it it also describes practices that are used in performance art and live art practices, thus not exclusive to making theatre. For me devising is a really vague term and can be applied in many various contexts. With such an illusive and slippery term, I am going to have to really work hard to define and explicate the processes that I adopt in order to make this work.

I am not convinced that I am going to be at liberty to work in such an unrestrained manner; time and resources I think are going to push me to have to fix a lot more than I would like to, however, due to the creatorly participatory nature of the work, there will inevitably elements that will remain open to devising and improvisation. As I mentioned earlier today, I hope that the process will be devising in the way that Lamden suggests, when she says, ‘devising is a form for devisors to explore something that matters, and say it in their own language, using their own words. In performance they are given a hearing. The level at which they communicate their message is in their control’. It is not only the performers that I hope will inhabit this role but the audience as well. It will be important to disclose early on in the work the issues and topics that we want to interrogate and then hand it over to the audience, giving them a chance to exercise those issues and concepts, expressing themselves in their own language.

I am not interested in communicating a message to the audience or the performers but instead, in looking for ways in which to create moments in a particular space and time which the audience and performer can explore the themes and issues that we set down from the start. Even though I will be starting out with some text and some ideas, I am hoping that these will only be starting points, serve as prompts rather than as material to be interpreted.

It’s interesting because most of my hopes for the process and the approach to making also apply to my aspirations of the role of the audience. For both the performers and the audience, ‘it’s about ownership, compromise, developing and exploring feelings, ideas, and philosophies. It’s about spontaneity, excitement and originality. It’s about the dynamics and chemistry of this group of people, at this moment in time’.

The performers are going to need to be brave and fearless, taking on this type of performance is such a huge risk and a real challenge; it is going to be important that I get confident and strong performers.