Devised Theatre: WTF?
What the F@#k is Devised Theatre (Or How I Accidently Helped Start a Theatre Company) One of the great conversations that has arisen from Arena Stage’s New Play Convening is this discussion about...
View ArticleDevised Theatre: There’s a 10:30 in the morning?
Wherein I blog Bright Alchemy’s devising process for its newest project. My living room is full of artists eating baked goods and mainlining coffee. The latter is not surprising, since it’s 10:30 A.M....
View ArticleDevised Theatre: Apocalypse as sequel
So, here we are. Week two and hip-deep in the initial group dramaturgy of Bright Alchemy’s devising process, which started with the question “Why do we as a species feel compelled to tell stories of...
View ArticleDevised Theatre: Short-Circuiting Armageddon
Week 3. Is it just me, or are destruction stories a lot less interesting—or at least less fantastical—than creation stories? And there are a lot fewer variations on how things end than on how things...
View ArticleDevised Theatre: What’s A Playwright To Do?
On the last day of the new play convening held at Arena Stage this past January, participants (and livestream satellite observers) were asked to come up with goals for the coming year. What could we do...
View ArticleDevised Theatre: The End of the World Gets Personal
Week 6: This is the first week where there was homework. For the last two months, we’ve been talking about Apocalypse on the grand scale. Lots of great thoughts circling vast concepts of evolution and...
View ArticleDevised Theatre: Planning Your Own Funeral
Previously in this column: Bright Alchemy Theatre, a very young company devoted to the creation of devised work, decides to begin work on a narrative and thematic sequel to A Cre@tion Story for Naomi,...
View ArticleDevised Theatre: Terrible Practicalities
Previously in this column: Bright Alchemy Theatre, a very young company devoted to the creation of devised work, decides to begin work on a narrative and thematic sequel to A Cre@tion Story for Naomi,...
View ArticleDo whatever a spider can.
In case you’ve been in a coma for the last year, there’s this Broadway musical, it’s called Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and it’s made some headlines. There were accidents and script problems and...
View ArticleDevised Theatre: Maybe There’s No Such Thing
Rachel Chavkin, founding artistic director of the TEAM, a devising ensemble, wrote an article on TCG’s blog that asks the question, “What if devised theatre moved from the margins to the mainstream of...
View ArticleDevised Theatre: Transitioning to Production
Previously in this column: The members of Bright Alchemy Theatre, a very young devised theatre company based in Washington, DC, have spent the last nine months working on its new project which began...
View ArticlePunching Above Your Weight Class
Here in DC, it’s season roll-out time. The major theatres are sending out press releases listing the plays they’ll be tackling in their 2012-13 season, making each seem like a precious gem that...
View ArticleA Playwright’s Responsibility
I’ve been thinking more and more about my responsibility as an artist. And just typing that feels a little weird—the idea that artists have responsibilities other than to their art. But our work does...
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