PERFORMANCE, PLAYWRITING AND PEDAGOGY: TEACHING DEVISED [624939]

PERFORMANCE, PLAYWRITING AND PEDAGOGY: TEACHING DEVISED
THEATRE IN THE DIGITAL AGE

A Dissertation
Presented to
The Faculty of the Graduate School
At the University of Missouri

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

By
TERESA STANKIEWICZ

Dr. M. Heather Carver, Dissertation Supervisor

May, 2013

© Copyright by Teresa Stankiewicz 2013
All Rights Reserved

The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School,
have examined the Dissertation entitled
PERFORMANCE, PLAYWRITING AND PEDAGOGY: TEACHING DEVISED
THEATRE IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Presented by TERESA STANKIEWICZ
A candidate for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
And hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance.

Dr. M. Heather Carver

Dr. Kevin Brown

Professor Cornelius Eady

Professor J ames M. Miller

This is dedicated to my wonderful husband, Richard Stankiewicz , who has the enduring
patience to allow me to pursue all my crazy dreams.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are so many people to give thanks to for helping me achieve this pinnacle it
is difficult to know where to begin. I think I must begin with my advisor Dr. M. Heather
Carver. She is an amazing and generous person who has the uncanny ability to subtly
guide a student: [anonimizat], to Professor Jim Miller for the hea rtfelt
talks, laughter and the reminder to have fun, and to Professor Cornelius Eady for his
creative inspiration.
In addition to my committee I have had the privilege of working with some of the
finest artist- scholars I have ever met including Dr. Cheryl Black, Dr. David Crespy , and
Professor Clyde Ruffin. The opportunities for learning, discussion and artistic creation
that these professors provide are priceless.
I would also like to thank my mentors from Texas State University, especially Dr.
Debra Cha rlton, Dr. Sandra Mayo, Professor John Hood and artist in residence Eugene
Lee. They are the ones who believed in my work and without them I would not have pursued this degree. I also must thank the person who started me on my journey when she supported me in completing my abandoned bachelor’s degree many years ago. She
motivated me to pursue graduate studies and artistic excellence, Dr. Sharon Vasquez.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… vi
Chapter One: Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
Research Question Statement and Justification ………………………………………………………………… 2
Organiz ation ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4
Literature Review …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
History ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
Digital Age …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10
Practice ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 16
Pedagogy ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 22
Methodology ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 32
Chapter Two: The History of Devising ………………………………………………………………………….. 35
Commedia Dell’Arte …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 35
Renaissance Theatre to Modern Drama …………………………………………………………………………. 36
Antonin Artaud ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 38
Jerzy Grotowski …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 42
Theatre in the 60s ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 46
Eugenio Barba ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 51
Jacques Lecoq ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 53
Musical Theatre …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 55
West Side Story as Collaboration ………………………………………………………………………………. 62
A Chorus Line : the Workshop Method and Autoethnography ……………………………………….. 65
Modern Dance ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 69
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 75
Chapter Three: The Digital Age ……………………………………………………………………………………. 77
Liveness ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 78
Reproduction or Simulation …………………………………………………………………………………………. 83
Motion Capture ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 86
Telematic Dance ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 88
Theatre and Performance Art ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 91
The Digital Side …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 94
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 96

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Chapter Four: Devising Practice and Pedagog y …………………………………………………………… 100
Practice ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 101
Musical Theatre ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 111
Poets and Jazz Music …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 114
Musical Workshop Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………….. 117
Ceremonial Theatre …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 117
Dance ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 121
Multicultural Pedagogy ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 126
Giving Voice ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 129
Current Use of Devising in Pedagogy …………………………………………………………………………. 144
Chapter Five: Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 157
How the Digital Age Affects Us …………………………………………………………………………………. 159
Developing Curriculum: Approaches ………………………………………………………………………….. 162
Developing the Syllabus ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 164
Giving Voice Exercises ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 169
Incorporating Technology ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 173
Contemplations ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 176
APPENDIX A: GIVING VOICE SCRIPT ……………………………………………………………………. 183
APPENDIX B: RELEASE FORMS …………………………………………………………………………….. 208
APPENDIX C: SYLLABUS ………………………………………………………………………………………… 210
APPENDIX D: LESSON PLAN, GRADING RUBRICS, REFLECTIVE ASSIGNMENT
and EVALUATIONS ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 217
Introduction to Performance Studies – Lesson Plan ……………………………………………………….. 217
Introduction to Performance Studies – Grading Rubrics …………………………………………………. 221
Assignment: Reflective Essay …………………………………………………………………………………….. 228
Evaluation ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 232
APPENDIX E: EXAM QUESTIONS ………………………………………………………………………….. 233
APPENDIX F: RESOURCES ……………………………………………………………………………………… 237
APPENDIX G: EXERCISES ………………………………………………………………………………………. 239
Heartbeat from Kaitlin Hopkins ………………………………………………………………………………….. 239
Song Lyrics as Poetry F rom Laura Nelson …………………………………………………………………… 240
Miniature Worlds from Suzan Zeder …………………………………………………………………………… 240

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Spider Diagram for Cluster Analysis …………………………………………………………………………… 241
Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 243
VITA …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 263

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PERFORMANCE, PLAYWRITING AND PEDAGOGY: TEACHING DEVISED
THEATRE IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Teresa Stankiewicz
Dr. M. Heather Carver, Dissertation Supervisor
Abstract
Education scholars Mark E. Engberg and Sylvia Hurtado state that as the United
States is becoming more diverse, the world is moving to a global economy and this trend
creates a workplace demand for workers with pluralistic skills which , in turn, mandates
that higher education address this need.1 Providing numerous opportunities for cultural
exchange in several different contexts is significant in creating individuals who support a pluralistic society as well as thrive in one . Devising theatre is one such opportunity that
allows students to explor e their identity and the issues that arise from discussing global
culture. Devising also gives students an opportunity to discover and experience some of
these differences in our global society.
In our information rich, digital age it is imp erative that we discover how to teach
live performance to student s saturated by visual, auditory, and moving media. My
dissertation explore s how to create a pedagogy using devised theatre that recognizes the
influence of the digital world on our students and incorporates an interdisciplinary and
multicultural approach that includes the use of technology to teach creativity and performance. This pedagogy will address how devised theatre provides a multicultural basis for ensuring inclusivity and how our digi tal experience can help break the barriers
of isolation. Included in this dissertation is a brief history of devising that include s the
influence of modern dance and musical theatre, something that devising history scholars

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have not yet given serious consi deration. I investigate the impact that the now common
televisual cyberculture has on our students and describe the use of technology in current
performance practices . I conclude with describing how to create devising coursework that
prepares individuals w ho can successfully maneuver in a global society with an aptitude
for innovation and a continually developing social conscience.

1. Engberg, Mark E., and Sylvia Hurtado. "Developing Pluralistic Skills and
Dispositions in College: Examining Racial/Ethnic Group Differences." Journal of Higher
Education 82.4 (2011): 416- 443. Academic Search Elite. Web. 23 Oct. 2011.

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Chapter One: Introduction
I am devised. My career has been a diverse journey of multi -disciplinary
exploration. In her escape from the poverty of Eastern Kentucky coal mining, m y mother
insisted that her children have a cultural upbringing so I took piano and dance lessons
beginning at the age of four. I took ballet and tap, graduating to jazz dance and pointe when I was twelve. I added the flute to my study of musical instrument s when I was
introduced to band in the third grade and in high school I added the guitar. I sang in
school and church choirs, and discovered acting in junior high school. I participated as a dancer and chorus member in my high school’s musicals and I acted in the school plays, winning second place in the regional high school competition for our production of The Children’s Hour , in which I played Rosalie.
In college I discovered modern dance and I began dancing for local and regional
dance companies. At the same time I continued to perform in musicals and plays. I have
an MFA in modern dance and I founded my own dance company when I graduated. My
company Tobias! lasted for six years and toured nationally. At the same time, as a choreographer I continued to w ork with musical theatre and I began assisting with
directing plays and musicals.
When I told my parents I would be pursuing a degree in dance they insisted that I
learn something practical to support my artistic endeavors. I chose to study computer progr amming and received a technical degree while I continued my dance studies. Later,
as I needed to provide financial support for my family I pursued a career in Information Technology starting as a computer programmer, navigating through the ranks to

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executi ve consultant in software development and communications management. While I
worked in Information Technology I continued my artistic passion as a choreographer,
director, and actor. As an actor I have worked on the stage, television, and film.
I have con tinually looked for ways to bring this diverse body of knowledge and
experience together several times in my career , and writing a dissertation on how the
digital age affects the pedagogy of devising was a seamless way to combine my accumulated knowledge w ith my current research. In addition, as a teacher, I am
interested in building artist- citizens who are prepared to thrive in a pluralistic society. My
multi- cultural interest stems from having a father who was in the Air Force which
allowed my family to live overseas and in various areas of the United States. With a
mixed heritage of Cherokee, Scotch -Irish, Welsh and French I am keenly interested in
multicultural pedagogy.
My graduate studies introduced me to devised theatre. As I explored the theory
and criticism of performance studies I realized that I had been devising since I was
eighteen. Exploring devised theatre in depth and analyzing how the digital age affects the pedagogy of devising incorporates all of my knowledge and experience, scholarly, creatively, and in the use of technology . I am devised.
Research Question Statement and Justification
How does a course in devising theatre help us better understand our students and
ourselves in a digital age ? There is a wealth of scholarship on devised thea tre, its history
and how to apply physical theatre in academia today .2 However, l ittle scholarship exists
on the pedagogy of devised theatre . The scholarship on how digital media influences the
performance and pedagogy of devised theatre is also sparse . As part of my investigation I

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used immediate immersion as a process for teaching devising in my Introduction to
Performance Studies class in the fall of 2011. Together, the students and I created a
performance piece during the first four weeks of class t hat was presented as part of the
Life and Literature Series at the University of Missouri, September 15 – 18, 2011 in the
Corner Playhouse.
As an artist -scholar I incorporate literature, sound, visuals and movement in the
creation of performance and I use all these aspects in my studio classes whether I am
teaching acting, choreography, performance studies or playwriting. For example , in my
acting classes I practice theatre games for several educational outcomes. Games are used
to break the ice and allow students t o discover that everyone in the class is nervous, to
learn how words can be interpreted in several different ways, to discover physicality and how their body works, a nd to encourage them to take risks to develop their creativity. In
playwriting , I teach relaxation and physicality so writers learn how to take care of
themselves physically and they will learn how to write so the physicality of the character
becomes appar ent. C ontact improvisation in both classes allow s the students to recognize
how physical interaction is an important part of creating a performance piece. In performance studies , I teach students how to create a performance using poetry, story,
writing, mu sic, dance and visuals. I ask my choreography students to write, dance to
silence, explore sounds rather than music, and use literature such as poetry in their
creations . Teaching devising incorporates all of these techniques. The inclusion of these
various methods encourages students to expand their awareness. They share discoveries with each other and learn how they are alike and how they differ. Teaching devising stimulates curiosity, exploration, and introduces collaboration. Collaboration teaches

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them to focus their concentration, exchange ideas, solve problems, accept differences,
support each other, and how to take creative risks.
The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the body of scholarship that is
available on the history of devising, the practice of devising and how the digital age
influences the practice and pedagogy of performance. I develop a framework for the pedagogy of devising that addresses the call to create multicultural experiences so that students become individuals capable of working in a pluralistic environment bringing
with them innovation and efforts toward expanding their social conscience. This
framework contain s exercises and examples from my classes such as using a spider
diagram for cluster analysis . I also include how technology can be used to generate
inclusivity and a more comprehensive understanding of our current cyberculture.
Organization
This dissertation is divided into five chapters , including an introduction and
conclusion. C hapter two outlines a brief history of devised theatre focusing on areas that
have not been included in published works on the topic. The purpose of this section is to ground the reader in the development of devised theatre to further the argument that devising is an im portant tool for multicultural pedagogy of experiential learning in this
digital age. Several areas will be mentioned , such as the physical theatre of Jacques
LeCoq, Jerzy Growtowski and Eugenio Barba, and experimental theatre such as the Living Theatre an d the Open Theater, both active in the 60s. A section of this chapter is
devoted to exploring how the creation of modern dance and musical theatre also contribute to devised theatre.

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Besides the influence of dance and musical theatre on devising I am also
interested in how the digital age affects devised theatre therefore I devote Chapter Three
to the analysis. Dance scholar Ann Dils explores the use of motion capture to record
dance and what the results mean in the twenty -first century i n her article “The Ghost in
the Machine: Merce Cunningham and Bill T. Jones.” She states: “These works also help me realize what it will mean to be human in the twenty -first century, as individuals and
communities shape and are shaped by an environment tha t is increasingly a complicated
network of the natural, the socio/cultural, and the technological” (Dils 94). She is referring to the work by Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar , when their multimedia studio
Riverbed collaborated with choreographers Cunningham and Jones. By analyzing these
works and others like it , I reflect on how digital media influences performance and how
performance may influence digital media. More importantly , the analysis indicates how
performance and digital media build our culture and affect the understanding of that
culture. I discuss the digital age and how digital media influences our students and how that impact might be considered when teaching live performance.
The fourth chapter combines the creation and performance of a devised theatre
piece with the pedagogy of devising. This chapter illuminates possibilities for materials used in creating a devised piece and the various processes therein. For example, Eugenio Barba discusses his practice in creating theatre in On Directing and Dramaturgy:
Burning the House . He specifically explains how the process works with the actors,
teaching others his directing style and how everything in his life provides inspiration for his works. Along with this , the Theatre Topics special issue devoted entirely to devising
in March 2005 is used for diverse views and definitions of devised theatre and its process.

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I include interviews from artist- scholars who work with devising such as Cornelius Eady
and his collaborative works. My own work on collaborat ive performance under both the
disciplines of dance and theatre comprise a portion of this chapter and I also include
artists whose work specifically crosses the boundaries of technology, science and art to show the implications of working in a digital age . Artists such as Laurie Anderson and
Guillermo Gómez Peña are prime examples of this type of merging. Some of the ways devising is used to create new musicals is also incorporated. Additionally, this chapter explores multicultural pedagogy in terms of tea ching performance in a digital age. I
include my own teaching practices and specifically analyze the devised piece my performance studies class created, Giving Voice . The approaches used by the professors I
interviewed for this dissertation such as Dr. Noa h Lelek and professor Kaitlin Hopkins
are also included.
My conclusion discusses the future of teaching devised theatre. This chapter
shows how the support of teaching performance answers the need for building individuals who navigate successfully in a pl uralistic workplace. Reference to practical applications
written by such practitioners as Allison Oddey are also included. In this chapter I create a framework from which the reader will be able to teach performance using devised theatre as a model. Exampl es of practical exercises from my research are some of the lessons that
are encompassed in the book Spaces of Creation: The Creative Process of Playwriting by professors Suzan Zeder and Jim Hancock. Although these are written for playwriting classes they c an be used as lessons in devising. Similarly I examine the use of technology
in the devising classroom and how it can be used to enhance learning, dispel isolation and

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promote inclusivity. I also outline how the pedagogy of devised theatre supports
multicu lturalism and interdisciplinary studies.
Literature Review
The principal scholarship used in this dissertation is divided into four categories,
the history of devised theatre , the impact of the digital age , the practice of devising, and
performance pedagogy. I analyze the existing scholarship in each category, delineate what is missing from that scholarship and explain how my dissertation fills the gap.
Many of the books and articles that I review cross between the se four categories , so I
discuss the ir contribution in more than one area and cross -reference them in each section.
History
There are several books that examine the history of devising and almost all of
them cite the influence of Artaud and Grotowski on theatre that sought to rebel against the status quo. Most of these books then touch on the Happenings and experimental theatre of the 1960s, agit -prop theatre , and physical theatre of artists such as Jacques
LeCoq. Devising Performance by Deidre Heddon and Jane Milling covers the history of
devising with a focus on post -World War II through the present. They trace the history of
devising across fields such as physical performance, political theatre, community drama
and visual performance. Heddon and Milling spend a great deal of time on the de finition
of devising and clarifying how they condense the definition for the purpose of their study.
They delve into how devising became popular in the sixties and seventies in conjunction with the events of the world at that time. They make a point to inc lude companies from
the UK, the United States and Australia in all their discussions and they discuss major influences from Europe such as Grotowski, Barba and LeCoq. This book covers the work

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of Mnouchkine, Spiderwoman Theater, Schechner’s The Performance Group, The Living
Theatre, Open Theatre, Bread and Puppet Theatre, The San Francisco Mime Troupe, and
Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop. Heddon and Milling discuss Happenings at length and
moving forward from the sixties they mention The Blood Group and Impac t Theatre Co –
operative in the UK; the Mill Community Theatre Company, WEST Theatre Company, Sidetrack, Death Defying Theatre and more from Australia; and SITI, Goat Island and El Teatro Campesino in the United States, just to name a few. Their study of the history of
devising is thorough and comprehensive. However, although Heddon and Milling devote an entire chapter t o “Contemporary Devising and Physical Theatre” they do not explore
in depth the influence of modern dance on devising. They mention Anna Halprin, The Judson Church Dance Theatre and later Pina Bausch , but do not explore the chance dance
of Merce Cunningham or other modern dance choreographers. I investigate the
experimentation of Cunningham because his techniques can be used in current practice s
of devising . I also explain the Judson Church Dance in more detail to emphasize how the
experimental wave of the sixties appeared in modern dance as well as in theatre and subsequently influenced devised theatre.
Not only has m odern dance influenced devis ed theatre, musicals have also
contributed to collaboration in theatre. There is a wealth of scholarship on the musical A Chorus Line that examines the ethnography used to create the work. Due to Michael
Bennett’s use of autoethnographic stories from chorus members in A Chorus Line this is
the musical to which scholars point whenever devising is mentioned . There is no
scholarship on how the workshop method for standing a musical on its feet is a method of devising. In fact there is very little scholar ship on the workshop method for creating

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musical s in any capacity , despite its collaborative art foundation. Due to the lack of
scholarship in this area I analyze what is available alongside an interview with Kaitlin
Hopkins, a musical theatre actor who is now the director of the musical theatre program
at Texas State University.3 There is also evidence that devising is used to create musicals
for youth such as the dissertation by Penney Prince who wrote about her experience in
devising a musical based on C inderella at Lehman College in 2009. The focus of Prince’s
study is on the pedagogical experience in the project of retelling the Cinderella story as
an original musical for public performance. My focus is on the collaboration between
adults and the pedago gy that is offered in higher education rather than the use of devising
or creative drama as it is typically known, in children’s theatre or youth programs.
Scholar Judy Yordon mentions musicals that she considers experimental such as
Cats and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown in her book Experimental Theatre:
Creating and Staging Texts . Her book does not specify musicals as devised theatre but
points to the use of T.S. Elliot’s book of poems as the basis of Cats as experimental
theatre and adaptation, an d how Charlie Brown is the first professional readers the atre-
style musical (Yordon 85). Readers theatre is a performance of text that allows performers to use their scripts as a guide and is usually an adaptation of literature. Actors convey the scenes us ing their voices and facial expressions. Yordon’s reference to
Charlie Brown as readers theatre style is the abstract space staging used in the production. Her book is not a historical treatise , but rather it focuses on the practice and
forms of devising.
More recent scholarship on the history of devising is the book Making a
Performance by Emma Govan, Helen Nicholson and Katie Normington (2007) . They

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follow the usual topics of physical performance, political theatre, and community drama.
However, t hey star t with Dadaism and trace the birth of Happenings, attributing the
beginning of Happenings to work at Black Mountain College, Asheville, North Carolina. An examination of John Cage’s use of Artaud and Artaud’s l’ événements is where they
assign the birth of Happenings (1948) that were later performed by Allan Kaprow . This
book looks at the influence of Grotowski, Barba and LeCoq and does an excellent job of
tracing how one artist or group of artists influenced another such as Living Theatre’s
influence on Jos eph Chaikin who founded Open Theatre. The authors mention more
dancers other than Merce Cunningham and Pina Bausch when they examine physical
theatre and analyze how contemporary practices were molded by dancers and mimes. As with the other books I have me ntioned, this treatise does not take the in-depth look at
modern dance or musicals that is part of my dissertation.
Digital Age
Most of the scholarly investigation into the impact of the digital age on our
culture and our society is theoretical . To my knowledge , there are no quantitative studies
on the subject; all of the writings to date are theories on the influence the digital age has on our social interaction, entertainment or performance such as works by Philip Auslander, Matthew Causey, Gabriella Giannachi and Walter Benjamin. I am interested
in what has been written in terms of how the digital age impacts our students. Consider
the fact that today’s students are a generation that has had lifelong access to digital media for whom technology is a gi ven in their everyday existence. T hey were born into a world
with the Internet , cell phones, television, film, radio, video games and MP3s. These
students find it common to listen to music , take photos and videos, upload and download

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data to and from the Internet , and text messages on their phones instead of actually
talking on the m. They have automatic access to film, television, games, and bounds of
information in print, audio and visual form. Many students have never been to a library
and have no idea how the card catalog system works but they are experts in us ing the
Internet for research. Those that have access to constant digital media assume everyone
has access to it and that it is normal to use digital media continually. There are several
theories on technology and its impact on entertainment that I include in my search for the influence of the televisual on the pedagogy of performance.
Let me define the term digital age a s the state of technology that pervades the
twenty -first century. The word dig ital has several different meanings. In this dissertation I
am referring to a combination of “representing data as a series of numerical values” and “electronics responding to discrete values of input voltage and producing discrete output voltage levels, as in a logic circuit: digital circuit” (“digital” def. 3,5). I include
cyberspace and cyberculture in my definition. The prefix cyber is “a combining form
meaning “computer ,” “computer network,” or “virtual reality ,” used in the formation of
compound words (cybertalk; cyberart; cyberspace) whose origin comes from cybernetics.
Cybernetics means the study of human control functions and of mechanical and electronic systems designed to replace them, involving the application of statistical mechanics to communic ation engineering (“cybernetics” def. 1). The term digital age
also needs to include the definition of virtual which means 1. B eing such in power, force,
or effect, though not actually or expressly such: a virtual dependence on charity. 2. Optics: noting a n image formed by the apparent convergence of rays geometrically, but
not actually, prolonged, as the image formed by a mirror (opposed to real) and noting a

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focus of a system forming virtual images. 3. Temporarily simulated or extended by
computer softwar e: a virtual disk in RAM; virtual memory on a hard disk (“virtual” def.
1,2, 3). S cholar s Jean Baudrillard, Philip Auslander and Matthew Causey refer to the
term televisual and the definition is that which is relating to, shown on, or suitable for producti on on television (“televisual def. 1). The combination of these definitions for
digital, cyber, and televisual are what I refer to when I call our current time the digital age.
The pervasive influence of cyberculture and the televisual in our everyday
existence has a profound impact on our students and our classes. Theater and
Performance in Digital Culture , by Matthew Causey is a philosophical treatise that
includes support for his arguments from a wide range of scholars such as Philip Auslander, Peggy Phelan, Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan. He analyzes performances from The Wooster Group (US), Guillermo Gómez Peña (US),
Desperate Optimists (UK/Ireland), Orlan (France), dum type (Japan) and more. H e quotes
text from Beckett and Shakespeare and reviews the performance art of Eduardo Kac and Societas Raffaello Sanzio. As he states :
My assertion throughout Part I of this book is that the ubiquitous presence of the
televisual in contemporary theatre and the reconfiguration of performance in the
virtual space of the computer establish a unique model of performance, wherein the immediacy of performance and the digital alterability of time and space through technology are subsumed and confused within each other . (Causey 30)

The theory that Causey asserts in his work lends itself to the arguments I use in the
chapter on digital age. His treatise is a complicated application of theory on digital
culture, current trends of the use of technology in performance and theatre, and

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contemporary theory of theatre and performance. I incorporate his ideas and the theories
of other scholars to address how the digital culture pervades our society and must be
addressed in the pedagogy of performance .
Another theory of the digital age and performance is performance in virtual space.
Professor in Performance and New Media, Gabriella Giannachi describes performance in the digital culture with her book Virtual Theatres: An Introduction. Published in 2004 this book describes some of the cyberart in practice at the time and analyzes the aesthetics of Blast Theory, Eduardo Kac, Forced Entertainm ent, JODI, Orlan, G uillermo
Gómez -Peña, Stelarc and others. She revisits the theories of Philip Auslander and Jean
Baudrillard as she supports her analysis with quotes from scholars such as Peggy Phelan and Paul Verillio. Her discussion of the various works of art that incorporate technology describes virtual theatre. Her investigation explores how digital media impacts the way that we view art and performance. One of her conclusions is:
Today, virtual reality is one of Western society's primary tools to present and
advertise itself , reflect on itself, create experience of itself that furthers knowledge
and thus becomes art. This omnipresence of the World Wide Web in Western society implies that, in it philosophy and ethics, politics and art, it is today impossible to think about environment, nature and the 'real' without incorporating the virtual within whichever critical discourse is being utilised. (Giannachi 124).
Although I question some of her points such as her emphasis on Western society being
caught up in digital media (part s of Eastern society are just as digitized as Western
society ), this is the type of analysis that supports my assessment of how today’s students
are affected by the digital age.
Likewise , there is a chapter in the book Making a Performance on “Virtual
Bodies .” In this chapter the authors briefly explore the body within multimedia and

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virtual reality. As they state, “Incorporating technology within performance does,
however, offer up new possibilities for the representation and reception of the
performer’s body” (Govan 176). This analysis supports my examination of how technology and the digital age impacts performance. With an analysis on technology in
performance I extrapolate how the digital age impacts the pedagogy of performance. For example, t here is a discussion of cyborgs and the artist Orlan’s work along with Stelarc’s
performances and Blast Theory in this chapter. The authors finish the chapter with an
argument against multimedia performance not being able to equal the ‘liveness’ of live theatre. For support they review a work by Gob Squad in a work the company describes as ‘live interactive film’ (Govan 185). Their conclusion is that multimedia performance can indeed evoke the same response of immediacy as live theatre. This chapter raises salient points in terms of how digital performances can be just as valid as live theatre . I
further this debate by investigating the validity of the pedagogy of live performance,
answering the question of how a course in devising helps us understand ourselves within the context of the digital age .
Scholar Philip Auslander argues about the place of authenticity in the
manipulation of the digital in his article “The Performativity of Performance Documentation.” He specifically considers the images fro m the documentation of artist
Chris Burden’s Shoot and Yves Klein’s Leap into the Void. He questions the assumptions
that are made when viewing these images. Do they document a live performance or are the images manipulated to portray an event that never happened? His theoretical discussion is relevant when applied to the impact the digital age has on society .
Auslander discusses the performativity of images as documentation and the

15
performativity of recordings. He cites philosopher Lee B. Brown in his disc ussion of
phonography and points to the relationship between the document and its audience that
Brown presents. This is the relationship that my dissertation explore s in terms of how
students perceive the information they receive digitally and how that , in turn, affects our
pedagogy of performance. Auslander continues to consider the ‘liveness’ of performance in his article on
chatterbots “Live from Cyberspace: Or, I was sitting at my computer this guy appeared he thought I was a bot .” Subsequently , perfor mance studies scholar Kevin Brown carries
this discussion forward in his article s “The Auslander Test ” and “Auslander’s Robot.”
These articles introduce the fact that computer programs in the form of chatterbots interact with humans in chatrooms on the com puter. All of these articles question
liveness, performance, presence and the postmodern body. The significance of this work for my dissertation is presented by the question of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) in
computers interact s with humans with or wit hout their knowledge. The question is how
much of this manipulation do students recognize? Do they know they are talking to a
machine or do they believe they are talking with another human being? Do they take this type of cyberculture for granted or are they aware of the AI? The level of awareness of
this kind of manipulation can be assessed and raised in a course on performance. A course on devising allows the students to express their reaction to the manipulation that is an inherent part of cyberculture.
Besides the chatterbot as an example of human interaction with technology , Julie
Wilson -Bokowiec examines physicality in her article , “Physicality: The techne of the

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physical in interactive digital performance” as another theory on performance in the
digital age. She uses investigation from her project :
… that has, over the past fifteen years, focused on real -time integrations – on
immediacy and intimacy of expressivity within a digital performance environment
in which the performer i s an integral part not simply as a human puppet, site of
data acquisition or Avatar, but as a fully empowered participant in a digital performance ‘system’ (the Bodycoder System) engaged in explicit acts of creation (the generation and manipulation of raw material) in the presence of an audience. (Wilson -Bokowiec 62)

She briefly reviews some of the history behind technolog ical interaction particularly with
scenography before demonstrating her argument on physicality. Her statement “Today
the perceived ro les, functions and characteristics of digital technologies are already
highly aestheticized in our culture” supports my argument that t he digital has influence
on our current culture (Wilson- Bokowiec 65). This article is an in- depth exploration of
the phys icality of the digital and what it means in performativity. In her conclusion she
states “…it is not the pragmatics of human/computer physicality that is in itself revealing,
rather it is what digital action, interaction and human/computer physicality sign posts”
(Wilson -Bokowiec 74). This is the type of exploration into the theory of human
interaction with the digital that allow s me to investigate the impact the digital age has on
our students and our culture. It also lends itself to a comparison of the hum an/computer
physicality with modern dance and how the digital age has been confronted by and incorporated into modern dance.
Practice
The practice of devising is as wide- ranging as the various definitions of devising.
The definitions that Heddon and Milli ng use prompt me to clearly define devising for my
own purposes and acknowledge the exclusions. I am interested in a collaborative process

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that begins with more than one person and does not start with a script written for
performance on the stage. Certainl y some forms of devising start with a text, perhaps
poetry or story, or an ensemble or director may start with a script but with the idea that the script is inspiration, not to be performed as written. Performance artists and solo performers often create performances using devising and may involve designers and
directors . For this discussion, however I am including only the devising process for a
performance with several performers on stage. I exclude improvisation used solely for
creating character or blocking in a staged production. Improvisation is an important tool presented in the classroom to teach performance and acting, used in the production process of traditional plays, and exercised by ensembles as a regular means for honing their art. It is often used in devising as well but in and of itself does not encompass the performance. By the time a devised piece is ready for production, choices have been made and improvisation has been suspended. As Heddon and Milling state in their book,
devising can encompass a broad spectrum of work that would be impossible to cover in one comprehensive study therefore I focus on group works of collaboration to narrow my scope. My definition of devising also demands that it is a work to be performed, not an exercise that stays within an ensemble or a classroom.
This definition still leaves room for discussion and debate. Questions arise such as
how much are the performers involved in the process? Are the performers given credit for the final script in terms of contributions? Who then is the author of the final script? Is the director the final author because the impetus was their idea? Some forms of devising begin with the director and end with a final script. Other forms of devising begin with an
idea that may come from anyone in the group and end with a performance where changes

18
happen each time it is performed. In C hapter Four: Practice and Pedagogy I outline the
possibilities that have been offered by artists over the years and I review some of what is
curren tly being produced.
Oral interpretation is a traditional communications studies field that has been
expanded as a form of devised theatre. The book Experimental Theatre: Creating and
Staging Texts by Judy Yordon is an instructional book on how to create te xt for what is
now called devising. Written in 1997 it is divided by types of theatre and references oral interpretation, readers theatre, chamber theatre, ethnography and personal narrative. She explains theatre modes, describing lyric- mode as “one undefi ned speaker revealing a
personal experience,” dramatic -mode as “defined characters in conflict situations ,” and
epic- mode as a combination of the two (Yordon 4 -5). In chapter eight, “How It Was
Done: Sample Scripts” she gives examples of scripts from these various types of theatre. Yordon does not discuss devising as such but all of these types of theatre are now
referred to as devising and devised theatre uses some of the metho ds for creation that she
describes.
Govan, Nicholson and Normington examine the contemporary practice of
devising in Making a Performance . They have chapters on “ Autobiographical
Performance ” and “ Narratives of Community ” that discuss the same type of eth nography
and lyric -mode text to which Yordon refers. This demonstrates how the experimental
theatre that Yordon describes (1997) is referred to as devising in current theatre and
performance studies (2007) . Besides explaining the use of autobiographical pe rformance,
community narratives , and adaptations , the authors also discuss how space has influence d
devising starting with how “the work of Richard Schechner in the 1960s demonstrates the

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way in which a performance space can be used to its full extent” (Govan 107). They
address Schechner ’s work along with Polish director Tadeusz Kantor and choreographer
Pina Bausch. The discussion of space lends itself to an exploration of dance and how it is used in devised theatre which I consider in my dissertation. Conversely, i n the treatment
of non- space they mention artists such as Space Hijackers and the S urveillance Camera
Players who use site -specific performance for their use of devising. The works of these
artists support my interest in the digital age and the impact it has on theatre performance. One of the more intriguing chapters is “Performance, Place and Diaspora” which discusses the work An Exeter Mis -Guide by the group Wrights & Sites along with the
performance project Walk & Squawk . They describe how Wrights & Sites believes that
“by disrupting routines or habitual ways of seeing, the strategy is a way of re -imagining
the social order of the city into a more fluid and interactive space” (Go van 142). The
project Walk & Squawk is “collaboration between artists in Africa and the US [that] seeks
to develop global understanding through cultural exchange” (Govan 143). These works are experimental and collaborative in a way that is not normally considered in devising. It
is important to examine these types of collaborative works to further the investigation into the influence the digital age has on the practice and pedagogy of devised theatre.
Focus on the process being used by contemporary devising practitioners is part of
my scholarship. Scholar Carrie Lee Klypchak examines two particular devising companies in her published dissertation Salient Negotiations: Devising and Surviving as Alternative Theatre Artists in the 21
st Century , North American Cultural Laboratory
(NaCI) and Number Eleven. The concentration of her investigation is on the economic
viability of devising. As she explains , NaCI uses a collaborative method of creating

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original work that entails a lengthy process and physical training (Klypchak 32). She
describes their method and charts the history of the company that was founded in 1997.
She then traces the origins of Number Eleven Theatre that started with a training school project in 1997. While she outlines some of the training methods both groups use , her
study delineates what they do as theatre companies to survive and describes the struggles they encounter by being alternative theatre. In contrast m y emphasis is on the approaches
these types of companies us e in creating their devised theatre.

The process that NaCI uses is both similar with and diverges from the process of
artist- scholar Mary Zimmerman. In her article “The Archaeology of Performance” she
equates her approach to devising with archaeology. Her method emphasizes adaptation
and she begins collaboration with her creative team. Zimmerman then casts an ensemble,
“meaning that they agree to play whatever comes their way in the as -yet-unwritten script”
(Zimmerman 31). She describes her practice and uses specific shows as examples.
Throughout the article she maintains that she writes the script, ostensibly as she is staging
the work. She uses physical improvisation and “sometimes I witness something in the halls on a break, an interaction between the actors that I kidnap and force onstage…” (Zimmerman 32). T his article indicates that her form of devising starts with her idea then
begins to emerge through collaboration with the creative team and continues w ith
rehearsals with the ensemble. She shapes the text through the work she does with all the artists involved and designates herself as the playwright . The question of authorship is
one that has an impact on the pedagogy of devising that I address in my di ssertation.
Another form of devising is the process a rtistic director Stacy Klein describes in
her article “Why Devise? Why now? Creating the Impossible.” In discussing her devising

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approach to directing she states, “ This process of creating a living culture, drawing upon
the individual’s autonomy and potential, upon genuine relations to the world and to each
other, is what I consider to be the process of art” (Klein 70). Although she doesn’t refer to pedagogy , some of the reasons her company uses for devising and creating their art are
similar to my arguments for teaching devising. For example, she says that her company does not offer discourse on culture, rather they experience exchange of culture and individuals . Klein’s philosophy is related to my argument that devising offers students an
opportunity to explore viscerally their identity in relationship to what other people experience as identity.
Accordingly , Peter Falkenberg describes how devising helped him create theatre
that embodies multicultural practice such as questioning the results of colonization in his
article “Why Devise, Why Now? Why New Zealand?” He states that “devising theatre acknowledges an ongoing process of coming to understand where one lives, a reciprocal
way of finding out about an Other who is not necessarily revealing itself as Other” (Falkenberg 40). I argue for a multicultural pedagogy and will thus review companies
that use devising as a means for uncovering identity, in particular under colonization as in Falkenberg’s case, in support of that argument. Along these lines m any of the history
books on devising allude to using devising for theatre in community and that is the performance practice of Fringe Benefits Theatre (US). The validity of using devising in creating community based theatre to deal with social problems supports my argument for the use of devising in multicultural pedagogy. My dissertation link s the impo rtance of the
multicultural experience in education with working through social justice issues in communities. Fringe Benefits Theatre uses devising as a process to create theatre that

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raises consciousness about social justice issues. Artistic director Nor ma Bowles describes
the process Fringe Benefits uses in her article “Why Devise? Why Now? ‘Houston, we
have a problem.’” The compan y call s their process a “Dramaturgical Quilting Bee”
(Bowles 16). Bowles then describes one of the shows that the theatre pre sented on a high
school tour to address anti -LGBT bias. “The result of our collaborative devising process
was complex, rich, and effective” (Bowles 20). According to her article she believes that
devising is a way to engage a community in addressing social justice concerns. This type
of community action is one of the way s that devising supports a multicultural pedagogy.
Pedagogy
Artist- scholar Leon Ingulsrud states :
I have always valued the opportunity to create work in undergraduate
environments … The und ergraduate environment has always allowed me a kind of
freedom that is hard to find elsewhere. It is a place where the future of theatre can be dreamed. It is a good breeding ground for rebellion. (Ingulsrud 89- 90)

In his article “Why Devise? Why Now? Twelve Thoughts on Devising with
Undergraduates” Ingulsrud discusses why devising should be used, but not how it might
be taught. He also explains how theatre must connect with current culture , noting
“Without this rooting in current culture, theatre will continue toward cultural irreverence
and marginalization. With it theatre becomes exciting and engaging, particularly for the young artist/audience” (Ingulsrud 88). His article supports my argument that teaching
devising is an importa nt part of a performance curriculum. Although this article was
written in 2005, it does not engage in a discussion of the current culture of digital media and its impact on theatre or students . This is an example of how artist -scholars and

23
practitioners of devised theatre write about their experiences in teaching and in
performance, but do not address how devising can be used to understand our culture and
the impact that technology makes on th at understanding . My dissertation include s a
framework for teaching devising as well as investigating the impact the digital age has on the pedagogy of devising.
There are a few books that list some exercises for devising theatre and Devising
Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook is one of them. Author Allison Oddey
states:
I wrote this book for several reasons, the main one being that I felt there was a
lack of information on the subject of devising theatre… my starting point was a strong, passionate interest in the subject matter, based on sixteen years’ personal experience of devising theatre with young people, actors, training teachers, and students in higher education. (Oddey xi)

Not only does she include a definition and a brief history of devised theatre in her book,
she also incorpor ates chapters on how to s tart a project and w ays of w orking. Her
research includes interviews with professional practitioners and reviews of theatre companies that use devising as well as discussions with educational institutions on the practice of devisin g. As she states, “This book is the beginnings of a dialogue to be
shared with others. It is neither definitive nor prescriptive, but sets up a conversation about devising theatre” (Oddey xii). Her book (1994) has done just that, started a discussion on de vised theatre, albeit at a slower pace than one would have thought. My
dissertation extend s this discussion with practices from the contemporary theatre and the
pedagogy of devising in higher education. Although she includes a chapter on “ Theory
and Practice, ” she doesn’t discuss pedagogy in depth. She touches on the topic of
teaching when stating how she works with her own students at the University of Kent ,

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emphasizing that there is no prescribed method for teaching devising. She suggests ten
guidel ines for reference and emphasizes that the ideas have to come from the group
(Oddey 150). I develop these approaches to devising in later chapters .
Scholar Virginie Magnat emphasizes that devising is a tool for teaching the
creative process which is part of the argument I make about the pedagogy of devising.
Her article “Devising Utopia, or Asking for the Moon” comes closest to my position on
the value of teaching devising courses in higher education. As she discusses Auslander’s analysis of the Wooster G roup’ s conflict with Arthur Miller in their use of his text The
Crucible , she embarks on a journey of defining the pros and cons of including devising in
the theatre education curriculum. S he states, “devising compels us, in spite of Western
culture’s obsession with productivity, to pay closer attention to process” (Magnat 74). I argue that process is the valuable experience in the performance classroom and the end
result is not always a successful production. Magnat’s article reinforces my position.
Another point that she raises pertains to full collaboration. She reviews the work
Interruptions that was supposed to be collaborative. The playwright arrived to rehearsals
with the structure, scene by scene already decided. He maintained control over the script
throughout the rehearsal. Magnat states :
I learned from this experience that claims to devised theatre do not necessarily
guarantee production collective work and shared authorship, and that such claims, when made within the academy, inevitably raise questions about supervision,
guidance, and evaluation. (Magnat 81)

When devising is truly collaborative then how we measure the academic standard of
teaching, control, observation and assessment becomes complic ated. She uses her

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experience in a devised piece in an academic setting along with statements from director
Robert Lepage, actor Zbigniew Cynkutis, and Joseph Chaikin to describe and support her position on devising in higher education. I further this argument to emphasize the importance of devising in terms of facilitating the transformation of students into citizens that thrive in a pluralistic society and multicultural workplace regardless of their choice
of profession.
Multicultural pedagogy raises awa reness for social change and devising provides
an instinctual experience for students to explore issues that are relevant to them. In her
article “Why Devise? Why Now? Riffing on the Syllabus” Joni L. Jones makes a strong
point of pedagogy in that the syllabus should be fluid and allow for deviation dependent upon the issues that students bring up during class. If our intention is to build a population that questions, analyzes and debates , then we must be open to the spont aneity
that critical thinking brings. She reflects this in h er statement “collaboration requires that
we learn to hold multiple truths simultaneously, that we even see the validity in the contradictions these truths may reflect” (Jones 49). My argument tha t devising is an
opportunity for multicultural pedagogy is supported by the reasons Jones deviates from her syllabus and her reasons for creating art.
Making art is making a world – messy and fragile and ultimately reflective of
each courageous contributor. This is why I devise, and why devising is a critical strategy for us to take up in these ethnocentric and narcissistic times. (Jones 50)
I agree with Jones, devising and creating art can be chaotic and delicate which is why
teaching the creation of art is a trick y proposition. However, devising is a way to
introduce our students to expressing the differences in their cultures and their

26
understanding or misunderstanding of each other, their world and the information they
are given.
Accordingly, I inve stigate the scholarship in the field of education that discusses
the impact of the digital age on our students or discusses multicultural pedagogy i n
support of my position on the pedagogy of devising . To begin with, m y definition of
multicultural pedagogy is based on a definition of feminist pedagogy that scholars
Crabtree and Sapp present in their article "Theoretical, Political, and Pedagogical Challenges in the Feminist Classroom: "
This pedagogical approach provides students with a language of critique that
allows them to analyze differences among social groups, their construction both
within and outside the academic setting, and their roles in various forms of
domination, subordination, hierarchy, and exploitation. It offers students ways to
analyze pr actices such as sexism, racism, and class exploitation that structure and
mediate human encounters in everyday life. (Crabtree 132)
The techniques that these two scholars describe in their article describe my pedagogical
approach. I label it multicultural as opposed to feminist because multicultural is more
encompassing. Scholar Charlotte Bunch attempts to expand the definition of feminist
theory in her statement, “While feminist theory begins with the immediate need to end women's oppression, it is also a way of viewing the world" (Bunch 13). However, for the most part feminism is assumed to be limited to gender issues. Bunch states further "The
initial tenets of feminism have already been established – the idea that power is based on
gender differences an d that men's illegitimate power over women taints all aspects of
society, for instance" (Bunch 13). This statement limits the feminist view to power
differences based on gender whereas the term multicultural embraces ethnicity, class, and gender issues in the term itself. In the article “Toward Integrating Feminist and

27
Multicultural Pedagogies” scholars Enns, et al. state that “The multicultural and social
reconstructionist model integrates the goals of a multicultural education approach with an emphasis on teaching students about social justice” (Enns 420). This is closely related to
how I approach my pedagogy. The four practices this approach uses are:
First, teachers create learning environments in which students practice democratic
principles by voicing opinions, working with others to solve problems or make decisions, and using power constructively. Second, teaching strategies are designed to help students analyze the circumstances of their lives, how they can gain awareness about social justice and priv ilege, and how they can respond
adaptively. Third, students are encouraged to develop the social action skills necessary to bring about change. Finally, to enact social change, educators emphasize the importance of forming coalitions among diverse groups. (Enns
420)
I used the first and second technique in the immediate immersion approach that I used for
devising in my performance studies class. T his training allowed the students to voice
their opinions , work together to create the performance, analyze the ir lives and share their
exploration of identity with each other. Overall t his approach is a fulfillment of the
definition of a multicultural pedagogy.
The study by Enns et al. proposes a more finely tuned definition of pedagogy
combining multicultural an d social reconstructionism: “…the education as multicultural
and social reconstructionist approach addresses the intersections of ethnicity, gender,
class, sexual orientation, and disability, and encourages critical thinking that provides
individuals with skills for becoming involved as social change agents” (Enns 421).
Exploring social differences is intricate; therefore a combined approach is necessary to
induce individual empowerment among students. Devising itself is an integrated
approach when the director encourages the ensemble to research related topics and share personal experiences. T hese scholars state in their conclusion, “ important forms of

28
nontraditional learning may include personal and a ffective experience, interactive
learning, and community -based activism” and devising addressed all three of these areas
(Enns 426).
The value of devising pedagogy is in creating individuals who can navigate
successfully in a pluralistic society. This is supported by the type of research that scholars
Mark E. Engberg and Sylvia Hurtado conduct. Their research, “Developing Pluralistic
Skills and Dispositions in College: Examining Racial/Ethnic Group Differences” supports the value of diversity initiatives in higher education. They begin their article
with statements on how the population in the United States is becoming more diverse and how the world is moving to a global economy. This trend creates a workplace demand for workers with pluralistic skills wh ich in turn mandates that higher education address this
need. As Engberg and Hurtado state: “Drawing from the research literature, the goal of this study is to posit and test a theoretical model that captures important elements of the
educational process i n developing students’ pluralistic orientation during the first two
years of college” (Engberg 417). These researchers created a pluralistic orientation model that included psychological variables, a unique feature of their model. They also acknowledged the limitations of using self -assessment without immediate feedback and
no assessment of intercultural abilities. They recognized that previous researchers have stated that self -report needs to be combined with direct observation. The measures were
listed on a pluralistic orientation scale composed of the students’ self -assessments. They
considered four latent constructs in order to capture college experience that related to diversity experiences. These constructs measured the frequency of students’ participation in diversity related activities and in diversity courses, and the frequency of students’

29
engagement in positive and negative interactions across ethnicity . The authors also
included cognitive and affective process measurements. Standard guidelines for modeling
longitudinal data were also used. In their conclusion they state :
The results of our measurement model confirmed that the pluralistic measure is a
valid and reliable construct that works similarly across racial groups. Thus, one of the important contributions of this study is an empirically -proven measure to
assess the extent to which colleges are accomplishing their goals in preparing students for their work and citizenship roles in an increasingly diverse and complex society. (Engberg 436)

This type of research supports the exploration of identity that often occurs when teaching
devising . Giving students an opportunity to express their identity through creative
performance gives them a platform for discussing the differences in their social
constructs. In talking about providing diversity initiatives Engberg and Hurtado conclude,
“For all students, participation in these initiatives increases their level of intergroup learning, and for most groups, this indirectly enhances their pluralistic orie ntation”
(Engberg 437). They also recognize that students from homogenous communities and schools may have more guarded interactions with diversity which poses a challenge to higher education. Providing numerous opportunities for cultural exchange in sever al
different contexts is significant in creating individuals who support and thrive in a pluralistic society. Creating a devised work is one such opportunity that allows students this type of cultural exchange .
An important part of exploration in identity and cultural exchange is the
examination of ethnicity. In the article "The Relationship between Campus Diversity,
Students' Ethnic Identity and College Adjustment: A Qualitative Study" scholar Sylvia J. Santos and her colleagues investigate how college students identify themselves :

30
Hence, the college years are a time when individuals are likely to question the
meaning of their ethnicity, which is often associated with an active search for knowledge and understanding. As centers of learning, ethnically dive rse
university campuses afford students with the ideal context for exploring these issues, which can facilitate their journey toward greater ethnic awareness and achieving positive and healthy ethnic identities. (Santos 109)
Santos mentions that the ethnic population in the United States has increased
exponentially over the past decade. This adjustment in the population has changed
campus climate by making ethnic identity and interethnic relations more important to the students (Santos 104). This alteration affects students’ adjustment to college and their learning abilities. The Santos article is a qualitative study of the experiences of students and their ethnic diversification. “Much of the psychological research literature on ethnic identity development focuses on the relationships between positive or negative ethnic identity and a host of psychological and academic outcomes” (Santos 105). This type of educational research supports the use of devising as a way to facilitate multicultural
pedagogy . “Studen ts’ commentaries highlight how the college environment can serve as a
catalyst for examining and exploring one’s identity as an ethnic individual” (Santos 108). Accordingly , the exploration of identity in a performance piece often increases a
students’ sel f-confidence in their creative abilities and their communication skills. Santos
refers to this as self -esteem: “Self -esteem is the most studied correlate of a positive ethnic
identity” (Santos 105). By allowing the students an experiential event, devising a performance piece gives them a means of expression and exploration into their ethnicity that increases their self -esteem. On the other hand it is possible that a student might have
a negative experience in devising and for this reason it is imperative that the teacher create an open and welcoming environment in which the students can participate. As

31
director of the performance, the professor must guide the interactions between cast
members to ensure positive collaboration.
One of the themes that the research by Santos identified as relevant to the
students’ college experience is multicultural competence. “Taken together, students’ commentaries point to how campus diversity provided a unique context for learning interpersonal skills that involved increase tolerance toward ‘ethnic others’ and a greater
understanding and acceptance of cultural and ethnic differences” (Santos 108). This facilitates the agenda of all-inclusive awareness that multicultural pedagogy dictates. As
Santos states in her study, “For these students, increased interethnic contact encouraged
them to see diverse peers as individuals and not solely as members of specific ethnicities. This was associated with a reduction in ethnic biases, which fostered a great er openness
to diversity and respect for differences” (Santos 108). Through the process of devising
students learn several different lessons: how to define their identities, how to share their
stories, how to collaborate and work with each other, the value of risk taking, the value of
tolerance and understanding of others, and how to approach performance in a new way.
When participating in a devised piece students risk the exposure of their
differences. Scholars Amy Bergerson and Deneece Huftalin explored how students can become more open to these differences in their article "Becoming More Open to Social Identity -Based Difference: Understanding the Meaning College Students Make of this
Movem ent" and state :
Our participants described a shift in becoming mo re open to difference that was
clearly influenced by interactions with others who were different from them.
Students also emphasized the importance of the personal nature of these interactions for their shifts. Further, participants’ consideration of soci al identity –
based categories illustrated their own struggles with negotiating multiple

32
identities, which provided evidence of the complexity of students’ lives and their
developmental processes. (Bergerson 389)
Devising offers the students exposure to dif ferences in ethnicity , gender, ethnicity, class
barriers and culture. Working in the intense environment of immediate immersion as part
of devising a performance piece provides students personal interaction in a safe setting. “The second theme, recursivity , stems from participants’ descriptions of a constant
negotiation of their own identities, the nonlinear nature of the process, and the impact of local environments on this shift” (Bergerson 383). Devising also offers an opportunity for
the students to experience recursivity and understand what is happening to individuals from varying cultures.
Methodology
My methodology includes analysis o f qualitative research and my own experience
with the actual use of devising in the classroom . I include this experience to show
practical application of teaching creativity and performance from a multicultural pedagogy. Incorporated in an explanation of teaching practices are excerpts of work by
the students as well as their comments and evaluations. The primary analysis uses the
Introduction to Performance Studies class I taught during the fall semester of 2011. In
this class I used immediate immersion and collaborated with the students to create a
devised piece for performance titled Giving Voice at the start of the semester. After the
performance they learned about the theories of performance studies and applied this analysis to their work. They also repeated exploration of performance by interpreting more poetry, text and personal narrative in class . I made notes throughout the rehearsal
process and kept a journal on teaching the class. T he students wrote reflection paper s on

33
their experiences that I will draw from for my analysis. I had each student sign a consent
form that allows me to use their name s, the name of the class and the name of the
university. For those students who wish to remain anonymous I use pseudonyms
throughout the dissertation. We discussed the process at length in one of our class sessions as well as incorporat ing it throughout the rest of the course. Through detailed
analysis and by using my experience in teaching and performance I demonstrate the
practical applications that can be used in a devising class and validate how these methods
contribute to a multicultural pedagogy .
I include primary sources of interviews, class observations and production
reviews in this dissertation as well as a wealth of secondary resources. For example, I
examin e the devising classes offered by Kent State University at Stark. I interview ed the
collaborators of Kent State University’s Voices from Hurt Street . Professors Brian
Newberg (Theatre) and Robert Miltner (English) are team teaching a class in devising
that culminates in the performance of Voices from Hurt Street . This project started during
the academic year 2011 – 2012 as a response to the concern the campus experienced with
sexual harassment. The purpose was to “create a theatre piece that would deal with a myriad of types of abusive relationships. Thus, out of hurt could come unders tanding,
expression and healing” ( Hurt Street Web page). The first performance generated such a
positive response that the class Devising Theatre: Bullying and Abuse was created to craft an additional theatre piece. Further i nterviews with professors from other colleges
include Dr. Noah Lelek who used devising in his course Adaptation of Literature for the Stage and his work A/Cross the Divide ; Kaitlin Hopkins , who is the director for Musical
Theatre at Texas State; and Cornelius E ady, English and Theatre professor at the

34
University of Missouri. These professors participate in different forms of devising and
devising pedagogy that will provide substance and contrast to my analysis.

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Chapter Two: The History of Devising
Where does one begin when tracing the history of devising? Many books on the
history of devising start with the influences on the experimental theatre of the sixties and
cover topics such as Antonin Artaud, physical theatre, commedia dell’arte, mime and masks. Heddon and Milling’s book Devisi ng Performance: a Critical History mentions
the influence of commedia dell’arte and the Dadaists but concentrates on beginning with World War II and the influence social changes had on theatre. Govan, et al. start with the First World War and spend time e xplaining the Dadaists and their disillusion with high
art and the capitalist society.
4 In this chapter I touch upon the history of devising
covering in depth some of the aspects I believe have not been thoroughly addressed such as musical theatre and modern dance. I give a more comprehensive analysis of particular artists that I believe inf luence devising the most.
Commedia Dell’Arte
The Italian Commedia D ell’Arte of the fourteenth to eighteenth century certainly
needs to be acknowledged in the history of devising although it was more improvisational than collaborati ve. Heddon and Milling re fer to C ommedia D ell’Arte as an influence on
devising as well as an improvisational element that is characteristically part of folk art or popular performance throughout history (Heddon 10). Commedia is typically an influence on companies and actor trainin g programs that emphasize the physical actor
such as Dell’Arte, an American company founded by Carlo Alessandro Luigi Mazzone –
Clementi. Stock characters are part of C ommedia and in the sixteenth century those
characters were familiar to both actors and aud ience. Commedia companies then
provided comedic situations for their characters to perform within. Commedia started in

36
Italy and by the seventeenth century a few troupes had international celebrity and
performed in foreign courts. These performances were g enerally in the open air and made
use of masks, each mask specific to the stock character. Companies were usually well –
known for their trademark lazzi , which were interludes of acrobatics, fighting, music or
comic buffoonery.5 It is plausible that C ommedia can be seen as an early form of
devising and is most often referred to as an inspiration for physical theatre that is
frequently the basis for devising ensembles. In an effort to ensure the freedom to include anything and everything in devised theatre, ph ysical theatre and commedia is the
terminology used so that work with masks, improvisation, clowning, acrobatics, and dance can be included alongside acting and creating a dramatic work. Commedia is one of the earliest forms of collaboration other than rit ual and community storytelling. As
theatre developed Commedia remained popular through the eighteenth century.
Renaissance Theatre to Modern Drama
In addition to Commedia an interest in Greek classical drama led to the
development of the neoclassical ideal s during the Italian Renaissance. The neoclassicists
were concerned with verisimilitude and the three unities: the unity of time, of place, and of action. This construction for plays required that the action take place within a twenty –
four hour period, in one locale, with one central story. Neoclassicism spread throughout
Europe during the 1600s. As the royal courts in Italy, France and Britain began to provide more support for drama, buildings for theatre began to emerge and the architecture for the buildi ngs became significant , especially in Italy . The emphasis on rules, verisimilitude
and architecture made the written script penned by a single author prominent . However,

37
there is speculation that improvisation was part of the productions of scripted theatr e,
particularly with Elizabethan drama.
In England the Renaissance was known as the Elizabethan period because
Elizabeth I ruled from 1558 to 1603. William Shakespeare is the most well -known
playwright from this time. Plays were performed in open -air theatres and i t is thought that
actors were not given the full script for a performance; instead, they were given only their
lines and cues. Outlines of the dramatic action were posted backstage for the players. Companies rarely performed the same play on two consecutive days and they often had to be prepared to revive a play from their repertoire on short notice. This leads scholars to the conclusion that the actors must have used improvisation to play their parts in Shakespeare’s plays . It is also specula ted that Shakespeare borrowed liberally from many
sources including improvisatory performances to write his plays.
Opera is another dramatic art form that developed during the Renaissance, starting
in Italy toward the end of the sixteenth century. This wa s a collaborative effort, bringing
together singers, musicians, composers, and librettists. Opera was sponsored by the royal courts and during the sixteenth century works by Bach, Handel and Vivaldi were prominent. During the 1700s composers Gluck, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven became opera favorites. Although opera is considered primarily music, drama and dance were
significant components of opera. Early opera drew on the stories from Greek mythology and later in the 1800s operas turned to literature such as Shakespeare, Hugo and Goethe.
Although the emphasis on the written script began to rise during the Renaissance,
Elizabethan drama and European opera had elements that are similar to devised theatre.
Neoclassical plays were often reinterpretations of classic Greek myths as a form of

38
adaptation . Shakespeare’s plays were also forms of adaptation because they included plot
lines from English and Roma n history, and Italian literature. Devising often uses current
news headlines as inspiration for a work and some forms of devising use adaptation of
literature to create the script. Improvisation is also an important part of devised theatre.
As theatre con tinued to progress more emphasis was placed on the written script.
The production of plays improved with more realistic scenery, acting methods and
costumes. Women appeared on the stage whereas before female roles were played by young men or boys. The middle class became the major patron of theatre in England.
Romanticism arose between 1800 and 1875 as a reaction against Neoclassicism, rejecting
rules and emphasizing mood, emotion, and atmosphere. Melodrama also appeared at this time giving weight to suspen se and nostalgia. In these plays virtue was always
triumphant . Then Realism (1850) and Naturalism (1880) appeared as a rebellion against
the popular Romantic plays, stressing ‘slice of life’ plays that portrayed life without
idealist overtures. After the F irst World War (1914 -1918) there came a disillusion with
life and the interpretation of life in the theatre. Abstract concepts such as Symbolism, Surrealism and the Absurd appeared.
6 When abstract concepts started to emerge, distaste
for adherence to the playwright’s script as written surfaced and Antonin Artaud was a prominent artist that devising harks back to in describing its intent.
Antonin Artaud
Since several scholars7 mention the influence of Artaud on early and current
practitioners of devising, a review of Antonin Artaud is essential. Artaud (1896 – 1948) was a troubled artist who suffered from physical and emotional illness as well as drug addiction. His acting, directing and playwriting were short lived experiences and for this

39
reason his impact on theatre comes from his essays and letters about drama. Artaud is
known for his Theatre of Cruelty and his desire to end the reliance of theatre on the text, meaning a script that must be rigidly followed. By Theatre of Cruelty, Artaud meant that
theatre should make the audience uncomfortable so as to release their subconscious to reach a greater truth. When one reads Artaud’s essays in Le Théâtre et son double there is
a sense that this man is searching for an expression of spirituality and condemning language for its inadequacy in expressing it. He begins his essays with “On the Balinese
Theater” and states “in this theater all creation arises from the stage and finds its expression and even its origins in a secret psychic impulse which is Speech anterior to words” (Artaud 220). He discusses at great length the purity of the Balinese theatre with their use of precise gestures, economical movement and the fact that each gesture has a specific meaning. Artaud believed that the Balinese eschewed the playwrig ht and
promoted the director but as a kind of “magical conductor, a master of sacred
ceremonies” (Artaud 220). His interpretation of Balinese theatre supported his desire for theatre to be an elevated expression of the inner mind. He rebelled against the b ourgeois
notion of theatre being an evening of entertainment. He seems to be searching for a spiritual recognition as he describes the Balinese art: “they possess some of the ceremonial quality of a religious rite, in that they extirpate from the mind of the spectator any idea of pretense, of the grotesque imitation of reality” (Artuad 221). For Artaud, the imitation of real life on stage was absurd . He wanted theatre to delve deeper and provide
a spiritual awakening for the audience. He eschewed Naturalism and Realism and
experimented with Surrealism. He encouraged the use of symbolic movement and gesture; he wanted the mise en scène to be a fully incorporated part of the production to

40
induce the experience he wanted the audience to receive. In his essays , he continues to
compare Western theatre with Asian (he uses the term Oriental) theatre and in his mind
the difference is that Western theatre is psychological whereas Asian theatre is
metaphysical. It is interesting to note that the Balinese theatre Artaud reflects upon is
usually called dance and as Artaud wanted to stop the reliance of theatre on words, dance
forms do exactly that, particularly modern dance. I analyze dance and its effect on devising later in this chapter.
Continuing with Artaud, in his “ First Manifesto on The Theater of Cruelty”
(1938) he states, “we must first of all put an end to the subjugation of the theater to the text, and rediscover the notion of a kind of unique language half -way between gesture
and thought” (Artaud 242). Artaud believed that text should be used as inspiration for theatre and that the director should not strictly adhere to the script. He believed that theatre was therapeutic for the audience and that the psychological significance was in
the catharsis the audience could experience when they were able to confront the darkness within themselves. Artaud wrote at a time when the science of psychology was new and Freud’s theories were the most influential on the subject. Psychoanalysis started in 1900,
when Freud published his “Interpretation of Dreams .” There was an upheaval in society
worldwide at the time of Artaud’s writings. In 1929, the Great Depression was tr iggered
by the Wall Street Crash in the United States. This crash affected the entire world including Europe and Asia. This was also the time of the third republic in France and parliamentary instability. Between 1932 and 1934 there were five different Fre nch
governments. Nazis took control of Germany in 1933 and they burned Freud’s books. This social turmoil is echoed in Artaud’s struggle to reinvent theatre.

41
In his manifesto Artaud begins with this thought: “we cannot go on prostituting
the idea of the th eater, whose only value lies in its excruciating, magical connection with
reality and with danger” (Artaud 242). This is where he expands his idea that theatre is a
slave to the text and words when it should be exploring gesture and movement. His fascinati on with dreams, thoughts, and the workings of the mind continues in his treatise
on theatre:
If the theater, like dreams, is bloody and inhuman, it is in order to manifest and to
root unforgettably in us the idea of a perpetual conflict and a spasm in whic h life
is constantly being cut short, in which everything in creation rises up and struggles against our condition as already formed creatures, it is to perpetuate in a concrete and immediate way the metaphysical ideas of certain Fables whose very atrociou sness and energy are enough to demonstrate their origin and their content
of essential principles. (Artaud 245)
This describes what he was trying to accomplish with theatre and his essays. It is easy to
see how these essays would appeal to anyone who was disillusioned with traditional theatre. Artaud has influenced many forms of experimentation including music and
theatre. He accurately describes what happens in devising although he was not speaking of devising per se when he speaks of the mise en scène an d states:
…it is in the utilization and handling of this language that the old duality between
author and director will disappear, to be replaced by a kind of unique Creator who will bear the double responsibility for the spectacle and the plot. (Artaud 246)
Devising ensembles often work in a democratic mode where no one is credited as director
or author which is what Artaud is dreaming of in this quote. The performers eschew roles and contribute as creators, performers and the whole running of the show together without specific designation. When Artaud wrote his essays (1931- 36) his theater, Le
Théâtre Alfred Jarry (1927 – 1930) was closed. Naturalism, Realism, Romanticism,
Symbolism and Surrealism were being practiced in the theatre along with the avant -garde

42
movements of Futurism and Constructivism. Artaud had more ideas about the
restructur ing of theatre. His idea that the separation between the actors and the audience
should be indistinct was a part of Surrealism and some of the avant -garde movements.
This blending of stage and audience is something that Artaud describes in his Le Théâtre
et son double , and is an element of theatre to which artists such as Erwin Piscator, Bertolt
Brecht, and Vsevolod Meyerhold adhered.8 Due to his desire to break away from
theatre’s reliance on the text and his wish to move the audience to a cathartic experience,
Artaud has influenced the majority of devising artists. Contemporary artists refer to his
Theatre of Cruelty when attempting to describe their work and the impetus behind devised theatre. Since devising history includes Artaud and he is often quoted by devising artists , it is important to read through his manifesto and understand it in terms of how his
writing impacted devised and experimental theatre.
Jerzy Gro towski
Jerzy Grotowski (1933- 99) is one of the theatre artists that many scholars and
critics state was influenced by Antonin Artaud. According to Heddon and Milling, “One of the first groups to expressly champion and utilize Artaud was the Polish troupe l ed by
Jerzy Grotowski at the Theatre of Thirteen Rows, in Opole (1959)…” (Heddon 51). Additionally, Govan, Nicholson and Normington state that, “Influenced by Artaud’s vision of a poetic theatre that transcended ‘discursive reason and psychology ,’ Grotowsk i
emphasized the act of personal transformation at the heart of this aesthetic exchange” (Govan 33). According to scholar Gene A. Plunka, Jerzy Grotowski derived exercises for his Laboratory Theatre from Artaud’s statements on breathing.
9 Although Grotowski’s
theatre seemed to embody Artaud’s philosophy , Grotowski was not influenced by Artaud.

43
Jerzy Grotowski started directing in Poland at the Theatre of Thirteen Rows in
1958. His theatre evolved into The Laboratory Theatre in 1965. He is known for an
exhau stive physical training for his actors and for transforming traditional texts such as
Polish folk tales and Faust. In her book Grotowski , French theatre critic Madame
Raymond Temkine discusses at length how many critics and scholars were comparing Artaud a nd Grotowski almost immediately when Grotowski began directing. Temkine
states, “The names of Artaud and Grotowski were already associated with each other, albeit improperly, before any of the latter’s work had been seen” (Temkine 22). She goes on to say t hat “Grotowski knew neither the Théâtre Alfred Jarry nor Artuad’s writings”
(Temkine 144). Grotowski did not read Artaud until a short excerpt of Artaud’s was published in 1960 in a Polish magazine. He finally read Le Théâtre et son double in 1964
when Mad ame Temkine sent him a copy. In contrast to Plunka’s assertion that Grotowski
developed his actor’s breathing techniques from Artaud, later scholars maintain that he
adapted techniques he learned from Dr. Ling, a voice expert, in Shanghai 1962.
10
Grotowski analyzes Artaud in his book Towards a Poor Theatre . In the chapter “He
Wasn’t Entirely Himself” Grotowski criticizes theatres and artists who claim to emulate Artaud as well as condemning critics who assert that an artist is influenced by Artaud when their work seems to embody Artaud’s ideals. He specifically mentions Peter Brook
and is perhaps referring to himself in a veiled manner (Grotowski, Poor Theatre 117).
Although Grotowski was not influenced by Artaud, the fact that his work embodied some of Artau d’s admonitions is important to devised theatre. Grotowski’s work encouraged
experimental artists and continues to impact contemporary devised theatre.

44
Grotowski was interested in what he termed poor theatre. In contrast to television
and film , his intent was to strip theatre down to its basics, the actor and the spectator. He
was not concerned with entertainment; he was absorbed in cathartic renewal much like
the experience that Artaud described. Similar to Artaud , he wanted to expand the text or
use text as an inspiration. He deliberately kept his audiences small because he wanted
them to be involved in the production. He insisted on creating spaces specific to each production where actors could play among the spectators or where spectators are separated from the actors in a new way to give them a different perspective such as a high fence obstructing the view in The Constant Prince . This experimentation with space and
the audience’s view are some of the things that devising explores. Devised theatre often uses non- traditional space for performance, involves the audience and works to change
the audience’s perspective and experience. Grotowski sums up his thoughts of intent by stating:
We are concerned with the spectator who has genuine spiritual needs and w ho
really wishes, through confrontation with the performance, to analyse himself. We
are concerned with the spectator who does not stop at an elementary stage of psychic integration, content with his own petty, geometrical, spiritual stability, knowing exa ctly what is good and what is evil, and never in doubt. (Grotowski,
Poor Theatre 40)

The idea of using the text as inspiration and using movement and gesture specifically in
creating the production are the type of innovations that paved the way for devise d theatre.
Grotowski continues to inspire contemporary devised theatre.
Grotowski went on to create Theatre of Participation/Paratheatre from 1969 –
1978. “To put it simply: Paratheatre/Active Culture seeks to extend the privilege of

45
creative action to th ose not usually involved in theatre production” (Slowiak 34). The
idea of involving those who have not been trained in theatre is what many devised theatre
pieces are about, especially when devising is used for community involvement or dealing with communi ty issues in a creative way. According to theatre scholar James Slowiak
and artistic director Jairo Cuesta , “Paratheatre means, literally, alongside theatre, on the
borders of theatre, or expanding its limits” (Slowiak 33). Grotowski worked on paratheatre with his Laboratory Theatre from 1970 -73 and then presented the first
paratheatre meeting in 1973 as Holiday . The event lasted three days and was later named
Special Project . The Laboratory Theatre then presented performances of Apocalypsis as
they conduct ed paratheatre events in the United States, France and Australia. They
returned to Wroclaw and increased the number of participants in paratheatre work in 1974. In 1975, the Laboratory Theatre sponsored The University of Research in Wroclaw. This event inc luded classes, workshops, performances and meetings as well as
paratheatre events. Grotowski traveled extensively after that devoting his study to that of indigenous peoples and their cultural practices. This led him to create a Theatre of Sources (1976- 82). In this work the group sought to develop personal techniques of
sources, simple actions that were the beginnings of cultural practices.
11 The exploration
of gesture and movement, away from the text that this work entailed was an influence on what we now call devised theatre. Several artists who continued this experimental
exploration into theatre techniques studied with or worked with Grotowski including Eugenio Barba, Richard Schechner, Peter Brook and Joseph Chaikin. The Artaudian notions of using the s implicity of gesture and eschewing a written text are what devising
encompasses , and Grotowski’s work provided stimulus to move theatre toward devising

46
in his explorations. Similar theatrical experiments were happening elsewhere in Europe,
across the UK an d in the US when Grotowski was working in the sixties and seventies.
Theatre in the 60s
Theatre scholar Arnold Aronson describes Artaudian influenced non -literary
theatre as avant -garde in his book American Avant -garde Theatre . He refers to ensemble
theatres dedicated to the creation of original works such as the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Bread and Puppet Theatre, the Living Theatre, the Performance Group and
the Open Theatre as avant -garde the same way that Heddon and Milling discuss them in
terms of devising. Both genres discuss the theatre of the sixties as ensembles that rejected
the idea that theatre started with the playwright’s text and searched for the synthesis of
movement, sound, and mise en scéne that Artaud expounded.
The Living Theatr e began in 1951 and according to Aronson “became, to all
intents and purposes, America’s first avant -garde theatre company” (Aronson 48). Judith
Malina and Julian Beck wanted to create new theatre that was a liberation of truth. They began with poetic aest hetics including works by Paul Goodman, Gertrude Stein, Bertolt
Brecht and Federico Garcia Lorca. Malina and Beck wanted their art to reflect their
political beliefs and create a community that would be a model for a utopian society. The Living Theatre not only performed but also taught classes and gave lectures ranging from
“Artaudian acting” to lectures by architects, filmmakers and choreographers. They also gave concerts of original music, poetry readings, and showed original films.
Malina’s approach to directing was to use improvisation and relinquish the
director’s typical authoritarian control. “The actor now became a partner in the creation of the piece of theatre” (Aronson 59). The Living Theatre rejected the Aristotelian form

47
and turned to the rhyt hm of speech much like the Beat poets were practicing at the time.
They presented a play titled The Theatre of Chance in 1960 that was inspired by John
Cage’s use of chance in music. This play rejected the traditional approach to theatre with
no directions for action and no apparent theme. The actors would read instructions from a
card chosen by a roll of dice. The music by Cage was sometimes spoken dialogue and distorted sound. “The piece was so radically different from anything that had ever been put on t he stage that it forced the members of the Living Theatre, and the few brave
audience members, to re -examine the whole concept of acting, directing, and
playwriting” (Aronson 63). It should be noted that John Cage had a huge impact on
experimental music, theatre, and dance. He introduced the thought of silence as part of music with his influential piece, 4’33” where a performer is instructed to not play the
instrument for the duration of the piece. He also developed a “complicated composing means using I Ching chance operations” (Cage webpage). This rebellion against
traditional theatre is similar to Artaud’s vision and Grotowski’s research. Both critics and scholars have equated Grotowski with the Living Theatre although it may be more appropriate to sugges t that their explorations complimented one another.
"To associate Grotowski and the Living Theatre for purposes of praise or of
censure is a perfect example of the confusion beclouding a theatre attempting to pave new paths. Certainly, Grotowski and the Li ving Theatre – and let us also
include Happenings – have something in common. They reject a certain type of
theatre, not only traditional, but one inspired by lofty requirements, upright and of high quality ." (Temkine 147)

This rejection of traditional th eatre is what devising encompasses. I dislike the use of the
term high quality in Temkine’s quote. I do not think she meant that experimental theatre

48
created art of less value than traditional theatre; instead I think she meant that it was not
immersed in pleasing the designated elite of society. Devising is often interested in reaching audiences that cannot afford or avoid the proscenium theatre offerings. An artist who was directly influenced by Grotowski and whose theatre stimulated the development of de vised theatre is Joseph Chaikin (the Open Theatre).
As stated by Slowiak and Cuesta “Chaikin and his Open Theatre claimed to be
influenced greatly by Grotowski’s work. Grotowski admired the group’s discipline, integrity and personal response to the Laborat ory Theatre’s methodology” (Slowiak 23).
The Open Theatre sprang from the Living Theatre when Joseph Chaikin, an artist who participated in the Living Theatre felt the need to explore actor training with methods other than interpretations of Stanislavski. In 1963, he and others from the Living Theatre
started exploring outside of the psychologically based acting training. They used exercises inspired by Viola Spolin’s theatre games work in Chicago in addition to the
exercises Chaikin developed that were int ent on physical transformation.
12 Chaikin
started the Open Theatre as an acting laboratory and did not intend to create a performance group; however , the group invited audiences to view presentations of their
exercises. These viewings were well received and ultimately led to performances.
Chaikin wanted the group to work without a designated leader and the ideas for performance emerged from their improvisatory exercises that playwrights later molded into performances. One of their most notable performances i s The Serpent . The ensemble
worked with specialists such as Kristin Linklater (voice), Joseph Schlichter (dance) and Richard Peaslee (singing). The leading actor from the Polish Laboratory Theatre, Ryszard Cieslak showed them the physical exercises Grotows ki created. In true collaboration, the

49
ensemble read the book of Genesis and researched the mythology and anthropology of
the Bible for The Serpent . In their process they wanted to create ceremony and their
definition of ceremony depended on a shared experience between spectators and performers. They felt that the Bible was universal enough to be the base of a shared experience. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and in 1966 an Open Theatre workshop connected the events in Genesis with current events, the Kennedy assassination still being prominent in the public’s eye. In 1968 the group toured Europe with the piece and returned with an evolved play that could respond to current events such as the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.
13 The Serpent was
a different performance every time it was presented and involved movement, music, singing, spoken word, chanting and nudity. This work of collaboration without a designated leader is similar to devising. The incorporation of different artistic elements is also something to which devising adheres. The work of the Open Theatre , along with
Grotowski and the Living Theatre , paved the way for today’s devised theatre. In addition
to these experiments another form of performance th at eschewed traditional theatre
started in the sixties, known as Happenings.
Temkine mentioned Happenings when she wrote about the comparisons critics
made between Grotowski and the Living Theatre. The books Devising Performance,
Making a Performance , and American Avant -garde Theatre all discuss Happenings when
they outline the history of devising or avant -garde theatre. They all agree that Happenings
began at the Black Mountain College when John Cage read from Artaud’s Le Théâtre et
son double . Happenings are important in the history of devising because they
experimented with the form of theatre and the approach to theatrical creations. What

50
exactly is a Happening? Contrary to popular belief they were not occasions where artists
spontaneously got together a nd “things just happened.” They were scripted well –
rehearsed works of art. Several definitions abound with improvisation, event, spontaneous performance, and involving the audience being key phrases. Michael Kirby defines the term in his book Happenings as: “a purposefully composed form of theatre in
which diverse alogical elements, including nonmatrixed performing, are organized in a compartmented structure” (Kirby 21).
14 Happenings were considered theatre , not
museum events , and as such led the way to perf ormance art and devised theatre. “The
piece generally acknowledged as the first Happening was Kaprow’s 18 Happenings in 6 Parts in 1959” (Aronson 64). This Happening was an event presented at the Reuben
Gallery in Manhattan. Plastic partitions divided the gallery into three rooms with a collage on one wall. Colored chairs and lights face different directions and audience members were handed cards when they entered. The cards had instructions on them telling the audience when to change seats and three happen ings occurred simultaneously
and incorporated slide projections and electronic sounds. The actors were artists that used simple movement with neutral faces. Each performance was signaled by a bell.
15
Happenings created the impetus to change the rules of the atre production and form new
structures for the art in performance. Happenings included the visual artist in performance and they foreshadowed the interdisciplinary nature of devising.
Many more ensembles and artists experimented with theatre in the sixtie s,
including Peter Brook (International Centre of Theatre Research), Richard Schechner (the Performance Group), Andrei Serban (LaMaMa), R.G. Davis (San Francisco Mime Troupe), and Peter Schumann (the Bread and Puppet Theater). They were familiar with

51
each other’s work and were influenced or inspired by Artaud. Schechner brought
Grotowski to the United States, Grotowski worked with Peter Brook, and Andrei Serban created his first work for LaMaMa from an adaptation of the Elizabethan tragedy Arden of Faversham that was inspired by Artaud. I have shown how Artaud’s ideas linked the
various performances of the sixties. These artists and their ensembles experimented with actors training, stepping away from the text, physicality, and changes to the theatrical space which led the way to today’s devised theatre. Some of the practitioners who started in the sixties continue to influence how theatre is created in today’s culture (2013). One of the great influences that emerged and that practices a form of devised theat re is
Eugenio Barba.
Eugenio Barba
Similar to the emergence of Chaikin from the Living Theatre, Eugenio Barba
studied with Grotowski and later opened his own theatre laboratory, Odin Teatret , in
Denmark. Eugenio Barba was born in 1936 in Italy and went to Poland in 1961 to study directing at the State Theatre School in Warsaw. A year later he joined Jerzy Grotowski at the Theatre of 13 Rows. In 1964, he gathered together a group of young actors in Oslo to create his own theatre. They were invited to create a laboratory theatre in Denmark where Barba started the Odin Teatret.
16 Like Grotowski and Artaud, Barba believes the
text should be the inspiration of the work and that the director should not be compelled to follow a strict adherence to the script. Barba is a renowned director who has written extensively about his work. Included in his writings are books on Grotowski and his works such as Director as Innovator and Author: Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre (1962)
and Doctor Faustus in Poland (1963). In one of his most recent books, On Directing and

52
Dramaturgy: Burning the House (2010) he describes his approach to directing, “My
dramaturgical work began with a particular way of looking which focused upon the
layered nature of the performance” (Barba 9). These layers provide insight into an experimental theatre that creates thought, wonder and contemplation on behalf of the spectator as an integral component of the performance. He requires his actors to create their character by working alone wi th improvisation and research. They are required to
present their improvisations in rehearsal , often repeating them in exact replica several
times. Barba pulls actions and characterizations from these improvisations that he uses in the performance. He has a concept of director as a master weaver who continuously uses
threads, impressions, and memories to create a performance.
His first performances (1965 – 1969) were born from texts by Jens Bjorneboe,
Ole Sarvig and Peter Seeberg. He began his work of using text as inspiration due to circumstances, for example Jens Bjorneboe’s play Ornitofilene had fifteen characters and
lasted two hours and Barba had four actors and one hour. He used a long poem ,
Kaspariana, which has no characters and no division so he invented characters corresponding to the number of actors with which he had to work. As he states, “These constraints taught me to intervene in a text for pragmatic reasons and not for creative originality” (Barba 113). With My Father’s House (1972) he devel oped his method of
working with actors’ improvisations. He used the biography of Dostoevsky as inspiration and the process that evolved created the play. Barba says “…my work as director was not guided by meanings, but by the actors’ real actions and the s ynchronization of their
relationship” (Barba 114). This is the type of devised theatre where the director guides the actors, uses improvisation and creates the play from the work that the actors create.

53
Barba takes ownership as the director , whereas some p urists of devising state that the
ensemble must have authorship. However the technique that Barba uses is similar to the
way devising ensembles often work. Improvisation, the use of text as inspiration, and alternatives to the proscenium stage are all hallmarks of devising. Likewise physical theatre is a method used in devising and devised theatre is often a term used in exchange with physical theatre. The most well- known proponent of physical theatre is Jacques
Lecoq.
Jacques Lecoq
The physical training f or which Jacques Lecoq is known and his L'École
Internationale de Théâtre is mentioned by several devising companies and artists such as Theatre du Soleil, Theatre de Complicite, and Dell’Arte. “Lecoq’s emphasis on provoking the actor’s imagination and cre ativity is a means of freeing actors from the
‘tyranny of the text’ in order to create their own scenarios” (Chamberlain 4). This description of his teaching certainly sounds similar to the definition of devising and is reminiscent of Artaud. Lecoq knew Antonin Artaud and according to David Bradby and Maria M. Delgado in their book The Paris Jigsaw: Internationalism and the City’s Stages , he “shared [his] vision of theatre as, above all, a concrete, physical poetry of
bodies in space” (Bradby 84). Lecoq’s o wn statement,
My hope, perhaps utopian, is for my students to be consummate livers of life and
complete artists on stage. Moreover, it is not just a matter of training actors, but of educating theatre artists of all kinds: authors, directors, scenographer s as well as
actors” also speaks to devising. (Lecoq 18)

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Lecoq’s training seeks to address the creative process of collaboration. Lecoq’s book The
Moving Body: Teaching Creative Theatre , explains his teaching methods and how he
built them. He describes his version of improvisation, which includes mime, the neutral
mask, and the study of poetry, music and colors in terms of physical movement. He includes movement analysis and vocal preparation. He describes five main dramatic territories: melodrama, commedia dell’arte, bouffons, tragedy, and clowns. Students have left Lecoq’s school to start their own schools in various countries, and have started collaborative companies as well as pursuing traditional theatrical fields. He states:
Sometimes groups have formed following the end of the second year, and have set
themselves up as companies, preferring to pursue the collaborative work begun
during their time at the school rather than to join existing theatres. This seems to me especially significant for the n ew young theatre which I hope to see come into
existence. (Lecoq 161)
He mentions several different companies that strive to create new theatre such as
Mummenschanz (Switzerland), Footsbarn Travelling Theatre (Cornwall then Auvergne),
The Moving Picture M ime Show (London), Théâ tre de la Jacquerie (Paris), The Nada
Théâtre (London), Theatre de Complicite (London) and Theatre de la June Lune
(Minneapolis). Some of these theatres are considered devising companies and all of them adhere to the collaborative ap proach that Lecoq taught.
Part of Lecoq’s training that speaks directly to devising is what he terms auto-
cours. In auto- cours the students form small groups and then spend time each day to
work on their own without supervision from their instructors. The y prepare a
performance based on a theme that Lecoq gives them and they present it in front of the school at the end of each week. Using this training he builds from a simple theme to a more complex representation of everyday life. At the end of the year t he students observe

55
a place and its events, an example might be a hospital, for four weeks from which they
develop a performance. “Unlike improvisation work, which deals mainly with acting, the work done in the auto- cours emphasizes production, playwriting , and also the necessity
of collaborative work in the theatre” (Lecoq 92). His teaching techniques are perfect for the pedagogy of devising where students learn how to create a performance piece by collaborating with each other.
The ideals and methods for creating theatre from artists such as Artaud,
Grotowski, artists of the sixties, Barba and Lecoq define and influence devised theatre. In addition to the experiments in theatrical production that these artists proposed, there were also changes in dance and in musical theatre that encouraged devised theatre. Devised
theatre scholars rarely remark on the collaborative efforts of musical theatre due to the lack of acknowledgement of the contribution of the performers. While the collaboration of musical theatre is not exactly the same as devising it is important to review because it
demonstrates how music and dance can be included in devised work.
Musical Theatre
I have worked with musical theatre as an actor and a dancer since I was sixteen. I
started to choreograph for musicals in community theatre and I assisted with directing musicals when I began my master of fine arts studies. In all that time it has been my experience that musicals are collaborations of lyricists, authors, composers, musicians, actors, singers, dancers and choreographers. When I discovered devised theatre it occurred to me that musical theatre is a form of devised theatre and I eagerly began to research that possibility. I reviewed books including The Rise and Fall of the Broadway
Musical , Words with Music, Ever After, Broadway Stories and The Broadway Musical.

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They are all books about musical theatre that espouse to cover the history of musicals
and/or how they are made. They all agree that musicals are collaborations and they
discuss the contributions of various artists such as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Je rome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and
Adolph Green to name a few. They categorize these offerings by music, lyrics and book, director, and choreographer , yet none of them discuss how musicals come together
through rehearsals wit h the influences of the actors, singers and dancers. Musicals are
more than collaborations between composer and lyricist or the production team of designers and director; they are ultimately put together with work by all the artists much in the same way th at devised theatre is created. Even though the writers may not
acknowledge the contributions of the artists, the workshops that shape the final product are a form of devising.
The book The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical describes the different
types of musical theatre that have sprung up over the years. Mark Grant starts with
vaudeville and burlesque and winds his way all the way through today’s rock musicals and musical dramas like Rent and Evita . He speaks about the fact that musicals are
collabor ations, not only of lyricist, composer and playwright , but also directors,
choreographers and actors. “ Musicals in the pre -1920 era were collaborative, but the
communal model prevailed: very few voices identifiable as personally expressive emerged…” (Grant 53). What he does not elaborate on is how these collaborations are
wrought. He barely mentions structure or method stating, “From The Black Crook in
1866 to Show Boat in 1927, the book was not a unifying structure binding the songs and
dances. The script of a musical with rare exceptions was instead improvised around the

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stars, the sets, and the songs” (Grant 56). Although he admits to improvisation here and
continues to describe various musicals and how the styles changed, he doesn’t discuss the workshop method or how the performers contributed to various musicals. At the beginning of the American musical, dance and song were thrown together with some kind of story line. As the musical evolved, similar to the structure of opera and operettas, finally someo ne has to write the music.
Over the years different artists have claimed authorship in musicals. In the
beginning of musical theatre, musicals started with the songs where lyricists and composers were auteur. As musicals evolved the book writer became prom inent, then
directors became auteur until finally choreographers became dominant to the point of being directors as well. Most of the collaborations to which Grant refers are lyricist and composer teams such as Rodgers and Hammerstein with their well -know n shows South
Pacific and The King and I . Kurt Weill and his work with Bertolt Brecht for The
Threepenny Opera and Happy End are also examples of lyricist and composer
collaboration. Grant points out how Weill specifically sought highbrow artists to work with because he believed in the collaborative nature of the musical (Grant 74). As Grant
describes the various teams and how the Broadway musical changed over time he continues to insist that musicals are collaborations of many artists:
… if an auteur is de fined as a subliminal authorial voice that emerges from a
collaborative mass medium to elevate the medium to art, then the real auteurs of
the Broadway musical are Herbert, Cohan, Kern, Berlin, the Gershwins, Rodgers, Hart, Hammerstein, et al. – writers an d composers, not directors, choreographers,
designers, producers, star performers, or other role players in the collaborative process. (Grant 94)

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Even though he is emphasizing writers and composers , he is still referring to the
collaboration of all the ar tists involved in creating the musical. This is similar to the
development method of avant garde or experimental theatre where the idea may come
from the director but the performance piece is actually created by the ensemble. In a musical the idea might co me from the lyricist, composer, writer, director or
choreographer but in order to create the production they must all come together with the performers to solidify a work similar to the way devising works. Songs may be cut, lyrics may change, and staging m ay conflict with the choreography but all of this is worked out
with artists during rehearsals. One of the shifts in how musicals are created came from the choreographer Agnes
de Mille. "Agnes de Mille (1905- 93) was in fact the single most important tran sitional
figure in Broadway dance history” (Grant 259). Through de Mille dance became part of
the story as the dream ballet propels the story forward in Oklahoma! Her ballet also
added a dark psychological component to an otherwise light hearted musical comedy. As her career progressed , she not only choreographed the musicals she became a
director/choreographer and in the 1940s she taught acting for dancers. Due to her influence of insisting on character development for the dance, more complex books, music and lyrics were developed. She believed that dance was integral to the story and therefore had to be created alongside the music, pushing the collaboration to be more inclusive. As Grant states:
… when de Mille started choreographing integral ballets with their own internal
dramatic scenarios, she demanded more than precomposed music: for her the show dance was independently important and had to be conceived concurrently with the music. (Grant 260)

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This is indicative of devising where everything is creat ed together as a whole.
Continuing the research into how musicals are created, the book Words with
Music makes a significant contribution. Lehman Engel wrote the book in 1971 and it was
updated and revised by Howard Kissel in 2006. Kissel leaves the words of Engel intact
and makes comments at the end of each chapter. Kissel mentions that many historians attribute the beginning of musicals to The Black Crook (1866). A French ballet company
was to perform in New York City when the theatre burned down and the producers negotiated for them to join a play at another theatre. The accidental combination of song, drama and dance proved to be popular. Kissel maintains that the continued popularity of
the play was influential but not necessarily essential for the development of the form of musical theatre (Engel 8). Engel and Kissel reference operas and operettas as the origins of musical theatre , citing Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande , Mozart’s operas along with
Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas. In the second chapter , “Characters ,” Engel discusses
how the Greeks and Romans performed plays with music , using orchestra, chorus, dance,
song and chants. He continues to point out that , even during the Middle Ages , morality
plays used musical elements and were performed in the great cathedrals. Many scholars of devising point to the similarities between devising and ritualistic experiences in
ancient and native cultures , and it is worth noting how Engel attributes the development
of musicals to a far more ancient past that The Black Crook in much the same way.
I would guess that Engel and Kissel would disagree with my argument that in
some instances the method for creating musicals are a form of devising. Kissel is one of

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the few who comments on the current workshop method of developing a musical. He
presents that A Chorus Line is an example of the workshop method and states tha t:
Unlike Chorus Line , however, in which the material was being developed from
the experiences of the performers rather than the conceptions of the writers, most
of the subsequent workshops were really little more than extended rehearsal periods for backer s’ auditions. (Engel 26)

In his opinion Working is another musical that used an actual workshop method. This
musical by Stephen Schwartz was based on Studs Terkel’s oral history Working and was
developed in Chicago before moving to Broadway (Engel 26). The similarities that cause
him to deem this a genuine workshopped musical are that the characters sing about their
lives directly to the audience and that it was built around individual numbers rather than as a whole story. This allowed Schwartz to invite other composers to contribute to the score, notably the folk singer James Taylor. I disagree with this definition of workshop; a
workshop brings together various artists in order to create the whole and the script can
end up with a story instead of presenti ng individuals and still be considered a workshop.
In workshops , the music, singing, dance and staging are performed so that the creative
team can ascertain what works and what should not be included. This is comparable to how devising works when the creat ors are all working together to try ideas and create a
performance. Perhaps musical workshops do not elicit material from the participants the way that devising does but without the performers it is difficult to finalize a musical therefore the workshop is a form a devising.
An important comment on how creating musicals is like devising includes the role
dance continues to play as musical theatre develops. Like Grant, Kissel comments on

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how dance changed the musical, “Dance had played a pivotal role in the creative life of
New York for many decades” (Engel 405). He mentions Agnes de Mille, George
Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. He goes as far as stating “Several recent musicals have made both words and music ancillary to movement” (Engel 406). This is remini scent of
how Artaud wanted theatre to leave its dependence on the text and indicative of how devising works. Kissel includes Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk ; Stomp, Contact
and Movin’ Out . Interestingly enough, Noise/Funk started with a summer dance concert
in Central Park. A new tap dancer, Savion Glover , was made the focus and the narrative
was a cursory glance of the history of African Americans in the United States. On the other hand, Stomp is based on percussion and the use of unusual ‘musical in struments .’
Conversely , Contact is made up of three dance pieces and won the Tony for Best Musical
in 2000, even though there was no book, and the music was from the past and not performed live. I did not realize that Stomp and Contact were considered musicals as I
would classify them as dance concerts but Kissel lists them as musicals in his comments on the Engel chapter “Nonplot”. He maintains that , in contrast to Contact , Movin’ Out is
based on the music of Billy Joel and has a plot . However, the plot and music are
“secondary” to Twyla Tharp’s choreography. These nonplot musicals are examples of what can be done when story or text are not the central elements which is what often happens in devising. A devised theatre piece can be sta rted with physical movement and
expanded with music the same way these musicals were developed , although devised
theatre is collaborative with all the artists as participants and co -creators. Whereas
Noise/Funk , Stomp, Contact and Movin’ Out are examples o f how dance can be the

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impetus of a piece, there are other musicals that more readily demonstrate the
collaborative aspect that is similar to devising.
West Side Story as Collaboration
West Side Story is a musical that is an example of a seamlessly integr ated
collaboration. According to Keith Garebian in his book The Making of West Side Story ,
the reason this happened is: “the entire production was a total collaboration, in which Robbins, Bernstein, Sondheim and Laurents worked almost side by side in a rar e
harmony of egos and temperaments” (Garebian 10). Jerome Robbins was a choreographer whose Broadway shows used dance as an integral part of telling the story following in the footsteps of George Balanchine ( On Your Toes ) and Agnes de Mille
(Oklahoma! ). Wh en Robbins choreographed, he used more than the ballet vocabulary
from which Balanchine and de Mille worked. “Robbins extended American idioms and images to encompass indigenous training, experience, and environment” (Garebian 17).
Robbins had an idea for a modern version of Romeo and Juliet using New York slums as
the setting. He originally thought it would be about tensions between Jews and Catholics during Passover. He asked composer Leonard Bernstein to compose for it. Bernstein agreed and when together they asked Arthur Laurents to write the book he was at first
opposed to working with Bernstein. Bernstein and Laurents had never met and Laurents didn’t want his book to become lost in the music, much the way that the book becomes secondary to the music i n operas. Bernstein assured him this would not be the case and
they began work. They decided their first attempts were not contemporary and too heavy. When they spoke of it to ballerina Nora Kaye she predicted they would never write it.
17

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They stopped worki ng on it due to other projects and returned to it more than three years
later.
Both Bernstein and Laurents were working on separate films when they got
together and reminisced over the lost Romeo and Juliet idea. They noted that in Los
Angeles headlines w ere about the gang fights between Mexican and American gangs.
They returned to New York and proposed to Robbins that the story shift from Jews and
Catholics to the New York Puerto Ricans and American gangs. Robbins loved the idea and when Bernstein decided he couldn’t write the lyrics as well as compose the call went out to the wonderful writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green ( On the Town).
The duo created a story plan but was working on a film , so Robbins, Bernstein and
Laurents searched for another lyricist. They ended up with Stephen Sondheim, a relative
newcomer who at first was not interested because he did not want to be confined to writing only lyrics when he considered himself a composer.
18 Garebian goes on to
explain the background of the producers and how the creative team came together for the show.
Sometimes the book in a musical is written based on consultations with the
director or composer/lyricist and other times it is a draft that evolves over the production process. In the case of West Side Story “Laurents worked from an outline, consulted
frequently with Robbins, Bernstein, and Sondheim, stuck faithfully to his task, and never
sought to make his text draw attention to itself” (Garebian 60). In addition to this close
collaboration from Laurents, Bernstein also sought to incorporate the music with the
story and dance. “The score of West Side Story thoroughly integrates motifs and themes,
and shows an impressive array of musical elements that are cleverly linked together

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throughout the show” (Garebian 98). More collaboration evolved when the performers
were cast. For example, they cast an experienced knife fighter, Frank Green, whose expertise helped Robbins choreograph the rumble. In addition to the choreography Robbins used Method acting in the rehearsals. He wanted his dancers to justify their
choices based on emotional justification, to understand who their character really was. Garebian reports that “His dancers, in turn, helped shape some of his ideas” (Garebian 119). After a first ru n-through the producer, Harold Prince felt the show was not what it
needed to be. The show gained momentum when Robbins was finally persuaded to give up the Method, “And yet, there was no denying that all the preliminary discussion, improvisation, and exploration of the spines of the characters had helped give the show a strong foundation” (Garebian 119). This demonstrates how , in addition to the creative
team collaborating with each other, this musical came together as a result of the creative team workin g with the performers. In further testimony of how performers influence not
only the staging and choreography but also the songs and book, Garebian reports that Sondheim learned from working with Robbins that songwriters should have a vision of the action that happens in the song, where the performer would stand, sit, or move while singing. Garebian emphasizes throughout the book how Robbins, Laurents, Bernstein and Sondheim worked together to collaborate during the course of creating the production. Songs were written, staged and discarded through this process. The collaboration involved the design team as well. For example, the back alley fire escapes helped create the songs and the dance for the balcony scene. The documentation of the staging of one of the most popular Broadway musicals shows how the collaboration is not just a coming
together of the director, composer, lyricist, and book writer. West Side Story was built

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through a process of all of them working not only closely with each other but also wi th
the cast and the design team. This is the same type of collaboration that happens in
devised theatre although devising deliberately includes everyone in the creative effort.
A Chorus Line : the Workshop Method and Autoethnography
When scholars discuss musical theatre in terms of devising they most often refer
to A Chorus Line (1975). It was the first time a Broadway musical was developed in a
series of workshops Off -Broadway. Up until that time musicals were typically developed
for Broadway and presented in preliminary performances outside of New York such as in Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston. The workshops of A Chorus Line are where the term
and method of workshopping originated. But most scholars of devising allude to this music al due to the fact that it used autoethnography in the creation of the script.
Ethnography is the descriptive study of human cultures consisting of fieldwork. Devising often uses ethnography to create a work and autoethnography is the systematic analysis
of personal experience to understand a particular aspect of culture. The autoethnography for A Chorus Line illustrates what the culture of Broadway musicals is for the chorus
members.
A Chorus Line started with a group of dancers looking for work. Tony Stev ens
and Michon Peacock were dancers who started a workshop in the hopes of creating a dance company for Broadway dancers that were out of work. Stevens and Peacock asked choreographer Michael Bennett to lend his name to the effort. He joined them in an evening of brainstorming to which Bennett brought a tape recorder and started things off by asking the participants to state their name and share a little about themselves.
19

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Their life stories are the basis of all songs and monologues. All dance steps were
created for the way they moved, or created by them. From the first tape session in
January 1974 until the morning of the first off -Broadway preview, April 16, 1975,
the dancers worked with the writers to shape the hours of tapes into a workable stage show. (Viagas 21)

Eight of the nineteen dancers who completed the roles in the musical attended the first
taping session. The first session focused on memories and impressions of childhood. Part of the first session was of course, talking about the need for jobs. So in the second session Bennett asked everyone to talk about how they became a dancer on Broadway and their experience of New York. New people came to the second session , which made some of
the original participants uncomfortable while also adding n ew insight. The song “Dance:
Ten; Looks: Three” was born from the second session when one of the dancers shared her experience of not getting cast even though her technique was impeccable. After the first two sessions there was a lull for months as most of the dancers worked on other projects.
What was started by Stevens and Peacock became a Bennett project from the very first
session. Bennett went on to tape dancers individually to gather more material. Eventually ,
he decided to gather dancer -actors for wo rk and had them perform for a limited audience
by invitation only.
This method wasn’t original; Lehman Engel conducted the Musical Theatre
Workshop under the auspices of Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) where he would meet weekly with performers. He wou ld assign a musical scene for the participants to
work on and then he would review the results and offer critique. This workshop was intended for performers to work on their technique rather than to create a production so what Bennett did with the workshop format was new. He approached Joseph Papp, the

67
founder of the New York Shakespeare Festival, who gave him rehearsal space at the
Public Theater and underwrote the work by paying the dancers. At that time it was loosely thought of as the “dancer project .” Now that Bennett had backing and dancers he
turned to Nicholas Dante as librettist, Marvin Hamlisch as composer, and Ed Kleban as lyricist. In a true form of devising , Bennett told dancers that “he didn’t know whether it
would be a book or a film or a play or maybe just that night” (Viagas 91). He had a vague
idea that it was a musical based on veteran Broadway dancers auditioning for a show.
Once Bennett and the creative team completed auditions for the characters , they
began workshops to develop the piec e. Bennett started with dance to percussion
accompaniment , then Hamlisch would play some music and improvisation would begin.
The form of the show had not been created at that point. As the ensemble worked on the various stories from individual dancers , there came a realization that interaction between
the characters was needed. The team developed three sets of characters in romantic
relationships to fill that need. “In the first workshop, the writers tried to develop two couples – one romantic, one comic – in traditional musical comedy style” (Viagas 110). In true musical fashion , the ensemble improvised, created dances, wrote songs and
discarded many that did not work, numbers that involved the chorus ended up being solos, and duets ended up using everyone . As the project gained momentum the question
of who had rights to what was written arose. If all the dancers who contributed were acknowledged as writers the cost of producing the musical would become astronomical. Dancers signed a contract giving them $1 and one percentage point for the right to their
stories. They signed it because they were afraid that if they refused Bennett would create the show without them and they would not be able to participate. After the first workshop

68
they had four hours of mat erial, the dancers had given away their rights as writers, and
Bennett hit them with asking them to consider what they would do if they could no longer
dance.
For the second workshop Bennett brought in another librettist, James Kirkwood.
Additional dancer s were added and some people left. In devising fashion, the performers
contributed more than just ideas and text from the taped interviews. As dancer Don Percassi states “They’d put us around the piano and they would tell each of us to sing something. It w as actually being created on us. Michael would unleash us and if he liked
it we could keep it in” (Viagas 177). Besides the ensemble , visitors came to the
workshops and offered advice such as choreographer -director Ron Field and others. One
of the songs be ing worked as a soloist with the chorus supporting changed when Lina
Klein, not part of the ensemble, suggested that the couple be the focus. That resulted in “Sing!” being rewritten as a duet. At the end of the second workshop the show was still
too long. Now they had to perform for the producer and possible donors and cut material more drastically. That is when Papp declined to continue producing the show and LuEsther Mertz gave a donation to keep the work going for another seven weeks. At this point , the cast was set and the writers asked the dancers to respond to Bennett’s fake
injury at the end of the first workshop. This led to the knee injury scene. Then they were asked to share how it felt to go through puberty and another interview session began. This session created the number “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love .” The ensemble
experimented with several finales including a huge number with grand pianos and another one that pulled someone from the audience to make a star. Since the show was about dancers auditioning for a part , Bennett would change who the lead character Zach,

69
would pick each night to keep the energy of expectation high. Bennett also brought in
script doctor Neil Simon to work on the script in this final series of rehearsals. The y did
not name the show until the very end when they opened A Chorus Line Off-Broadway at
the Newman Theatre on April 16, 1975. After the first week, Bennett finally decided who
should be chosen by Zach in the end for the chorus and that remained stable. A Chorus
Line took a year to create and opened to the public on May 21, 1975 and then ran until
July 13, 1975 Off -Broadway. Then the show moved to Broadway for previews on July 25
at the Shubert Theatre with the first six month’s run being October 1975 through April 1976. The importance of A Chorus Line for devising is that the use of autoethnography
and the workshop method demonstrates techniques that are used in devising. This particular musical is a clear example of devised theatre.
Modern Dance
In addit ion to experimental theatre and musical theatre , an important influence on
devising is modern dance. Devising history scholars Heddon and Milling mention briefly the Judson Church Dance and the work of Anna Halprin. Scholars most often mention Pina Bausch as an influential modern dancer in terms of experimental theatre. There are
many dance artists who influenced experimentation with movement and theatre that is evident in devised theatre. I explore the dancers I believe are most influential and my investig ation begins with Merce Cunningham (1919- 2009) and his partner John Cage
(1912- 1992). Cunningham started his dance career as a soloist with the Martha Graham
Company and stayed with her until 1945. He left to work as an independent choreographer with John Cage presenting his work at Bennington College in Vermont.
Cage was a composer and music theorist who became the most influential leader in post –

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war avant -garde. In the late 1940s Cage studied Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism
which led him to create the idea of aleatoric or music composed by chance elements. He
often used the I Ching as a tool for music composition. Cage was also influenced by Artaud and adhered to Artaud’s nonliterary theatre that involved the audience and the senses. At Black Mountain C ollege, Cage taught a class in 1952 and created an arts event
that scholars purport was the birthplace of Happenings. This event included musicians Cage and David Tudor, poets M.C. Richards and Charles Olson, dancer Merce Cunningham and painter Bob Rausche nberg. Together this ensemble read original poetry,
climbed ladders, played the piano and old records with Rauschenberg’s white paintings suspended above the audience while Cunningham danced in and around the audience. The audience was seated facing one an other in four triangular formations so that the
performance happened within and all around them.
20
While Cage determined that the common denominator between dance and music
was time, Cunningham experimented with structuring his dances by time lengths. Cunningham wanted to find purity in the movement. He came from modern dance that was structured around finding the meaning, the emotion, the passion in the movement. Martha Graham’s technique was built on her belief that everything, the essence of our beings c ame from our center, the core of our body. Graham technique teaches the use of
contraction and release as the center of movement. Likewise other modern dance
pioneers such as Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Doris Humphrey and José
Limón choreogr aphed dances that expressed meaning through emotion and story. This is
why Cunningham’s study to find dance for dance’s sake made such a huge impact on dance. He started his dance company in 1953, which included dancers Carolyn Brown,

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Viola Farber, Paul Ta ylor, and Remy Charlip with musicians John Cage and David
Tudor. As dancer Carolyn Brown describes her experience with Cunningham in the book
Chance and Circumstance , “His technique evolved out of his personal explorations in
determining the primary needs necessary to train the whole body so that it could be ready to move in the many ways possible to it, without adhering to any one rigid style” (Brown, Chance 31). Cunningham choreographed the combinations that were to be used in a piece
and at first worked with random order for the performance. This evolved into teaching all company members the combinations and selecting at random the order in which they would be performed and by whom. Dancers would consult a chart for the order and which combination they would perform right before stepping on stage. “There were no roles to play, no specified emotions to convey, no sensually gratifying movements, and no music to be in step with” (Brown, Chance 40). He collaborated with designers and composers with his idea of chance dance in that neither he nor his dancers would know
what the costumes, set design or music would be like until the performance. He would choreograph movement without knowing what the artists were creating for the piece. Sometimes this worked beauti fully and sometimes it failed. His company would often
receive mixed reactions to performances until his work eventually became accepted as avant -garde innovation. Cage and Cunningham were also some of the first artists to work
with mixed media and I comme nt on that in Chapter Three: the Digital Age.
Cunningham’s approach was not a true collaboration the way that devising is , but it led
the way for experimentation in movement and how a theatre performance could be created. His use of chance methods can be u tilized when creating a devised work and
deserve extended study in coursework on devising.

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Another dance artist that influenced devising is Anna Halprin (born in 1920). She
was one of the first dance artists to use a type of devising method in creating her dance
works. She broke away from traditional modern dance and created the San Francisco
Dancer’s Workshop in California in 1955. In an interview by dancer Yvonne Rainer, Halprin talks about how she was not sure what she wanted to do and created a workshop situation that would allow her to explore movement.
21 Her students were not necessarily
students but dancers who wanted to explore with her. “I wanted to explore in a particular
way, breaking down any preconceived notions I had about what dance was, or wha t
movement was, or what composition was” (Sandford 137). This is synchronous with
experimental or avant -garde theatre practitioners of the same period as well as with
choreographers such as Cunningham. She used improvisation in an effort to release express ion of the subconscious. Improvisation helped her dancers explore anatomical
structures, space and dynamics. Out of this work with physical improvisation they started using voice as an integral part of the movement, then “breathing became sound or some heightened feeling stimulated certain associative responses and a word came, or a sound,
or a shout” (Sandford 138). Grotowski started with acting and created physical and
breathing exercises for his actors and in the same vein, Halprin started with movement and created vocalization and breathing exercises for her dancers. True to devising Halprin did not consider herself as the choreographer, she felt that everyone contributed to the exploration and therefore the creation of the performance. In this way her d ancers created
works such as Trunk Dance and Four -Square , both in 1959. As with many devised works
her performances represented several years of investigation. Her use of vocalization and

73
words, props and objects as well as improvising with musicians is also similar to how
contemporary devised theatre is created.
Her dancers expanded their exploration to include environment and worked with
painters and other artists. Halprin refers to this as cross -fertilization where the musicians
and artists affected how the dancers moved and the dancers influenced the choices of the other artists. They realized that they were not playing characters; they were being themselves in these performances , which is something that often happens with devising.
Halprin also took her performances to spaces other than a concert stage and had the dancers perform all around the audience so the audience was a participant in the performance. This is similar to some of the notions of Artaud, Grotowski, Barba, the
Living Theatre and the Open Theatre. As the group explored the psychology of their approach to creating dance, Halprin was compared to the Stanislavski Method for acting as it was being taught in New York. Her reaction to being compared to Stanislavski was
similar to Grotowski’s when critics suggested he was influenced by Artaud, “I don’t know anything about it. I tried to read Stanislavsky but I don’t understand it. It doesn’t appeal to me” (Sandford 158). Halprin was exploring movement and nonverbal communication at the same time that Grotowski, Barba and American theatres were exploring new ways to work with plays and acting. They all had unique approaches and collectively created a new kind of theatre. One that p repared the way for the birth of
devised theatre.
Coupled with Cunningham and Halprin, a dance company during the sixties that
emphasized collaboration was the Judson Dance Theatre. This group was created when composer Robert Ellis Dunn (1928- 1996) organiz ed dance workshops that concluded

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with a concert held in 1962 at the Judson Church in Greenwich Village in New York
City.22 This collective sought to work democratically and inclusively for the next two
years. Rehearsals and concerts were open to all. Judson Dance included poets’ theater, ballets from James Waring, pop painters’ exhibitions and modern dancers. Included in this collective were dancers Judith Dunn, Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, Robert Morris, Lucinda Childs, Elaine Summers, Deborah Hay, Trisha Brown, Aileen Passloff, Alex Hay, Jill Johnston, James Waring, Fred Herko, Simone Forti, Bill Davis, Ruth Emerson, Richard Goldberg, David Gordon, Gretchen MacLane, John McDowell, Rudy Perez, Carol Scothorn, Jennifer Tipton, Robert Rauschenberg and Remy Charlip. Some of these
participants were artists working with other companies simultaneously while working
with the Judson Dance Theatre. The dances this group created often looked like exercises
and games combining pedestrian movement with dance. Pedestrian movement refers to
everyday movement such as walking, standing, and sitting. It is movement that ordinary
people use every day; movement that one does not have to be trained as a dancer in order
to execute it. This group was a mixture of dancers trained i n ballet and modern dance,
composers, and poets that experimented with the physicality of movement rather than creating roles. They worked together and individually to create group works and solos that were explorations into what could be considered theatr e.
Through chance, collage, free association, cooperative choice -making, slow
meditation, repetition, lists, handling objects, playing games, and solving tasks,
the dancers and the dances described a world: an innocent American dream pocked with intimatio ns of anxiety; a world of physicality, bold action, free
choice, plurality, democracy, spontaneity, imagination, love, and adventure. (Bane, Judson 206- 207).

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The significance of this group although short -lived (1962- 1964) was the impact their
experimentat ion had on modern dance and theatre. Individual artists who started here
continued to explore specific movement ideas that were found during the Judson Dance
years such as Steve Paxton and his contact improvisation, and Deborah Hay’s exploration of the jux taposition between pedestrian and formal movement. The Judson Dance Theatre
is an example of attempts by artists in the sixties to experiment with collaboration and democratic creation that is a forerunner of devised theatre. While there are additional dance artists that can be studied in reference to devised theatre, Cunningham, Halprin and
the Judson Dance Theatre most clearly show how the experimentation with movement affected avant -garde theatre and devising.
Conclusion
The history of devising is a com plicated tracery through theatre, music, dance and
art. It includes experimentation with the desire to escape the status quo. This chapter is not a conclusive or an exhaustive history on devising, rather my purpose was to touch upon the history that most s cholars agree upon with an in- depth investigation into a few
areas that are generally not dealt with in devising history books. In addition to Artaud, Grotowski and the experimental theatre of the sixties , I established how musical theatre
and dance contri buted to devising and in some cases can be considered forms of devised
theatre. Outlining the history gives us the basis for the devised theatre of today. Devising is multidisciplinary as it is inclusive of acting, design, movement, music, and art. The experimentation of the avant -garde led to this multidisciplinary model for devised theatre.
The momentum of change in the creation and the perception of theatre, musicals and

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dance give devised theatre artists the freedom to include any inspiration in their
performance and their art.

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Chapter Three: The Digital Age
How does the digital age affect our students and ourselves as we create and teach
live performance? Consider what is happening with technology today individuals can
video tape and record, manipulate photos and text, and post anything to the Internet
where it can be viewed, downloaded, edited, revised, and uploaded again. Anyone can
send voice, text, video, and photos to anyone else via the Internet or their cell phone. The
students of today have never lived in a time where none of this was available. These
students have grown up with vast amounts of televisual information available to them at all times. Several philosophers and theorists such as Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Lacan, Walter Benjamin, M ichel Foucault, Peggy Phelan, Philip Auslander, and Matthew
Causey have argued about the impact that technology has on our culture. One of the few comprehensive books on digital performance is Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation. It is the result of a major research project, The Digital Performance Archive that was conducted from 1999 to
2001. Steve Dixon and Barry Smith documented the developments in the creative use of digital media in the perfo rmance world with a grant from the Arts and Humanities
Research Council (UK). This book provides an expansive overview of digital performance and covers history, theory and practice in one volume.
23 In addition to using
material from this book in support of my investigation , I will use quotes from the
theorists mentioned above. One of the prominent theories in digital performance studies
is the theory of liveness and since my examination concerns teaching live performance
that is the theory I investigate fir st.

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Liveness
Performance and cultural studies scholar Phillip Auslander gives a historical view
of the cultural position of live performance in a digital world in the book Liveness :
performance in a mediatized culture . Auslander uses the term s mediatized a nd televisual
(from Jean Baudrillard) in his theorization of a culture that is permeated with technology.
He begins with his answer to a question posed for a conference as to whether theatre and the media are partners or rivals:
…at the level of cultural e conomy, theatre (and live performance generally) and
the mass media are rivals, not partners. Neither are they equal rivals: it is
absolutely clear that our current cultural formation is saturated with, and dominated by, mass media representations in gener al, and television in particular.
(Auslander, Liveness 1)

The point of view espoused by Herbert Blau, Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin, as
delineated by Auslander, is that media is in competition with live performance. This view is from the stance of the producer not the audience. W hen entities are measured by wealt h
to prove their level of influence and power , then rivalry between live performance and
the televisual is certainly true . However , in terms of cultural acceptance it appears that
media and live performance are partners. Today’s audiences enjoy both as separate and
simultaneous experiences.
As Auslander traces the history of liveness , he asserts that television started as a
replacement for theatre. As he states, “Television’s essence was seen in its ability to transmit e vents as they occur, not in a filmic capacity to record events for later viewing”
(Auslander, Liveness 12). Television’s place in our culture was one of liveness, reporting
live events as they occur whereas film was created as a separate entertainment. What has

79
happened to this idea that television replaces theatre? It seems they have merged to the
point where one includes the other. Auslander points to the fact that today digital media is included in live events such as sports venues and rock concerts. He goes on to say that the
audience has become so used to recorded music that concerts now not only mike the performers but also provide earphones for audience members.
24 Music artists now
recreate as closely as possible their music videos onstage when they perform live, the
video and recording coming before the concert whereas in the past the concert came first.
Auslander also indicates that theatrical performances are now being created for
television:
Some live performances, such as certain Broadway plays an d many sports events,
are now literally made for television: the live event itself is shaped to the demands
of mediatization. Others, like Madonna’s concerts and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast , recreate mediatized performances in a live setting. (Auslander, Liveness 1
st
ed. 158)

In addition, Auslander reviews the history of digitized media and he notes that sometimes
the media recreated the live form only to influence culture to the point that the live form
now recreates the digitized form. As he continues the exploration of liveness he also points to the definition of liveness and how it recogniz es its opposition. Before
technology , there was no definition of liveness because everything was live; without a
method for recording there was no opposition to liveness.
The question of liveness brings into play the debate of whether human interaction
is the basis of performance. Auslander elaborates on this theory in his article “Live from Cyberspace: Or, I was sitting at my computer this guy appeared he thought I was a bot.”
His position is that “A new technology has created a new crisis that may lead to a

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different understanding of liveness” (Auslander, Bot 17). In Chapter O ne of this
dissertation I mentioned Auslander’s argument that centers on chatterbots, computer
programs written to interact with humans without their knowledge. In other words , a
person may be chatting with computer software rather than another human being. Herbert Blau responded to Auslander’s article with, “But sometimes, too—it may be chaste ning
to remember —you may be conversing with a human being and feel the same way, as if
the person were programmed” (Blau 23). Then in the article “The Auslander Test: or, ‘Of Bots and Humans ,’” performance studies professor Kevin Brown continues the debate
over the ontology of performance and if performance is defined as a human endeavor. If two computer programs, bots, are conversing with each other, is that a performance? Can machines constitute an audience or must humans participate before the event is a
performance? This question asks where technology fits in our current society and my stance is that technology has integrated fully with presentation and performance. For the
audience, in particular our students, the question of human interaction does not matter. Consider how recorded media has now affected not only how sports events are
viewed but also how they are played. Today , a football game takes timeouts for television
commercials , whereas before television timeouts were only when the coaches requested
one. Also, in many sports , decisions are now made based on reviews of tape recordings
when the referees review the play to ensure the correct call was made. This happens in tennis, basketball and football. Many of us disagree with the inclusion of thi s technology
because we remember what the sport was like before recorded video , but for our students
this is normal and an integral part of the game.

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An additional example of how media has infiltrated performance is the fact that
almost all musical theatr e productions use microphones today. Directors used to evaluate
the strength of a singer’s voice by how well they could project across a large stage with
an enormous audience. As stages and seating capacity grew the front of the stage began to be miked, then hanging microphones were added until now every singer has a microphone attached to their head. The costume designers do not try to hide the headsets any longer. The audience has accepted the headsets on the performers as part of the production. I recall someone asking musical director Jim Miller why microphones were
being used in a theatre space small enough not to require them. His reply was that today’s audiences have lazy ears. We are used to hearing loud music through speakers so now the audience is trained to expect miked voices especially for singing. This is especially true for our students who have always listened to recorded music through speakers at home, on their computer, in their car, on their phone and their MP3 player. Again, for them this
is normal so of course performers of live theatre must wear microphones.
In continuing to ascertain how the digital age affects our culture , the question of
liveness includes a discussion on the value of live performance. Performance studies scholar Peggy Phelan has written extensively on live arts and the ontology of
performance. Auslander takes issue with her view that resistance to market value and commodification is the inherent value of live performance.
25 He postulates that in this
age there is not a dividing line between mediatized and live performance. In an interview with Marquard Smith in 2003, Phelan revisits her argument and comments on Auslander’s disagreement with her.
26 The point of her argument wa s that the live
performance is not the same as a recorded version and that she “was trying to notice

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where performance’s political power lies. It has to do with this critique of the
commodity” (Phelan, Live 295). She goes on to state, “For me, live perform ance remains
an interesting art form because it contains the possibility of both the actor and the spectator becoming transformed during the event’s unfolding” (Phelan, Live 295). She acknowledges that the audience can be transformed by watching film or vi deo, but that
their experience cannot alter what is on the televisual or the experience of the actors who created it. For her, live theatre allows the simultaneous exchange of catharsis where the experience of the participant influences that of the spectat or and vice versa.
On the other hand, Auslander grapples with whether the distinction between
liveness and the mediatized is necessary in the ontology of performance. His argument is that both influence each other to the point that they both must be recog nized. Dr. Kevin
Brown asserts that, “Auslander is at least half -wrong because, as of yet, he has failed to
address the issue of the ontology of the subject of the performance” (Brown, Bots 187-
188). In attending the discourse on the ontology of liveness , Dixon begins his coverage
with an examination of Walter Benjamin and his paper “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936). This paper was a reflection on photography and what it meant as reproduction. Dixon compares Benjamin’s paper to Roland Barthes’ Camera
Lucida (1980) stating that Barthes, “provides a more compelling and arguably ontologically advanced critique of the reproducible photographic image than Benjamin’s” (Dixon 118). Several scholars such as Auslander and Phelan refer to Benjamin and Barthes as foundations in their arguments on liveness as do many other scholars as well. Matthew Causey also comments on the theories of Auslander and Phelan and the difference between their arguments.
27 What remains a prime consideration in t his

83
continued debate on liveness is the impact on our culture as technology permeates our
lives.
Reproduction or S imulation
Philosopher Jean Baudrillard ponders in his book Simulacra and Simulation the
following:
By crossing into a space whose curvature i s no longer that of the real, not that of
truth, the era of simulation is inaugurated by a liquidation of all referentials –
worse: with their artificial resurrection in the systems of signs, a material more
malleable than meaning, in that it lends itself to all systems of equivalences, to all
binary oppositions, to all combinatory algebra. It is no longer a question of
imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real, that is to say of an oper ation of deterring every real
process via its operational double, a programmatic, metastable, perfectly descriptive machine that offers all the signs of the real and short -circuits all its
vicissitudes. (Baudrillard 2)

This question of what happens in an age of simulation is an appropriate addendum to the
discussion of liveness. The simulation can be manipulated in ways that the live or the truth cannot. When the simulation becomes indistinguishable from the original then a confusion of what is truth occur s. Baudrillard states, “Whereas representation attempts to
absorb simulation by interpreting it as a false representation, simulation envelops the
whole edifice of representation itself as a simulacrum” (Baudrillard 6). The digital age presents us with a plethora of simulations. At what point does the simulation replace the original or at what point does the simulation affect the original instead of vice versa? He further explains:
Such would be the successive phases of the image:
it is the reflection of a profound reality;
it masks and denatures a profound reality;

84
it masks the absence of a profound reality;
it has no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum.
(Baudrillard 6)

Simulacrum refers to a reproduction without an original. For example, a digital
photograph of a rose can be created from another photo or drawing or painting, bypassing
a reproduction of a living rose from which the other copies were made. Given some of the reality shows on television today the idea that represe ntation has become its own
simulacrum is paramount. How many in the audience believe that what is happening between the performers is real? Reality shows are created for entertainment. The participants are recreating a situation that is supposed to be live . The false representation
is that these shows are scripted or improvised within a scripted model with dramatic scenes created for effect. Baudrillard questioned the validity of cinema verité, specifically in the case of televising the Loud family as a sho w during the seventies.
28 As he says:
In the ‘verité’ experience it is not a question of secrecy or perversion, but of a sort
of frisson of the real, or of an aesthetics of the hyperreal, a frisson of vertiginous
and phony exactitude, a frisson of simultane ous distancing and magnification, or
distortion of scale, of an excessive transparency.” (Baudrillard 28)

Are reality shows popular because they have the ability to magnify what we experience in
our own lives to the point of entertainment? Reality televis ion shows allow us a distance
to observe and comment on what is representing a real situation. As Baudrillard says , it is
not a question of our innate voyeurism but our fascination with a distortion of reality. His definition of hyperreal is: “the generation by models of a real without origin or reality” (Baudrillard 1). The hyperreal is evident across a multitude of the televisual including television shows, video games and the Internet . Causey also reflects on this consideration

85
of simulation, “ The work of simulation, modeled as a masking of the real, has been well –
documented and appears daily in the relatively benign works of TV in reality
programming and confessional talk shows, abusive game shows and manipulative comedy setups, real -time broadcasting an d 24-hour news cycles" ( Causey 154) . Media is
constantly mutating the real into the hyperreal, simulation into simulacrum.
This is what is at stake in this digital age, particularly with our students for whom
the preponderance of technology is normal. Causey stipulates that, "Over the past twenty
years, mediated manipulations of the real have been too successful. Many of the w orld
spectators simply no longer believe what they see” (Causey 156). I disagree ; instead I
argue that the televisual impact is that we no longer ascertain what is real or simulated; all of it is real including the simulations, or if your view is cynical then none of it is real. For our students, what they see on television, film, and the Internet is real or it does not
matter, the real and the simulated blend to become one. Many of our students do not
differentiate between what is real or simulated because they see no value in doing so, there is no reason to differentiate. Incorporating the discussion of simulation and simulacra back into the debate on liveness , Dixon comments on how this fact of merging
has caused an ontological issue and suggests a phenom enological approach:
…a phenomenological examination of liveness may provide a more solid
foundation for unlocking its ontolology, and more tangible perspectives on the debate… in phenomenological terms, it must be agreed that liveness has more to do with time and ‘now -ness’ than with the corporeality or virtuality of subjects
being observed. (Dixon 127)

I think that ‘now -ness’ and time are still accessible for debate on liveness. I do not agree
that phenomenological terms answer the questions or solve t he dilemmas. Dixon goes on

86
to discuss breaking the frame and the problem of presence. Again, I do not think this
concludes the discussion. The state of mind of many today is that of acceptance where the reaction is, of course all this televisual material is real or not real, depending on the choice of the receiver. The impact that the televisual or live theatre makes is in the ‘eye of the beholder .’
Motion Capture
An additional consideration in exploring the impact of the televisual on our
pedagogy of live theatre is what happens with motion capture. In the article “The Ghost in the Machine” by Ann Dils she questions, “What is it that we value in a human image?” and “What is the impact of leaving the body behind?” (Dils 94). She specifically analyzes what Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar from the multimedia studio Riverbed discovered when they used motion capture with choreographers Bill T. Jones and Merce Cunningham in 1999. “In Biped , a 1999 work by Merce Cunningham, Kaiser and Eshkar
create a virtual environ ment for a community of dancers, an environment that includes
elegant, ephemeral virtual dancers performing movement derived from Cunningham dancers” ( Dils 94). In the Jones piece Ghostcatching, Riverbed uses motion capture to record Jones’ movement to animate virtual dancers as a portrait of Jones as a performer. Dils reports that this type of recording does more than capture abstract modern dance; it produces awareness of absence, of the missing physical element or ‘liveness .’ In her
words , “a sense of l oss that helps me appreciate the fullness of human motion and the
importance of physicality to our lives” (Dils 94). As she describes her experience of both these pieces , she remarks on the beauty of the dance including the virtual dancers.
However , the vi rtual images do not completely capture the physical dancers.

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But the virtual dancers, as portraits of the Cunningham dancers, only serve to
echo the perfection already achieved by the human dancers. Too, within this expanding world of technological wonder and possibility, the material body remains central to forming human relationships and community. (Dils 95)

When she discusses the Jones piece , she describes how difficult it was for Kaiser and
Eshkar to capture his motion. At one point he worked nude and the sensors attached to
his body kept coming off. She also points out that the motion capture image cannot portray the raw sensuality of Jones dancing. “There’s no sweat in Ghostcatching” (Dils 101). One of the more interesting aspects of the presentation of Ghostcatching was in the introductory exhibit that Dils experience d in the Cooper Union showing in 1999. That
exhibit displayed the process of creating the piece. Through several still images the audience sees Jones improvising movement, then how Jones is hooked up to the motion capture sensors, then the dots that represe nt the sensors on a biped figure. The images
progress to show a kinematic model of the body, hand- drawn lines modeled as
mathematical curves and finally a drawn body. When the projection begins a single figure in blue lines appears with additional figures seemingly emerging from the blue body in different colors. The movement of a stretched arm or a lunge is captured and conveyed but the effort that we see in live performance is lost.
Motion capture is a collaboration of sorts. The performer moves and the sensors
attached to her body relay the movement to the computer. It provides a three -dimensional
picture of the dance. However, the media artists must add their line drawings. This is how the viewer is able to see through the figures for a three- dimensiona l composite. Motion
capture cannot show the effort, the tension and relaxation of muscles, or changes in weight. Weight is one of the defining elements of modern dance. Many choreographers

88
experiment with weight and space in expressing our relationship to gravity. Motion
capture video cannot portray how weight and space change when bodies are in contact with each other or with objects. “Motion capture sensors record the motion of a finite number of points, not really the whole body, so some of the pliancy a nd articulateness of
the body is lost” (Dils 101). The idea of dance using virtual dancers and physical dancers interacting with virtual dancers was somewhat new in 1999. Today , video games
constantly show visual manikins , seemingly moving the same way hum ans move and the
audience accepts this as real enough. As the technology improves these images look more real such as the ones used in the 2009 movie Avatar . As generations become conditioned
to this partial reality what does live theatre mean to them?
Telematic Dance
Televisual dance collaborations have moved from simple motion capture to
complex explorations of media that bring new debates on the definition of virtual or digital dance much in the same way performance scholars’ debate liveness. The idea o f
telematic dance began in the sixties when Merce Cunningham experimented with sound,
video and dance in Variations V . In 1965 projections by Stan VanDerBeek and TV
distortions by Nam June Paik are overlaid on the dancers. Poles on the stage acted like antenna to produce sounds as dancers enter the space. The musicians determined the type
of sound, its length and possible repetition by using oscillators, short -wave radios and
tape recorders.
29 In the eighties , the filmic recording of dance grew to a sophisti cation
level that encouraged choreographers to document their work through film. Dance scholars also worked with software developers to create dance notation software such as Laban Writer and LifeForms. This new method of preservation allowed for additiona l

89
possibilities for analyzing past choreography and promoting new work. In the nineties ,
dance education began to address this use of film and computer technologies.
Performance artist Johannes Birringer reports that he, “had begun to direct workshops on performance technologies, incorporating new compositional ideas and instruments such as cameras, video -projectors, sensors, or computer software” (Birringer 84).
30 He
continues to demonstrate that the computer and the Internet provoked interdisciplinary
research in fields of not only film and digital arts but also fields such as medicine and
engineering on how the body works in the televisual or how the televisual expands the
body. As he states, “Working in the expanded tradition of site -specific works, conce ptual
art, and performance, we embraced the sense that performance is process, that it is collaborative, and that it does not rely on one specific technique or vocabulary” (Birringer 84). He is speaking specifically of dance , but this sentiment pertains to theatre,
art and music as well and promotes interdisciplinary work including devising. Just as choreography began to include light, video projection and electronic music, and expanded to included film editing, change also entered experimental theatre and music.
The debate continues with installation art ; are these complex interactive experiences
visual art, music, dance or theatre? As technology changes our perceptions and definitions of liveness, simulation,
boundaries and reality, performance encompass es and integrates new technologies.
Birringer asserts that “dance has taken the lead, among the theatrical arts, in absorbing technology as a creative tool, affording dancers and technologists the opportunity to explore interactive environments, virtual pl aces, and integrated methods that have shifted
artistic process” (Birringer 85). He describes what has happened at the Institute for

90
Studies in the Arts (ISA) at Arizona State University. They have created an “intelligent
stage ” that is wired for the Internet and transmission of streaming video. This stage also
has M usical Instrument Data Interface (MIDI) signals and features a design developed by
sound artist David Rokeby called the V ery N ervous S ystem (VNS). The VNS combines
video cameras, computer, synthesizer and an artificial perception system so that body
movements can be translated into sound, music or video in real time (Birringer 85). With this technology , dancers become sensors giving electronic feedback and responses to the
computer. The environme nt can also be networked and delays in the upload of digital
information change the choreography. As Brown postulated in his article on “Auslander’s Robot” this also changes the definition of performance and liveness. When humans are not involved at the moment of performance, is it performance? This leads to additional speculation on whether interactive art diminishes the role of the audience or eliminates the audience altogether. Interactive art blends the audience and participant into one role.
In this r elatively new use of technology with dance Birringer states, “Space is
dematerialized. Movement is captured, commuted, transferred, and reconfigured/rematerialized elsewhere” (Birringer 87). He uses the example of disc jockeys (DJs) who combine recorded music with electronic enhancements to create an energized atmosphere for the dancers. Programming interfaces between the computer and dancers becomes its own choreography. The use of videography and film has spurred choreographers to new perceptions of dance. The dancers also change their concept of movement when they work in these expanded environments. Not only do they deal with weight, tension, line and space, they also interact with computer interfaces that extend the lines and change the space. According to Birringer there are:

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… four types of environments evolving in dance: (1) interactive environments
(based on sensors and motion tracking); (2) immersive environments (virtual reality -based, such as the CAVE, or panoramic installations that integrate bod y
and vision into the polysensual illusion of moving through space); (3) networked environments (telepresence, video -conferencing, and telerobotics, allowing users
to experience a dispersed body and to interact with traces of other remote bodies, avatars, and prostheses); and, (4) derived environments (motion- capture- based
reanimations of bodily movement or liquid architecture, which can also be networked and reintroduced into live telepresence or telerobotic operations and communications between remote sites). (Birringer 88 -89)

With the ability to mix all these environments we are faced with the questionable
definition of reality. Now it is possible to dance with a partner across distances virtually just as it is possible to dance with partners created by the computer or ghost images. The choreographer changes as the software developer or the interface technician becomes an integral part of the editing of the dance. In fact, our perception of dance changes as dances are created for the Internet , not to be e xperienced in a live situation such as
Richard Lord’s work created in 1996. As Birringer reports, the dance was activated
through browsing and point -and-click interaction with QuickTime movies.
31 For those of
us old enough to remember when this technology did not exist there may be the crisis of definition to which Auslander refers ; however , for the generations that perceive all of
televisual interconnectivity as normal there is no crisis, it simply is and as educators we
must decide how our approach to the pedagogy of live theatre works within this concept.
Theatre and Performance Art
Many of the books I have referred to mention several theatre companies and
performance artists in terms of how they use technology. Reviewing what is happening
currently aides the professor in ascertaining where live theatre fits in our students’
culture. In a historical perspective , one of the more well -known performance artists is

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Laurie Anderson. It is fascinating that Laurie Anderson discounts the role of technology
in her works and claims to be only a storyteller.32 Technology is an integral component
of her performance in Stories from the Nerve Bible . She uses screens, recordings, voice
modulators and more in her performance. The impact that she makes would not be possible without the technology that she uses. She claims that her performances are not about the technology and that the technology is simply an aid with which to tell her story. She may believe that , but without the technology her story is like anyone else’s and
perhaps would not be heard. Her Stories from the Nerve Bible would be valid and heard
in a small setting without the technology but would not be as widespread and significant. She would not be afforded the popularity and the large concert arenas to perform her works without the technology that she uses. It is not entirely evident that her message or story would come across without the use of technology. The audience considers her personal political statement because she presents it with technology. The non -linear
structure of her piece would not be as accessible without the technology; the structure of Anderson’s work would simply be confusing and lose its shape. Technology is an integral part of Anderson’s work Stories from the Nerve Bible. The technology that she uses
allows the audience to forgive the non- linear structure and accept her political statement
on contemporary society.
Performance art has expanded since Anderson’s first prese ntations. Dixon
provides a concise summary:
Performance artist Stelarc wired his body up to the Internet and was thrown
around like a rag doll by audience members in other countries who manipulated
him using touchscreen computers… Guillermo Gómez -Peña vici ously satirized
cyborgic visions, while Eduardo Kac implanted his own body with computer

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chips and created art and performance at the frontiers of science and organic life.
(Dixon 2)

Experimentation with how to incorporate technology into artistic express ion continues to
evolve and expand. Theatre companies that incorporate technology into their
performances include Blast Theory, Forced Entertainment, Gob Squad, Dumb Type, and the Builders Association. The work of these groups includes video projection dur ing a
performance to creating a work as an interactive Web experience. In terms of history and
broadening our students’ awareness it is important to mention these artists and how their art is developed. There is much to consider when examining performance art in the
digital age as evidenced by the sections in Dixon’s book: virtual reality, telematics, webcams, virtual bodies, the digital double, robots, cyborgs, online performance and theatre in cyberspace. One of the more intriguing perspectives is interactive theatre. Several theatre groups that use digital media have experimented with the use of
combining video games with live scavenger hunts with a distortion of reality. Dixon describes a more recent work by Blast Theory, Uncle Roy All Around You (2004). The
participant enters an art gallery and is directed to play an online game. It is a virtual world that recreates Manchester and gives the players clues for the journey to be taken in the streets. Then the participant goes to a room and is given instruct ions on how to play
the game outside. Players take a portable computer with them and follow clues including text messages to navigate the streets. At specific destinations the player registers to receive new clues. Actors are located at different places th at interact with participants.
Sometimes participants do not know if a person is an actor or not and if an event (the car

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alarm going off) is part of the piece or coincidence. This scenario is described in detail in
Dixon’s book as part of the conclusion ( Dixon 663 – 669).
This type of interaction has a similar intent to role -playing games (RPGs) and live
action role -playing games (LARPs). RPGs are video games that have players assume the
roles of characters in a fantasy setting. There are rules for decisi on making and players
often create complex characters by describing their attributes, their abilities, their weapons, etc etera. There is usually a game master that monitors the interactions to ensure
that the rules are being followed. Players log on and pl ay together by typing narratives as
they play. In LARPs players gather together physically, often in costume and play their roles much like improvisational theatre following the same rules as in the RPG. This is the type of televisual permeation with which our students are comfortable. It stands to
reason that they may find interactive theatre such as Blast Theory’s performances an intriguing form of entertainment. Introducing live theatre to them particularly in an
environment where they participate such a s in devising opens their perspective and
expands their experience beyond what the y accept from the current cyberculture. I have
presented some of the digital age performance that our students may be familiar with and technology that may be incorporated into performance. I think it is equally important to briefly touch on the digital age from the technology side of the discussion.
The Digital Side
Dixon mentions how Brenda Laurel specifically defined Computers as Theatre in
her book of the same name written in 1991.33 He states that, “Laurel is now regarded as a
seminal figure whose book foresaw and lay important theoretical foundations for the recent, rapid development of theatrical endeavours utilizing computer technologies”

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(Dixon 171). He goes on to state that Laurel uses Aristotle’s Poetics to illustrate how the
shared elements of role -play and interaction join theatrical performance with computer
interfaces. Her comparisons are exhaustive, equating computer programs to scripts and
the teams of designers and programmers to theatrical teams of creative, technical and performing roles. She laid the groundwork for the comparison of theatre to computer programming as Dixon states, “Laurel thus provides a framework from dra matic theory
that can be applied to designing human- computer experiences, advocating the adoption of
theatrical modes and models that are ‘familiar, comprehensible, and evocative’” (Dixon 172). As Laurel advocated computer programmers design human interfac es that consider
how the activity is perceived by the users, performers interested in combining digital interface with live performance need to contemplate the same implications. How will the audience receive the performance? They may need to be educated o n how to view a
combined digital theatre piece in order to enjoy it.
It is important to note that when a new technology is created, for example new
software, the user or artist who wants to experiment with it must learn the software. It is often complicate d, forcing the artist to become a technician or a computer programmer.
As software becomes more sophisticated and is programmed with a certain amount of Artificial Intelligence (AI) then the user does not need to understand the technical aspects
in order t o use it. AI anticipates how the user wants to work with the technology and
adjusts according to the choices made by the user. Technology evolves through this dialogue between programmer and user. The use of technology allows people without technical exper tise to use the equipment and push its use to new limits through artistic
exploration.

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Conclusion
What is the impact of the digital age on our culture? The infusion of digitized
media into live performance is accepted by today’s audiences as improvement an d
enhancement. This fact is considered insignificant and unsubstantial by today’s
generations. There are purists who decry the amalgamation of digital media and live performance but society as a whole, particularly the younger generations, accepts it whole heartedly. As continuing generations accept this infusion of technology without
question, then where are lines drawn and are the lines important? The debate seems to dissolve into political stances on cultural interpretation. Who is in control?
The 2002 Performance Arts Journal article “Enemy of Nostalgia: Victim of the
Present, Critic of the Future” is an excellent example of analyzing where digital media takes culture and by extrapolation how it influences performing arts. This article is the transcript of an interview of Peter Lunenfeld by Geert Lovink. Lunenfeld is the author of
Snap to Grid: A User’s Guide to Digital Arts, Media and Culture (S2G), professor in the
Design and Media Arts department at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), and the creator and editorial director of the Mediawork project.
34 Geert Lovink
is a professor of Media at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, the European Graduate School and the University of Amsterdam. He is a media theorist and Internet critic. The
vast compl ications that envelop our society in the digital age are what this interview
explores. Lunenfeld states:
S2G offers a way to think about culture in general after the wide spread of
information technologies. It strikes me that we are all forced to engage with vastly broader ranges of reference than ever before, and that part of what we expect from the next generation of digital appliances is precisely the tools and methodologies to help us render meaning from the flux of information. (Lovink 6)

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This is a point that is continually being made in the world of Information Technology.
Now that we have this preponderance of information, of what use is it? Promoters of the collection of data continue to shout about how wonderful it is to gather to the last minutia information regarding everything from consumerism to political agendas. However our society has hit a conundrum of what to do with it now that we have it all. Storage is an increasing problem and the fact that once an item is placed on the Internet it exis ts
forever, somewhere, is something that the majority of individuals have difficulty comprehending. The general consensus is that more technology will solve these obstacles. Phelan reiterates, “The new technologies promise new languages, new art forms, new ways to transmit goods, information, and money. But the promised things, we
do well to remember, are incidental to the structure of address that promises employ” (Phelan, Heaven 27). As she compares the discourse of technology to Shakespeare’s
Miranda she reminds us that what has changed is our gaze. I think we need to make a
conscious effort to change the gaze, change our perception of art and what it means in the digital age. Some of the dance artists I mentioned earlier in the chapter refer to creating a
new aesthetic. As professors we have to keep up with the implications these changes have for our students.
In continuation with the discussion of change, Lunenfeld explains how our culture
is changing in terms of economy due to shifting technology. He i ndicates that there is a
protest against globalization that symbolizes the need to acknowledge the limitations “while at the same time encouraging hope for the future” (Lovink 12). In this light he applauds a proposal by Rana Dasgupta “to develop a public domain audit” as an alternate

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category of economic measure to the gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national
product (GNP). It is this type of awareness of how technology pervades every aspect of our society that is important. In answering a question about criticism he suggests “it’s up to the individual user to craft his or her own frameworks. Part of the job of the critic is to offer models for this process” (Lovink 13). Lovink asked Lunenfeld about the emergence of SoftTheory in Southern California:
SoftTheory attempts to build a methodology that critiques and explicates the
present and grounds its insights in the limitations as well as the potentials of these technologies… It engages with popular culture in all its forms, but does not attempt to be come popular culture. It builds a fluid discourse about visual culture
that is broad but rigorous, that has shared concerns but no totalitarian central meta -discourse… We are not deluded into thinking that nineteenth- century
analyses of industrial capitalism are sufficiently supple to engage with the post –
industrial, interconnected world. (Lovink 14).

I think he makes an important point that as we grapple with the new technologies and
their impact we have to be aware of our current limitations in understan ding, critique and
analyses. This illuminates the potential for incomprehension between the generation gap of professors and students and affects how we teach live performance with an awareness of our digital age.
During this interview , one of the things that Lunenfeld emphasizes is that in order
to prevent the continuous recreation of past mistakes students need to study the history of digital media. I agree, as someone who has had a full career in Information Technology , I
see too many of the same mistak es repeated in an unending reinvention of the same
wheel. Mistakes in Web design, best practices in computer programming, ignorance or
refusal to follow known project management practices, and the ignorance of the workings

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or the perception of the Internet are a waste of time, talent and energy. It is important to
ground our students in history so they can begin with the current state and move forward.
Lunenfeld describes his approach:
In the end, what I try to do in my classes, in writings like S2G , and t hrough public
discourses like mediawork, is to combine the object – and artist -specific discourses
we inherit from the criticism and history of art with the more systemic analyses
that developed in the study of media like film and television. (Lovink 15)

This extends to performance theory and critique, in light of our rapidly changing
technologies and the rate that they are absorbed into our culture, our way of viewing has
to change to encompass everything. We also have to be ready to change our gaze meanin g our perception and reaction to new technologies as swiftly as the technologies
themselves appear.

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Chapter Four: Devising Practice and Pedagogy

“There’s no joy like the joy of a soul coming in” (Kidjo).
I started teaching dance when I was a teenager. I taught beginning jazz and ballet.
As I pursued my dance career I taught various levels of ballet, tap, jazz and modern dance
for pre -school students through professional dancers. I love teaching and when I decided
to leave my career in Informat ion Technology I chose to pursue teaching theatre and
dance in higher education. My graduate studies in theatre introduced me to performance
studies and devised theatre. As I learned more about devising I realized that I had been devising throughout my car eer.
Heddon and Milling state an important point, “ To begin with nomenclature,
British and Australian companies tend to use ‘ devising ’ to describe their practice,
whereas in the USA the synonymous activity is referred to most often as ‘ collaborative
creati on’” (Heddon 2006, 2) . It is curious that the USA has not claimed the word devising
until recently. It seems that some USA directors, theatres and scholars have been using
the same techniques that are used in the UK, Canada, Australia and Europe , but use t he
term creative collaboration rather than devising. Recently , American academia has
become interested in devising and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) included a category for devising starting in their competition in 2011. Man y colleges include a devising course under the name of collaborative creation,
actor artist aesthetic, or creative drama. Some colleges include devising work in their acting programs or performance studies programs; some place it under community based theatre, social justice drama, solo performances, oral interpretation or adaptation.

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Devising under the name of creative drama is most often included under a teaching
certification program with the emphasis placed on teaching youths. The Dell’Arte Internationa l School of Physical Theatre offers an MFA in Ensemble Based Physical
Theatre that teaches performers how to work in a devising process. Many MFA programs for acting include some work in devising , but, to my knowledge there is no MFA in
devising in the USA . This chapter will focus on current practices in devising by
professional theatre in the USA and then will describe current pedagogical methods of devising by first discussing multicultural approach and then describing classes by four different professors , including myself.

Practice
In Mike Bradwell’s book Inventing the Truth, he writes about how he approaches
devising and gives an example of the devised script A Bed of Roses .35 He reaffirms what
many have said about devising, “It is equally true that eve ry time I have devised a play
for stage or television my working method has changed depending on the project, the
actors, the time available for rehearsals and the nature of the story I find myself telling”
(Bradwell 1). He goes on to describe improvised p lays starting with a theme he wants to
explore or a play where he lets the creative work of the ensemble decide the theme. One of his techniques uses the exploration of characters. “Before rehearsals start I ask the actors to come up with a list of people they know or that they have met, who they may be interested in playing” (Bradwell 4). He works with each act or individually and in secrecy;
each actor only knows his own character, as a group they don’t know what directive he
has given to others. He maintains secrecy so that when the characters interact in an

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improvisation they have honest reactions without preplanned responses. This allows for
the spontaneity to lead the improvisation and become an exploration from which a script can be derived. He uses vi sualization and character exercises that actors often use such as
improvisation in character, creating a life timeline for the character, storytelling by the character, and research on the background of the character. The actor creates the character as the improvisations occur and “the secret for the actor is just to let things happen and resist the temptation to be interesting, impressive or entertaining” (Bradwell 8). Bradwell uses the preliminary improvisations between the characters the actors created t o give an indication of how the story will evolve for the play. In Bed of Roses , he
ended up with three couples whose relationships were changing. He takes notes during the improvisations and then writes a structural outline of what might happen in the scenes.
Rehearsals become structured improvisations , and the final process is to rehearse
the scenes as one would with a conventional script. He sums up his process by describing a twelve- step plan and stating the rules of the game. He includes the script A Bed of
Roses , the devised work for which he is listed as the author so the reader can view the
result of his process . Bradwell uses the same character building techniques with actors in
a devised piece as he does when working with actors in a conventional play. He uses the
improvisations for scenarios outside of the written play so the actors can fully understand their character and the relationships in the play. In his book, Bradwell also describes the
process that he used for directing the conventional script When You Cure Me by Jack
Thorne. H e includes the script as the last chapter in the book and this allows the reader to
compare the devised work with a conventional script . He concludes with a statement

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about theatr e creating an enriching experience, “I think that working through truth and
character is the best way to make this happen. I also believe in having fun” (Bradwell
135). I mentioned that Jacques Lecoq also believed that having fun was an essential part of theatre in C hapter T wo. There are many artists that currently work in devised theatre
besides directors like Eugenio Barba (discussed in C hapter T wo) and Mike Bradwell. In
March 2005 Theatre Topics devoted the entire journal publication to devising and divi ded
the subject areas into Community, Creating Culture/Space, and Collaboration. Many artist- scholars contributed to this journal including Mary Zimmerman, James Slowiak,
Virginie Magnat, Joan Schirle and Leon Ingulsrud. I included many of the articles in Chapter O ne and here I include the ones that describe current practices to contextualize
the field .
One of the American companies that use a devising process is the Dell’Arte
International School of Physical Theatre located in Blue Lake, California. “The mission
of Dell’Arte International is to employ and revitalize traditional physical theatre forms to
explore contemporary concerns” (Lewis 254). Founded in 1971 by Carlo Mazzone –
Clementi and Jane Hill, this company now produces ten new original works, trai ns
students in their varied programs which include an MFA, tour throughout the US, Europe and South American, and every summer host its Mad River Festival to showcase ensemble performers from around the world.
Carlo Mazzone -Clementi helped reinvent the It alian theatre, com media, and mask
work after World War II (WWII). Having worked with Jacques Lecoq, Marcel Marceau, and Jean -Louis Barrault he came to the US to teach Sartori’s mask work.
36 In the same
Theatre Topics issue , Joan Schirle contributes an artic le about Dell’Arte titled, “Potholes

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in the Road to Devising .” Schirle is the director of the Dell’Arte International School and
founding artistic director of the Dell’Arte Company. She has been one of the principle
collaborators and performers since 1976 and she created the MFA in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre. As she says, “Every artistic process involves difficulty and risk, and devising has its own set of challenges” (Schirle 91). She asserts that the group must establish basic guidelines when beginni ng a project. She specifically suggests a credo and
describes how in one process the group turned to a family counselor to develop “rules of civility” (Schirle 92). The rules included agreements to show respect, support each other, discuss changes with the original collaborator, criticize by asking questions rather than
relaying orders, and realize they need each other. These types of agreements help the group set a balance between artistic egos, passion for the work and a collaborative spirit.
The balance between creative passion and destruction is a tricky one. Schirle
points out that she had been devising under other designations such a collaborative
creation and ensemble- created pieces for years, something that many of us in the USA
are discovering. She states, “The Dell’Arte Company is an artist- managed, actor -centered
company in which eighty percent of the work is devised. We devise in collaboration with directors and designers, some of whom are also actors and musicians” (Schirle 93). They have used ma ny different approaches to their work including slapstick, lyric drama, and
adaptation which has given them plot driven, image driven and movement driven pieces.
She describes it as “The majority of Dell’Arte Company works are physical theatre plays with text, envisioned as pieces of physical theatre from the outset” (Shirle 93). She describes the use of paper walls in this article , where the group puts long sheets of paper
on the wall with labels such as theme, scenes, characters, etc. As they worked thro ugh the

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process ideas from images, issues, places or anything a participant offered , would be
placed on the appropriate paper. This helped them identify the intent of the piece. In one
of their pieces , Slapstick , they placed every slapstick routine they could remember on the
paper walls ;
As we devised characters and explored these routines —many of which involved
hitting and slapping —a new theme emerged through the slapstick: family
violence. The result was a decision to change our intent because a deeper, more
provocative theme had surfaced: how circles of violence are passed from one
generation to another within families, and how might those circles of violence be broken? (Schirle 94- 95)

This is an example of how working through the process may change the original idea for
the piece or help solidify an idea for a piece.
Schirle illustrates how sometimes the process is the reward when the finished
piece does not quite gel in a performance ready piece. She describes the work they did on
the idea of creation myths. They included myths from the Karuk Indians, the Hmong
refugees and the Judeo -Christian stories. They researched world mythology, interviewed
shamans and visited sacred sites. Original Instructions was the name of the final piece
and time constraints inhibited rehearsals for a finished project. They decided it should not become a touring piece and disagreed on what reworking would create a coherent work. She remembers that the process was one of the most memorable that deepened the ties to their local community. This exploration of culture and creating ties to the community supports the multicultural approach to pedagogy that is needed in higher education to create citizens who work well in a plurali stic society. Schirle believes that the ensemble
is the way that nurtures the devising process. “It is in ensembles that commitment to

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group effort/group genius creates the support/time needed to develop a voice/identity as
devisers” (Schirle 96). She indicates that the American obsession with copyright and union rules inhibits groups from labeling a work as “created by the ensemble .” That is
something that seems evident in the way musicals are created as I discussed in C hapter
Two. I will evaluate this pr oblem with authorship later in this chapter. The Dell’Arte
Company is part of a larger community that includes the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre and I will diverge into pedagogy here to show the connection between practice and pedagogy .
Peter Buckley describes the work of the company in one of the articles in the
Theatre Topics special issue, “Creativity and the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.” Buckley served as the school director for Dell’Arte from 1991 -1997
and de scribes how they approach devising in five steps: defining parameters, clarifying
the agreements, exploring the creative options, rigid flexibility and good will, and
opening up (Buckley 42- 47). Buckley reiterates what Shirle says about starting with basic
guidelines. In the first step the students must define the parameters and make a list of what they know about the assignment. Their performance lab closely resembles Lecoq’s autocours , where students are given an assignment at the beginning of the week to
perform for the class at the end of the week. The second step is clarification and students agree what the creative process will be for the assignment. “The challenge here is to make as few assumptions as humanly possible” (Buckley 42). Out of the simple questions of what, when, and how, how is the most important. Since the creative process can take many different approaches , it is important for the group to agree how they will work.

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Buckley recommends that consensus be taken in small doses, it is fundame ntal to
include everyone but if the group waits until everyone in the group to agree on every step
they may get stuck. “The important thing is to move into the work and keep the creative process moving” (Buckley 44). I like the way Buckley points out that there will be conflict in this type of work, so the group must have a method for moving through disagreement. In the third step of exploring creative options the group needs to listen and entertain all possibilities. He recommends allowing for the first se ssion to encompass
brainstorming. The key to successful brainstorming is to allow everyone to speak and be free to throw in anything that occurs to them. I admonish my students to make sure they do not censure anyone or any idea no matter how goofy it might seem; I did the same thing when I led executives or software developers through a brainstorming session. For
example, I would be asked to work with executives to solve a management problem. The first step is to gather the executives for whom it is important to solve the problem (those
who have a stake in the outcome) to clearly identify the problem. This can be a brainstorming session in itself, where people approach the subject from varied viewpoints. I write the various views on a whiteboard or display the results on a screen. Then I use a spider diagram to get them to think outside of the problem area. Throughout the process I chide that there is n o censure, including self -censure. Too many times
people self -censure thinking “that’s stupid” or “how sill y” and they have to be
encouraged to offer anything that comes to mind. Buckley states that step four concerns
rigid flexibility and good will. “What it means is that you roll with the punches” (Buckley 45). He alludes to Steven Covey’s book The Seven Habi ts of Highly Effective People
where Covey tells readers to be proactive and build trust and credibility. All of the first

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four steps that Buckley outlines lead to the fifth step of opening up. This is often the most
difficult for performing initiates, letting go. As Buckley states, “We can only see so much, understand so much. At a certain point, we have to let go, to give ourselves over… leap into the unknown” (Buckley 47). I talk about this in my own classes, especially introductory classes, that the most difficult step is to conquer that fear of doing something
new, of messing up, of not being accepted and burst into the unknown. Invariably , the
participant determines that discovery trumps temporary failure every time.
Another American based theatre grou p that uses devising is Goat Island , based in
Chicago. This group was founded in 1987 to produce collaborative performance works developed by its members. They toured mainland Europe , the UK , as well as the US and
ended with final performance of The Lastmaker in 2009. Ferdinand Lewis describes how
the Goats, as they are known, talk about lack of authorship in his introduction to their script It’s an Earthquake in My Heart that is included in the book Ensemble Works . Just
as Schirle commented on authorship, the Goats also aggressively attack cultural assumptions about sole authorship and the role of the performer with the audience (Lewis 258). He quotes from a paper delivered by the group to the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) conference in 2000. “Divisions between individuals and ideas of authorship are blurred. Through this we see that the creative material connects to others, and is completed by them” (Lewis 258). Their projects take about two years to complete. “They tell us that explori ng ‘the moment when things fall apart’ ultimately
brings us to the point ‘where ownership counts least and collaboration counts most’” (Lewis 259). Their generosity in the collaborative effort continues in the author notes to the piece Earthquake . “Please use the Authors’ Guide and The Process to attempt a re –

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creation of the performance itself, or to attempt a re- creation of aspects of the process.
Either approach, we expect, will result in the creation of a new work, one you may call
your own” (Lewis 262). As they continue to describe their process in the Authors’ Guide ,
they describe how they believe their process is a “series of directives and responses” where they start with a phrase, sentence, question, image or task from one member and the rest of the group responds. “While many responses take entirely imaginative forms,
others involve extensive research” (Lewis 262). The collaborators respond with presentations, sometimes as individuals or as groups to perform. Then they combine the material or submit new material or produce more directives. As they work they arrive at a point where they ask what the intent of the piece is and they begin working toward small deadlines like work- in-progress presentations. O ne of the key notes they make in these
guideline s is “We do not understand everything in it” (Lewis 263). I believe they are
more comfortable with not knowing everything about the piece due to their background
as dancers. Dance artists often believe they do not ‘know’ the meaning of a piece but they ‘feel’ the connection the piece has with the audience. I presented that thought to my
students when we worked on Giving Voice , that perhaps it is not necessary for the
audience to completely understand the work either. The audience will arrive at their own conclusions which may be very different from the groups’ original intent. This leads to
the thought that in multicultural pedagogy part of the raison d’être is to instill a sense of social justice for inclusion in a global society.
There are several devising companies based in the USA that are concerned with
community and social justice , similar to the UK based Fringe Benefits Theatre (UK) I

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mentioned in Chapter One. One of them is The Carpet Bag Theatre (CBT).37 They were
founded in 1969 and call themselves:
… a professional, multigenerational ensemble company dedicated to the
production of new works. Its mission is to give artistic voice to the issues and
dreams of people who have been silenced by racism, classism, sexism, ageism,
homophobia and other forms of oppression. CBT serves communities by
returning their stories to them with honesty, dignity and concern for the aesthetic of that particular community, helping culturally specific communities re -define
how they organize. (Lewis 217)

This group examines community issues such as civil rights, domestic violence, feminism
and capital punishment. They are close to their community in Knoxville, Tennessee. The
play Nothin’Nice (1998) was created through community workshops and is based on
ethnography. The play uses stories collected during a multi- year AmeriCorps project
(Lewis 174). This play gives authorship to the artistic director Linda Parris -Bailey and
was developed by the ensemble in collaboration with community partners. The play
examines environmental racism and poverty in inner -city New Orleans. “The final scene
plays like a call to action, and the house lights come up to rousing music” (Lewis 172). Additional community based ensemble theatres in the USA besides Dell’Arte, Goat Island and The Carpetbag Theatre include The Bloomsberg Theatre Ensemble, Junebug
Productions, Pregones Theater, Roadside Theater, Touchstone Theatre and the Traveling
Jewish Theatre. A ll are included in the anthology Ensemble Works (2005) edited by
Ferdinand Lewis. In his introduction to Touchstone Theatre, Lewis discusses the
responsibility of community -based theatre as well as the critiques of such works. “If
theater about the community has a responsibility to anticipate its political implications, then criticism of such work i s responsible for anticipating the subtleties and complexities

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implied by such ambitions projects” (Lewis 141). Works with political themes are
controversial and the ensemble does have a responsibility to anticipate the effects of presenting that type of w ork. In an effort to create workers who thrive in a pluralistic
setting it is important that we offer opportunities such as the ones professional ensemble theatre present in community -based work. The play Nothin’ Nice includes music and
invites the audienc e to sing with the cast as a method for involving the audience in the
spirit of the play. Music is often included in devised theatre , and I want to explore how
contemporary musicals are being created today to examine if the workshop method is in fact a for m of devising. The purpose of this investigation is to provide additional
methodology for the creation of coursework in devising.
Musical Theatre
As I stated in Chapter Two on the history of devising there are many books that
allude to the collaborative na ture of creating musicals but they don’t describe how the
collaboration works or the workshop method of mounting a musical. I proposed my theory that the workshop method is a form of devising to Professor Kaitlin Hopkins, head of the musical theatre program at Texas State University. She thought that would be an interesting conversation and allowed me to interview her. In her experience the majority of workshops continue to develop a work that is already written or partially written. Workshops rarely includ e the type of devising where actors contribute to the creation of
the script. “They are using the actors to try the material that they have, rework it, change it, maybe trash a song or add a new song because one doesn’t work” (Hopkins interview). According to Hopkins , workshops are conducted in many different ways . In some cases
the creative team has a read through of the first act with music and song, or they have a

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few songs written and want to hear those, or they have the entire show written.
Sometimes they might want to simply hear the libretto or just the music from the first act with a couple of songs from the second act. “There are any number of various things they might do under that workshop umbrella but they’re not actually creating the material” (Hopkins interview). In these workshops , many people give the writers notes such as
directors, dramaturgs and choreographers. For example, the choreographer might suggest that a sixteen -bar dance break needs to be incorporated into a song or a production
number is needed between two songs.
Hopkins also notes that there is a type of workshop where directors are devising
the piece on the dancers. In her experience, that happens with a dance based musical such as Contact or Movin’ Out . Her definition of workshop is when the show has been written
and the workshop is used to develop the material further. She said that there were companies who use their ensemble to create original works by using improvisation but
that she doesn’t consider that a workshop met hod. In her experience , musicals are not
created through a devising method. The workshop method is certainly collaborative but not devising where the performers are contributing to the written material. As an example she spoke about her experience with the musical Bat Boy: The Musical .
38 The creative
team , along with Hopkins and Deven May , worked on the development of the musical at
the Actors’ Gang Theatre in Los Angeles. It was originally a play that the writers turned into a musical. She attributes all th e writing and the ideas to the writers. Her work as an
actor contributed to the work as staging developed during rehearsals. For example , there
was a sequence where her character, Meredith , teaches Bat Boy how to speak. According
to Hopkins , the script onl y said something like Meredith teaches Bat Boy how to speak

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through a series of grunts. So Hopkins and May improvised the scene until they had a
beginning, middle and end, even though they were still improvising. Ultimately , when the
script was printed the creative team called them and asked what they said during that
scene. May and Hopkins gave the writers everything they had done and the writers chose what to keep in the written script. By the time the show went to New York , several,
maybe fourteen songs, were cut and replaced with new songs. Hopkins and May continued to work with the show through its Off -Broadway debut. Another example of
collaboration was with her solo at the end of Act One. She felt that it should be in the second act and that it really should not be a solo. They put the song in the second act and
ultimately wrote her a different solo. “The day before the composer wrote it he said, what do you think it is? And I said it’s her version of ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’. He wrote it and the next day [when he gave it to me] he said Merry Christmas” (Hopkins interview).
In Hopkin’s opinion that is collaboration, but not necessarily devising. Sometimes songs
are written because a star wants two songs in one act due to another character having two songs in that act and that is also not indicative of devising.
She continued to say that Jonathan Larson felt that the actors in Rent were so
instrumental in the creation of that show that he gave them participation rights. The original cast for that show split the gross point and profits.
39 The split of profits does not
happen often but shows that the contribution of actors is considere d significant and some
writers compensate those who helped them as a way of saying thank you. I agree with Hopkins in that the workshop method of creating musicals does not fit my definition of devising. However , the workshop method is often an act of coll aboration that includes the
performers and for that reason it is noteworthy in a discussion of devising. Perhaps in the

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future more musicals will be created through devising and the ensemble will be given
credit for their share in the collaborative effort. No one can deny the tremendous amount
of collaboration that is necessary to create a musical whether it is exclusive to the creative team or includes the performers in rehearsals as well.
Poets and Jazz Music
In another approach to the musical workshop me thod, I interviewed professor
Cornelius Eady to discuss his practice with devising. Eady is author of seven volumes of poetry, a song writer, and a professor of creative writing and playwriting at the University of Missouri. He collaborated with jazz composer Diedre Murray and director Diane Paulus in the musical theatre works Running Man and Brutal Imagination.
40 Eady talked
about his entry into the world of collaboration with Murray and Running Man. He had written suites of music before with his poetry but he had never participated in writing a
musical play. His thought was that he would simply turn his poems over to Diedre and
she would put them to music. As he looks back, he is amazed that she continued working
with him since he had such a cavalier attitu de toward how the process worked. They
started by meeting in her home where he asked her to tell him what the play was about. As a group t hey would discuss the plot and change the story as they worked to get at the
heart of it. At first the story started with the sisters at the apartment, then it changed to the sisters on a train and it changed several times. It finally became the fundamental story of a man who has lost his way in life.
They reached a point at which they had not settled on a script but wa nted to
workshop the material , so they called it a laboratory and invited actors to participate.
During this laboratory it seemed to Eady that the story was not about the man telling his

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story but about his sisters discovering his story. He started to push the show in that
direction because for him the question was , who does the audience follow? In the
workshop Eady, Murray and Paulus worked to dig deeper into the story of a “big bad guy killing people” (Eady interview). The actors would ask questions about the back story
and that helped the writers find the truth of the story. Then Paulus said that it was actually Murray’s story, the way that the women discover the truth of who they were in relation to the man was similar to her personal narrative. That realization made them all realize that perhaps the story was too personal and could not be presented. Paulus suggested they get out of the laboratory and go back to Murray’s apartment for continued discussions and Eady thought that was the end of the project. They met at the apartment and had a long afternoon of discussion when they all accepted the direction his poetry had taken them to a personal story of Murray’s. As they continued work, Eady found that he had to adjust to the difference in writing poetry a nd writing lyrics. He learned that he had to allow space
for the music to serve the emotion. I commented that it sounded similar to teaching playwriting students to cut out the written subtext and trust the actor and director to fill in the appropriate emo tion. Eady agreed that writing songs is comparable and he had to
adjust the poetry to allow the composer room to make the music work. The collaboration was not without passionate disagreement. Eady reports, “I’d say Dierdre! You cut the heart out of this! Don’t you understand that I put this together in a certain way and it’s not random? You need this to connect later to that!” (Eady interview). His fear was that the audience would miss a particular point and he had to trust that the musicians would fill th e gap. The theatre piece Running Man started with Eady’s poetry and worked
through a collaborative process to join with Murray’s jazz music. This is a different type

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of devising process , but it illustrates how collaboration and devising works to create a
final production. Running Man became a set piece that can be reproduced by other
theatres and groups. Many times devising troupes find that a theatre piece they create
cannot be recreated, it simply does not work as a written script.
The play version of Bru tal Imagination came together in a markedly different
manner. Murray wanted to continue with Eady’s cycle of poetry , but Eady was resistant
to the idea. He was content with his poetry being just that, poetry. He succumbed when a former student from Sarah L awrence College asked him to participate in a production at
the college with one of his works. He agreed and then realized he had nothing to present ,
so he contacted Murray to see if she would add a song or music to his poetry for this presentation. From t here they began to work on a theatre piece and conducted workshops
and rehearsals for a performance at Martha’s Vineyard. Due to the way the rehearsal space is set up at the Vineyard the music was rehearsed separately from the script work.
When they sought to bring it together with actors and musicians it became “screamingly
obvious” that this was not a musical, it had to be performed as a play (Eady interview). As this was evident to everyone involved, Murray congenially came back with soft music to unders core the script rather than creating a full musical with songs integrated into
dialogue. Subsequent productions by other theatres show different interpretations of the script with which Eady sometimes disagrees. However, one production in Florida used a double cast that interwove with each other. When Eady heard what they were doing he was skeptical but it turned out to be one of his favorite productions. This production opened up his view of the play . He realized since the play is focused on the imaginary it
can be done in many different ways . After seeing this production Eady wondered why he

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had not thought of writing it that way. Again, this is yet another varying example of
devising , but the actor of the original production, Joe Morton influenced the way the play
was finally produced. The collaborative work Eady does with composers and directors
heavily influences the completed work.
Musical Workshop Conclusion
As I have investigated the workshop method for creating musicals , I have shown
that they are no t devising in strict adherence to the definition of devising I delineated in
Chapter O ne. However, the description of how these musicals are created collaboratively
give artist- scholars additional approaches to teaching a devising class and perhaps the
inspiration to create a collaboratively based musical with their students. The inclusion of music often provides a universal understanding that can provide stimulus for the sharing of cultures in an effort to join in the global community. Sharing culture can include some of the practices that are common in indigenous ceremony in much the same way that
music is shared. Earlier I mentioned that many devising historians refer to the story
telling, ritual and ceremony used in indigenous practices. For this reason, I would like to
share a review of current ceremonial theatre in contemporary Native A merican tribes.
Ceremonial Theatre
In Ceremony, Spirituality, and Ritual In Native American Performance: A
Creative Notebook , Hanay Geiogamah, professor of theatre at UCLA and founding
artistic director of the American Indian Dance Theatre, deconstructs hi s work in
ceremonial theatre in scholarly terms as well as providing a practical guide on how to reproduce it. He uses the term “deconstruct” to describe his reflections on the process of development used in his original work 49. While he speaks to the spe cificity of Native

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American ceremonial theatre I was struck by the universality of the elements he describes
and how this work is an example of devising. His book is comprised of a brief section on each of the elements of ceremonial theatre followed by the script for 49 with detailed
notes by the author on every aspect of reproducing this work.
Geiogamah began his career with the experimental theatre La MaMa in New York
City during the seventies, and the development of 49, collaboratively devised with the
Native American Theater Ensemble (NATE) in 1974. The title 49 is derived from a “popular post -powwow knock- down, drag -out funfest then in full practice all over Indian
Country” (Geiogamah 1). In Appendix I, he explains the origins of the powwow 49 and offers several stories regarding the origin of the name (none of them conclusive). Geiogamah then describes his journey from the creation of the piece through his scholarly analysis of it, his understanding of the process, and the impact 49 has on Native Amer ican theatre.
For those unfamiliar with 49 or La MaMa, Geiogamah gives a vivid description of
the type of work being done in the seventies from the personal perspective of an active participant. His introspection is an inspiration for today’s artists, Native American and non-Natives alike. His account of how 49 developed in opposition to conventional
Western practice and the questions the artists had while making the piece , illuminate the
creative risk an artist must make when charting new territory.
At th e time, we didn’t have a developed sense of the western dramatic process of
act one build, act two climax, act three descending action. So, in our search for a
workable performance context, we started by trusting our sense of rhythmic structure, rhythmic beat, and our feeling of the energy that drives all Indian dance and performance. (Geiogamah 1)

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One of the risks an artist encounters when verging from the norm is the risk of being
misunderstood by the audience. In devising the risk is due to the ignoran ce of what
devising is and what a play can be since most audiences are familiar with traditional theatre and are not comfortable with experimental theatre. I think Geiogamah encounters this risk a second time in writing this book. It seems to me that if th e reader has not
attended a powwow 49, or a performance of Geiogamah’s 49, it is difficult to envision
the piece even though Geiogamah includes the script with detailed staging notes.
The play 49 opens with the shaman Night Walker calling to the people, “ enacting
the traditional custom of calling people together for a purpose related to the well- being of
the tribal community” (Geiogamah 72). The shaman appears throughout the play as the connecting element in this journey from a community’s awakening to the value of their culture and the experience of the loss or threat to their existence, to a rebirth filled with hope and the understanding of solidarity. Following the shaman’s call to the people in
Scene 1, the mood of expectancy is shattered with police s irens and police officers, who
assume the gathering of young Indians will be destructive, spewing racial slurs. The shock is meant to be an Artaudian device inducing the audience to feel the same apprehension the actors recreate. The police are used as a “ritual structuring device,” and their presence is repeated throughout the work (Geiogamah 73). The play is meant to build awareness in young Native Americans for their past and their present, engaging them in a cathartic process that leads them to envisio n and create a positive and
meaningful new future. Traditions of Native American culture, including a vision quest, the teaching of weaving, and cleansing through ritual, are recreated throughout the work.

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Geiogamah discusses Ceremony, Spirituality and Ri tual in separate chapters, in which he
describes possible source material along with a description of the role of the ceremonial
director and several questions that should be addressed when planning a ceremonial work like 49. Some of the questions he list s are: “Who is the ceremony for? What will the text
be? Will a myth, a legend, a story of the tribe be helpful? What music will be performed? Do any of these dances, music, stories, elements of décor belong to a member of the tribe or family?” (Geiogamah 1 2).
In a separate chapter, Geiogamah delineates what he labels “Six Propellers of
Ritual:” repetition, counterpoint, indirection, irony, audience as tribe, and spectacle (Geiogamah 30). In this chapter he also compares Western definitions and thought with Native American use of ritual. He describes how elements in Kushner’s Angels in America are manifested in 49, and how 49, like the works of German dramatist Georg
Buchner, replaces traditional dramatic development with a vital emotional center
(Geiogamah 35). As he continues to analyze the components of ceremonial theatre , he
intricately weaves together musical, literary and theatrical terms. For instance , he
includes the terms coda and counterpoint in his explanations of archetypes, catharsis, and foresha dowing. In his consideration of the elements in ceremonial theatre he draws on
Artaud and Aristotle to support his arguments.
Geiogamah’s meticulous director’s notes include d with the script of 49 are among
the most valuable components of this book, providing readers with a detailed description of the piece, how it should be staged, and what should be achieved through its performance. The notes also give non- Natives a better understanding of Native
Ceremonial Performance. The elements that he describes are not restricted to dramatize

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only Native American experience, but could be used to create a devised theatre piece
from any cultural or socio -political experience. Although the workshop descriptions in
Appendix II may have been intended to aid practitioners in creating a Native Ceremonial Performance, they are also excellent resources for exercises to include in any performance studies or devising theatre class.
41 The process that Geiogamah describes
includes music, ritual, storytelling and dance. Devising oft en includes dance as an
integral part of the piece. Many times in modern dance companies and dance concerts cross the boundaries of theatre. Audiences become mesmerized with the performance regardless of how the critics or artists categorize the event.
Dance
Pina Bausch is an artist whose Tanztheater crosses the boundaries of dance and
theatre. Most often commented on as dance, critics often do not know how to analyze her works because they limit themselves to either a dance or a theatre vocabulary. In his article “The Politics of the Body: Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater ,” David W. Price describes
how drama critics often compare her work to Brecht and his techniques of epic theatre. “What distinguishes Bausch, however, is her development of an art form based upon a binary opposition that does not reproduce an either/or dichotomy; instead, Bausch’s productions are both dance and theater” (Price 322). Both books , Making a Performance
and American Avant -garde Theatre , mention her when they discuss theatre. Bausch was
trained in ballet as a child and studied with Kurt Jooss at the Folkwang School in Essen. The school included all the arts including opera, music, drama, visual arts and dance so Bausch was exposed to many forms of media during her studies. She came to New York
in 1958 where she studied with Antony Tudor, Jose Limon, and Martha Graham’s

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company, to name a few. She worked as a dancer and began her choreography career
working with opera. She was appointed as the head of the Wuppertal Ballet , which she
renamed as Tanztheater Wuppertal. “The description Tanztheater, or dance theatre, originally used by Rudolf von Laban in the 1920s, is a statement of intent; it stands for an emancipation from mere balletic routines and the complete freedom to choose one’s means of expression” (Servos). In the documentary film on Bausch, her dancers describe what it was like to work with her. They were required to work on their own and return to rehearsal with what they thought the movement meant. They had to find their own interpretation of the dance to bring back to her. One of the dancers states “Pina was like finding a language, finally. Before, I didn’t know how to talk. And then she suddenly gave me a way to express myself. A vocabulary… after many months of rehearsing, she
called me and said, you just have to get crazier. And that was the only comment in almost 20 years” ( Pina ). Bausch extended the use of space in her works. She might spread tons
of peat to cover the floor or dancers may swim in water on the stage or in water pouring down on them. She also used pedestrians in her pieces as well as her professional dancers. She experimented with taking a specific dance and trying it on professionals, then on pedestrians, then on older people and then on high school students. She was
interested in how the intent changed or did not change when performed by different artists for different audiences. Bausch’s works were controversial and passionate. She required the type of psychol ogical work that is demanded in the teachings of
Stanislavsky’s acting methods. Her blending of dance and theatre shows what can happen in a devised piece. I t is not necessary to distinguish between dance and acting when

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creating devised theatre. The impor tance is to create the work and share it with an
audience.
Neither is it compulsory to separate digital from theatre. Pauline Brooks is
primarily a dance artist just as Pina Bausch was but her art encompasses more than dance.
In the article “Creating new s paces: Dancing in a telematics world” she describes how we
can approach the digital world and incorporate technology into our live theatre productions. She defines her project:
For the past three years, I have worked with Professor Luke Kahlich using video-
conferencing both as a tool to bring together our student dancers into a global network of choreography and performance, and as a medium to create new collaborative dance works. These works have explored the medium of telematics performance involving live dance performance in networked dance studio and/or
studio theatre environments, with live video streamed from a web- cam, using the
screen projection to connect us in a unique space beyond our institutions, otherwise separated by a distance of 3000 miles. (Brooks 50)

The professors had their students collaborate with each other through teleconferencing.
They experimented with software packages using Adobe Breeze, Adobe Connect and
finally Adobe Connect Pro. The two institutions involved were Temple Univers ity in the
United States and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in the United Kingdom. At the outset it was their intent to create a new space that dancers could share live and virtually with audiences across the Atlantic. The first project began with tutor -led
workshops for the students to familiarize everyone with the technology and break the ice between the two dance cohorts. Temple used a networked studio, while LJMU had the use of an intelligent studio theatre. The result was limiting and showed t he differences
between the performance spaces as well as technical issues with hardware, software,

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cameras, etc. However, this project culminated with a work shared in 2007 via the
Internet to both universities. They reviewed the successes and failures of the first project
before starting a second project the following year. In addition to using equipment and Adobe Connect Pro the groups also used email, Skype and YouTube to collaborate. This time both groups used a similar network- linked studio theatre.
The fact that we knew the software better (both the opportunities and limitations it
provided) as well as it having undergone some upgrading, that we were both in studio theatres, that some of the students had previously worked with computer and media tech nology, and that we had a better idea of how we might start to
encourage students to share, divide and to re -construct the space meant that we
were able to guide each of the companies into greater creative explorations of intermedial settings using live an d telematics performance. (Brooks 51)

Project 2 created three student works that were performed simultaneously via the Internet
at both universities in spring 2009. The students explored perspective using the camera
“but they still tended to focus on move ment that could be captured by the camera and
projected onto the screen” (Brooks 52). During the fall semester of 2009 three choreographers created new dance works to combine telematic and live dance. They rehearsed for ten weeks in addition to meeting wee kly via Skype. This performance in
December of 2009 included audience feedback sessions during the process as well as a transatlantic talkback after the final performance using the Internet to connect the
audiences. In this project the two companies wanted to explore using the different spatial zones that the combination of live and video capture presented. They also wanted to educate their audience to the process so that the spectators could experience a blended performance rather than having their view di vided by projections versus live dancers.

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While reading this article , some of the issues the dancers encountered seem to be
a blend of what we encounter in the theatre as directors and what Web page designers
have learned over the years. They both deal wi th audience perception. Theatre directors
are taught not to split the audience’s focus when staging a play unless the intent is to
deliberately instill frustration at not knowing what to view. Web page designers know
that they must incorporate how the eye tracks across the page. Good Web designers know
which colors are pleasing to the eye for long periods of viewing, which fonts create impact, how the eye tracks images and text, and how different cultures read the page in addition to knowing technical issue s such as how long it takes a page to load and how
much scrolling a user is willing to do. As Brooks states, “In a medium of such a complex montage of layered images, it is well to be clear from the outset what it is you wish to attract the eye to see and the mind (or imagination) to perceive” (Brooks 53). When they
started with the first project, they learned that the performers focused on the screen and
how the dance was projected leaving the live performance as secondary. “Learning to freely flow and con nect between live and digitized dancers, and to inhabit space in the
cone of capture and in the live zones, is a skill that performers must constantly be reminded to strive to achieve, and that creators must constantly work to make apparent” (Brooks 55). D uring the second project , the dancers explored how the use of text, props
and music worked or did not work while being projected across the Atlantic. The problem with inherent digital delays for this kind of transfer encouraged them to eschew music with de fined rhythm and tempo for the third project. Brooks describes the results:
By carefully codifying the spatial zones and the effects that they create, we were
able to devise a choreographic plan in which we gradually introduced the

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audience to all of the s patial zones, bringing them steadily to a point of multiple
perspectives by weaving together movement through these tapestries of sound,
sight and space – each of which gave us new contexts within which, and with which to dance. (Brooks 56)

Brooks describes in detail with photographs and a diagram how this perspective and
education of the audience was achieved. This exploration of the combined space created with virtual and live performance is what will happen in the twenty first century. Just as current p ractices in devised theatre can include the use of technology and digital media so
can the pedagogy of devising. I discuss this further in my last chapter as part of my conclusion that incorporates how a course in devised theatre helps us better understand our students and ourselves in the digital age. Now that I have outlined contemporary devising practices in professional theatre, I will focus on the pedagogy of devising to
show how these practices can be introduced in the classroom and to what purpose .
Multicultural Pedagogy
The pedagogy of devising lends itself to a multicultural method that provides
inclusion as its foundation. As stated in my Introduction my definition of multicultural pedagogy is based on a definition of feminist pedagogy by scholars Crabtree and Sapp presented in their article "Theoretical, Political, a nd Pedagogical Chall enges in the
Feminist Classroom: "
This pedagogical approach provides students with a language of critique that
allows them to analyze differences among social group s, their construction both
within and outside the academic setting, and their roles in various forms of domination, subordination, hierarchy, and exploitation. It offers students ways to analyze practices such as sexism, racism, and class exploitation that structure and
mediate human encounters in everyday life. (Crabtree 132)

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The techniques that these two scholars describe in their article describe my pedagogical
approach. I label it multicultural as opposed to feminist because multicultural is more encom passing.
Performance studies lends itself to a multicultural pedagogy due to its subject
material. The purpose behind performance studies is to explore the idea of performativity throughout culture in a myriad of aspects. According to Richard Schechner, a n
originating scholar of performance studies:
Performance studies starts where most limited -domain disciplines end. A
performance studies scholar examines texts, architecture, visual arts, or any other
item or artifact of art or culture not in themselves, but as players in ongoing
relationships, that is, ‘as’ performances. (Schechner 2)

In agreement with this definition, performance studies is the study of actions within
culture and the differences in social groups as mentioned in Crabtree’s definition of
feminist pedagogy. In other words , the subject content of performance studies is the same
as the intention behind multicultural pedagogy. This can be summed up in two words, “exploring identity .”
In her book Theories of Performance , Elizabeth Bell describes performance as a
key term and suggests that culture is also a key term. She goes on to describe what she means by key term and how performance can be defined for the purpose of performance studies. Bell states that, “All key terms are contested – meaning different things to
different groups and people” (Bell 15). This readily applies to culture as well as ethnicity and gender. She also argues that key terms are difficult to define, “All key terms are slippery – sliding across a ra nge of meanings within one definition – and unstable –

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refusing to be pinned down to mean only one thing (Bell 15). The important summary
that she postulates is “Performance theory attempts to make clear what, how, and why performance is both a “key term” and a “key” to understanding the intricate ways we participate in social and political life and create its many expressive forms” (Bell 15). Identity is another one of those difficult key terms and the use of identity in the study of performance establish its complexity along with that of performance. Bell states that
“Constituting” and “constitutive” are important terms in much contemporary
theorizing about culture, identity, technology, and performance. When something is “constituted,” it is established, created, given form… “Constitutive” elements,
then, are the components, the working parts, the gears in the machinery, of this creation. (Bell 19)

She goes on to explain that approaching gender, and ethnicity from this perspective
demonstrates how societ y demands opposites for current dominant assertions. As debates
continue on definitions and the place these constitutions hold in civilization, new
understandings demand explanation. Opposition creates the need for new terminology.
The phrases “gender ben ding” and “gender blending” are ways of responding to
and arguing with the division of the world into only two genders; studies in
ethnicities work to move beyond colonial practices and policies of white and nonwhite, colonizer and native; cyber networks of new technologies offer rejoinders to old constructions of work/home, labor/management, and local/global… Many performance theories make claims that performance constitutes , or creates, identity . (Bell 19)

We know the definitions of key terms such as ethnicity and gender through performance.
The performance of these constructs gives value to them within the constraints of different social groups. When diverse groups interact, then the performance of these constitutions change as discovery of ‘other’ and ‘ difference’ takes place. As Bell further

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postulates: “Many performance theories will also claim that performances constitute
culture ” (Bell 20). If the combination of the key terms ethnicity, gender, age, class, and
disability along with religion, ritual a nd more define culture then that is true. This is the
basis of performance studies, a way of viewing the complexity of what constitutes our
culture and how we can communicate with each other through our diversity in order to embrace inclusivity. Performanc e studies provide a mechanism to approach the study of
difference so as to stop oppression. How then to approach this multifaceted study in an introductory class? The use of devising is experiential learning and distribution of power from a multicultural pedagogy. The immediate immersion that I used in my Introduction to Performance Studies class placed the students in an interactive project that had them working without judgment until the performance was completed. The name of the devised piece that the s tudents created is Giving Voice and I will now describe the
process that I used in the pedagogy and the results that transpired.
Giving Voice
The quotation at the beginning of this chapter is from the song “Salala” that was
used in the performance Giving Voice that my performance studies class created in fall
2011.42 I tried a new format to my Introduction to Performance Studies class that I call
immediate immersion. In this method, students are ‘thrown into’ performance , moving
from one exercise to the other without time for evaluation or self -reflection. They are
writing, dancing, singing, speaking, and acting without time to question their abilities or their talent. The purpose for immediate immersion is to assuage their fears by not allowing them time to develop. I was confident that this would work because, as a
choreographer, this is what I do with every dance. I immerse the students in movement

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possibilities immediately so they do not have time to worry over their lack of technique
or experience.
There are no prerequisites for this class and it fills a general humanities course
credit requirement. My class was composed of students that ranged from freshmen to
seniors, and majors in biochemistry to political science with only four theatre majors. I
had no idea what their experience with performance was and I used immediate immersion
as a technique for teaching them how to devise a performance piece. They were required to collaborate and create a performance that answered the question “Who am I?” and
present it in the theatre department’s Life and Literature Series only four weeks into the
semester . Immediate immersion not only facilitates the learning of performance studies ’
theories but also allows the students to explore identity including gender and ethnicity through creating a performance piece . This exploration helps the students find confidence
in their identity and learn about others in a multicultural exchange .
There were only three men in a class of ten students on this occasion. There were
one Latino and three African -American students , with the remainder identifying as White
or Caucasian. In answering the question, “Who am I? ,” the students touched on feminism
and ethnicity issues. They were not instructed to do so; they naturally touched on the
cultures that they identified with in the development of answering the question. From th e
process of creating a performance piece, the students learned several different lessons :
how to define their identities , how to share their stories, how to col laborate and work
with each other, the value of risk taking , the value of tolerance and understanding of
others, and how to approach performance in a new way .

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As we worked , we discovered that two of the students were musicians, one was a
stepper, one was a dancer and one was a poet. As they identified their differences , they
also discovered their similarities . For example, when I asked them all to bring in a
favorite short story many of them brought children’s stories such as Where the Wild
Things Are and Rumpelstiltskin . When they wrote personal narratives to share, several of
them wrote about childhood injuries such as a broken foot or a damaged knee. They
learned that , in spite of the differences in their cultural backgrounds , they had
experienced some o f the same events in their lives. Some of their memories were painful,
poignant and some were humorous. Above all they pointed to the commonalities of the human condition. Using the question “Who Am I?” as a basis for devising a performance piece gave stud ents an opportunity to not only question or explain their ethnicity but their
gender and other centers of culture as well. For example Keith comes from a mixed
family of a Christian father and a Jewish mother . He mentioned his struggle with this
dual relig ious identity in his personal narrative. Lanita talked about the abuse she suffered
from her father and her sister . The students used humor, poetry, music, video collages
and pantomime to portray their identit ies. They not only expressed their own ident ity but
also learned about each other as they presented their ideas .
We started devising with exploring the use of the voice to create rhythmic sound
as opposed to singing or speaking. This was a new experience for all of them; they had never used their voic e for anything other than singing or speaking. To begin our
discovery I had them all create a sound, then I had them stand while I conducted them in an impromptu concert. They were amazed and amused at how intriguing this became. We then added pedestrian m ovement to the sounds and experimented with using the space.

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For their first assignment the students brought in a favorite poem. They were allowed to
look through the collection of poems that was required reading for the class or bring in a poem they found that spoke to them or a personal favorite. When they brought in their poetry Maya shared one she had written about war and how it is always with us. Lanita imparted a long poem about bullying and cruelty. Ricky recited a Robert Frost classic, “The Road No t Taken”
and a poem by contemporary author Langston Hughes .
From the beginning, in thinking about themselves and which words “spoke” to them they identified the issues in society or the morals that were important to them as individuals and found that others shared their views. They discovered that they could discuss their views and disagree while appreciating each other’s stance, honesty and willingness to share. The argument that Santos’ study makes, “For many White students, encountering a diverse campus environment was disconcerting and engendered a sense of unease and disconnect with the university” did not happen with this class (Santos 109). The students all accepted each other’s cultures and were eager to learn about how other college students li ved a different experience from their own. This suggests a journey to an
integrated self that scholar Moin Syed proposed in his article when he explains the theory that psychoanalyst Erik Erikson postulates:
Erikson (1968) believed that identity development takes center stage in
adolescence and young adulthood, when advances in cognitive skills, heightened
societal pressures, and opportunities to explore future roles prompt youth to focus on the possibilities of their present and future selves. Optimal deve lopment is
characterized, in part, by an ability to integrate seemingly disparate aspects of the self to arrive at a sense of personal sameness and continuity across time and context. Although Erikson believed identity formation to be a life -long process,
he suggested that adolescence and young adulthood were particularly critical developmental periods in which to begin the process of identity integration. (Syed 1591)

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The process of immediate immersion provides an opportunity to express identity as
student s continue to question and explore their culture during their personal integration.
Syed’s study investigated how ethnicity is related to a college student’s choice of major .
The study not only pointed to how a choice of major affects the student’s ident ity
experience but also provided findings that offer practical purposes for higher education. One of the suggestions that Syed makes in his study is that :
…it may be important for university departments in all fields to consider how to
incorporate cultur ally relevant material into the curriculum. Doing so would
ensure that all students will be exposed to ethnic and cultural issues within the context of their major, rather than having to seek it out via coursework outside of their major. (Syed 1602)

Performance studies are offered by the theatre department at the University of Missouri
and serve as an elective for humanities requirements. This does not serve Syed’s purpose
of course work within a major but does provide an opportunity for all majors to explore
cultural issues. The Syed study acknowledges limitations of the findings in the study such as selection issues, the size of the sample, use of a predominantly white university and the lack of precollege or postcollege data:
The findings suggest tha t ethnicity is of prime concern during the college years
for many students and that there are diverse ways in which college students view
the relation between their ethnicities and academic majors. The results in this study underscore the need for a longit udinal life -span approach to identity
development to fully embrace the diversity in identity pathways. (Syed 1602)

Identity as an exploration for creating a performance piece, aides the development to
which Syed refers. As the students learn about each ot her they bring more awareness to

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their personal process of integration. The next assignment I gave the class indicates how
students discover this personal process.
The assignment was to bring in a favorite short story. Carmen brought in a story
with a stro ng feminist statement. She continued to explore gender issues as we developed
the piece. She ended up contributing a chapter from a novel about a girl attempting suicide and a short piece about masturbation written by women and identifying women’s struggle s. Several students suggested fairy tales such as Rumpelstiltskin, The Emperor’s
New Clothes, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack in the Beanstalk . Lanita shared How the
Leopard Got His Spots and Keith used Where the Wild Things Are . Since we had a mini –
theme of children’s stories , we decided to recite from two of them interchangeably while
everyone sat on stage in various positions as if they were children reading stories . After
we made this decision Ryan decided he would like to contribute a different story a nd
brought in Go the Fuck to Sleep . It is written in the form of a children’s story although it
uses harsh profanity and the entire class found it humorous . We added it into the
interchange of recitations for this section . We chose How the Leopard Got His Spots as
our commentary on the futility of prejudices against and ethnicity . Ryan acted out his
story Go the Fuck to Sleep and provided a slide show of illustrations from the book while Lanita and Ryan recited their stories in tandem. Since the Rudyard Kip ling story How the
Leopard Got His Spots was long I adapted it to modern American language and shortened
it. At different points in the narratives such as when the wild things roar, gnash their teeth and show their claws, the rest of the cast pantomimed the actions.
These two exercises using short stories and poems warmed the students up to each
other and prepared them for writing a personal narrative. I shared a personal narrative I

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wrote in 2010 from which I created a performance to illustrate the possibilities. In that
narrative I pulled out specific sentences and meaningful words to perform such as woman, white trash, killer, mother and “Her daddy raped her when she was four .” This
touch of how deeply personal a narrative can be, suggested the freedom t o express
anything that was of particular importance to students in answering the question, “Who Am I?” Personal narrative facilitates the idea of ego identity discussed in scholar’s Mark
H. Chae’s report when he explains clinical and development psycholog ist’s James
Marcia’s theory on developmental identity framework.
Ethnic identity finds its roots in Marcia’s (1966) developmental identity
framework based on a set of assumptions regarding the composition of ego identity. Under this framework, ego identity is derived from two broad cognitive
categories: ideological perspectives and interpersonal views. Ideological ego identity is measured by considering perspectives regarding religion, politics, philosophical life -style and occupation, while interpersonal views are based on
friendship, dating, sex roles and recreation (Marcia, 1966). (Chae 5)

The personal narratives combined with found texts allowed the students to consider the
perspectives mentioned in this quote from Marcia that Chae cited in his report. Several
students wrote about childhood experiences . Leslie wrote about breaking her heel at age
four, Qiana wrote about sustaining a knee injury that destroyed dreams of dancing professionally and Em shared how the vacation home burned down one spring . Som e of
them used humor and others exhibited writing that was raw with painful emotion . This
was certainly an example of interpersonal views that are part of ego identity exploration by Marcia’s definition . In addition to their personal narratives Qiana recit ed lines about
dating while Carmen shared a story about masturbation and the negative view society has

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on the topic. The juxtaposition of these two stories displayed the ideological and
interpersonal components of ego identity.
The results of the study conducted by scholar Chae shows that there are marked
differences in how students’ identify with their cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Chae’s research on ego identity , assuming a binary gender model , leaves the findings lacking ,
which is true of the research on ethnicity that I reviewed. The research agrees that the
components ethnicity and gender have an impact on identity , however , none of the
studies considered religion or culture. They all assume the normativity of a binary gender model as well. The most valuable results of Chae’s study may be the reported limitations of the study. The study recognizes the limitations of race designations as in how Asian Americans refer to many different ethnic groups. Also , Chae stated that the measures
may not take into account the way that a particular culture identifies self. Lastly , he states
that self -report measures may prove false due to participants responding in a way they
deem as socially acceptable rather than revealing the way they feel.
43
Performance allows students to explore outside the limitations of what they deem
socially acceptable. In fact, in performance studies we encourage students to test the limitation of social tolerance. This can help students explore their identity more fully . In
reference to his research Chae states “The results suggest that gender and ethnicity are key aspects of identity development for ethnic minorities. This research has suggested that ethnic identity is an important component of personality development f or ethnic
minority group members” (Chae 18). The exploration of identity in creating Giving Voice
gave the students the opportunity to explore their ethnicity as well as other aspects of culture . The other point that the different studies I reviewed do not address is the changes

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in perceptions that occur in society over time . These changes may alter the past and
current research thereby invalidating theories and conclusions . Nonetheless , the research
that I reviewed supports the multicultural pedagogy to which I aspire. My process of
immediate immersion enhances a multicultural exchange in aiding young adults in their
ego identity.
By the time the students wrote personal narratives we were adding movement,
dance, music, and singing to our piece as well. I fe lt compelled to choreograph a dance
about violence in relationships between men and women. Ricky gathered images for a slideshow on domestic violence portraying how men or women can be abusive or abused.
Scholar Janet Lee in her article “Survivors of Gendered Violence in the Feminist
Classroom” states :
First, it is important to recognize that in any given classroom teaching and
learning are complicated by the fact that between a fifth and a quarter of all
women are sitting with potential memories, feelings, and experiences of sexual
and/or physical abuse .” (Lee 1461)

As I share d this through dance, Lanita wrote a personal narrative about her emotional,
psychological and physical abuse. Lee also states that group projects, dialogue and
collaboratio n build community in a classroom and are essential in reducing the isolation
survivors of gendered violence may feel (Lee 1462) . Devising a performance piece is an
optimal collaborative and experiential learning practice. Those who had not lived through
the type of violence Lanita and I portrayed were abruptly aware of how this can happen
to anyone including people that they know. I incorporated two of the men from my class in the dance. They simply stood still and impassive when I ran to them as I tried to escape

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my partner’s rage and violence. They were uncomfortable in those roles and ultimately
became more sympathetic to survivors and their situations. In dance critic Sally Banes’ essay, “Envoi: Recent Developments in Dance ,” she states that:
Focusing al ternatively on gender equality, the specificity of women’s experience,
and the limitations of patriarchal constructions of female identity, postmodern
choreographers have offered us what may seem to some to be contradictory visions of feminism. But I would argue that these are not contradictory, rather, they are intimately related parts of an evolving vision – stages or steps towards a comprehensive, complex, and rounded view of the past, the present, and the future of women’s emergence from patriarchy, not only in dance, but in the culture at
large. (Banes 218)

As a dancer and choreographer I not only explored the violence between men and women
but also the love between a mother and son as part of my participation in Giving Voice .
Carmen, as a stepper , add ed her abstract interpretation of giving strength to the woman
struggling with violence in the same dance and Qiana used dance to interpret a poem about couples dancing in a separate piece of choreography. Together , all of us portrayed
the complexity of re lationships as women, demonstrating the feminism to which Banes
refers.
In addition to some of us using dance to portray mistreatment, Lanita recited her
narrative on abuse as she emerged from sitting in the audience and walked to the stage to demonstrate how she could be representative of anyone in the audience. The rest of the cast stood behind the audience and recited in unison key phrases of intimidation so that the sound emanated from all sides. This inundation filled the audience with fear and a sense of the uncomfortable inability to act that Lanita expounded upon. Three weeks into
the process the students were beginning to know each other very well . They trusted one

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another with powerful statements and emotional memories . They saw each other’s pain
and joy sustained from struggles with culture such as religion, ethnicity and class . They
viewed each other as fellow students all exploring options and looking at new
possibilities in their lives . These students supported one another, learned to offer crit icism
and value the critique given to them . They all took a risk trying something they had never
done before . Some of them had certainly not performed before; others were accomplished
performers but in only one genre such as dance or music . This combinatio n of many
creative avenues was new to them . Most of them had not shared their own writing or
their personal story before. The mutual risk that they shared opened the possibility of
accepting each other’s differences.
The students in my class acknowledged difference in gender, ethnicity and
culture. They were exposed to aspects of living they had not experienced in their own lives. Working in the intense environment of immediate immersion as part of devising a performance piece provided the students persona l interaction in a safe setting. As the
teacher, facilitator, and director I participated in the interaction with them. Scholars Amy Bergerson and Deneece Huftalin discuss student reactions to differences in their article "Becoming More Open to Social Iden tity-Based Difference: Understanding the Meaning
College Students Make of this Movement ." In their article they make the point that:
Not all research on environmental influence accounts for the role of identity
difference in development, and some seems to consider identity as fixed and
without intersectionality. Additionally, much of this research supports a static view of change and implies that once openness takes place, it sticks. For some scholars, the change process unfolds as more recursive and contex tual. (Bergerson
378)

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As part of the class/cast exploring the question “Who Am I?” I find their statement to be
true. I am quite a bit older than my students and yet I am continually exploring and recreating the conception of my own identity. One of my fr iend’s recently posted on a
social network that in the forty years that she has known me I have continually been “evolving .” This speaks to the recursivity that Bergerson and Huftalin
explain in their
research. Although adolescence and young adulthood may be the beginning of ego
identity it certainly continues to transform and mature as we go through life. As an older
person, I learned just as much in the process of immediate immersion as my students
demonstrating the recursivity to which Bergerson and Huft alin refer.
The audience members gave each of us individual feedback on our work. Some
did not understand it since it was not a traditional play, some liked it, others did not like
parts of it , but everyone thought it amazing that we devised a piece in onl y four weeks .
Many people understood the idea of rehearsing a work in four weeks but to create it and perform it in that short amount of time seemed incredible . We shared in class the
feedback we received and discussed if it was important for the audience to understand the work as whole . Our consensus was that it was not
important, we answered the question
“Who Am I?” to our satisfaction and that was the intent of our piece . In Bergerson’s
study she notes, “Participants talked about growing more aware of bo th their own
identities and those of others . Personal interactions were critical in prompting participants
to reflect on their own identity and subsequently increase their openness to difference”
(Bergeson 389) .
Besides the considerations from the audienc e, we also discussed our own
experience of the process . The students wrote reflection papers and then shared them in

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class . Our discoveries mirror what Bergerson and Huftalin found in their study on
becoming more open to identity -based difference:
Every s tudent noted that this shift involved personal introspection, realization of
privilege, and challenges involved with actualizing their new openness as they
moved through the process. Many of the challenges involved in the shift were illuminated in the disc ussion of recursivity, in which students expressed
frustration with the fact that they have not “arrived .” (Bergerson 391)

We also realized that answering the question “Who Am I?” is such a complicated inquiry
that one performance could not give a definit ive answer. As an instructor the importance
to me was for the students to realize they could create a work that was deeply personal to them in a short time with complete strangers. They began to identify themselves and learned the creativity of the collabo rative art process in devising. This creative outlet is a
powerful method for allowing students to establish their identity and express that identity
in a display of self -assuredness. The multicultural pedagogy I employ provides the same
advantage that is described in Crabtree’s article on feminist pedagogy. “ This pedagogical
approach attempts to create new forms of knowledge, grounded in principles of personal liberation, critical democracy, and social equality, and to break down boundaries and create new democratic spaces” (Crabtree 132). Devising a performance at the beginning
of the semester gave the students content with which to explore these principles in search of their identity.
Participation in creating a devised piece fosters positive identity dev elopment, a
crucial advance in a college students’ journey. Immediate immersion facilitates this usually tentative discussion in a timelier manner. In less than four weeks , these students
knew that regardless of their gender or ethnicity they had a great deal in common. They

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also understood that they had varying cultural and religious differences. This is
something not often discussed in higher education. Religious differences can create a highly emotionally charged environment that inhibits cultural exchange and identity development . When we were scheduling rehearsals Lanita said she could not attend
Tuesday evenings because she went to church on those nights and her religion was very important to her . Later on in class I asked her if my profanity was going to offend her .
She generously said no as long as I did not take the Lord’s name in vain. The rest of the students respected her beliefs and understood that massive amounts of profanity would make class difficult for her . Lanita charitably put up with our inclusion of Go the Fuck to
Sleep because she understood the comedic element of the performance even though she
disagreed with the use of profanity . When Keith brought up his culture and religion in his
personal narrative the other students were surprised and intrigued. He comes from a
family with a Jewish mother and Christian father who ultimately got divorced. In his
narrative he talked about going to church and to synagogue. When he started college he collapsed his religious views and opted for “reason, logic and truth. ” These frank
declarations of approach to culture and religion allowed each student to acknowledge the differences in their beliefs without expectations for proselytizing, conversion or argument.
The students became more open to each other’ s differences to which Bergerson’s
research alludes. After the performance, as we began to apply performance studies’ theory to Giving Voice , more of the students shared personal stories. They were given the
assignment to write another personal narrative . This time Leslie , who shared her story of
breaking her heel for the performance, now shared her attempt at suicide when she first

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struggled with her college experience . She told us that since others shared something they
felt so deeply she wanted to be as open as they were . They first read their narratives in
class . Leslie shared that it helped her to finally write about the experience . They
subsequently performed their narratives in class for each other . The day of performance
she told me that rehearsing t he piece repeatedly had taken an emotional toll and she
didn’t know if she could perform . I told her that we all understood how difficult this was
and that she could simply read it again. When it was her turn she told everyone what I
said and proceeded to perform it anyway . The class supported her and applauded her
bravery in sharing through performance . I gave her tissues and encouraged her to have a
good cry while I told the class never to be afraid of their tears . Since some of us shed
tears during the p erformance process of Giving Voice she felt free to release her emotions
as well . Through immediate immersion these students shared deeply personal stories,
jokes, songs, poems and literature that express ed their identity, not only for the public
performance but continuing throughout the class.
The technique of immediate immersion supplied the interethnic contact that the
research I reviewed such as the Chae report and the Engberg/Hurtado study supports in an effort to shape students who can confidently navigate in a pluralistic society .
Answering the question, “Who Am I?” as a theme for creating a performance piece provided the personal interaction between students from diverse backgrounds that is necessary for ethnic identity development, identity integration and positive ego identity .
Sharing personal stories such as abuse, confusion, joy
and pain build the community
necessary for students to realize their commonalities within their differences . The
experience in the performance studies classroom provides support for the multicultural

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pedagogy with a social reconstructionist attitude . Participating in the process with the
students validated the theory behind recursivity in defining identity for me and for them .
In short, the process of immediate immersion not only facilitated the learning of theory
behind performance but also provided a platform for the interaction between diverse students in an effort to build plurality . It gave the students an opportunity t o
explore their
identity, including ethnicity, gender and class . This validation and recognition of their
culture built their self -esteem and taught them that they can interact in a positive manner
with people from a wide range of cultures without losing t heir own. In addition to
recounting the use of devising in my Introduction to Performance Studies class I will outline how the professors in the United States that I interviewed are using devising in their classes.
Current Use of Devising in Pedagogy
To pr esent a well -rounded view of pedagogy in devising , I interviewed three
professors on how they approach the curriculum to add to the report of my own experience. Dr. Noah Lelek is an artist -scholar who works as a program manager and
teaching artist with Sto rycatchers Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. At Kent State – Stark , two
professors team teach courses in devising, theatre professor Brian Newberg and English professor Dr. Robert Miltner. From Broadway, Professor Kaitlin Hopkins is the Musical Theatre Directo r at Texas State University who uses a devising course for her
sophomores’ creative project.
Dr. Noah Lelek works with troubled youth from the Juvenile Temporary
Detention Center, the Illinois Youth Center St. Charles and the Illinois Youth Center in Warre nville. Storycatchers Theatre encourages youth to write personal narratives and

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music that are included in an original musical that they perform.44 Lelek also taught
devising in the performance studies classes at the University of Missouri (MU). MU
offers s everal classes where professors may include devising such as Introduction to
Performance Studies, Adaptation of Literature to the Stage, and Advanced Performance
of Literature. Dr. Lelek taught Devising Theatre for Social Change in 2011 and
Adaptation of L iterature to the Stage in 2012. In one of his classes , he had an
interdisciplinary range of majors, in another he had mostly theatre majors, and in yet
another he had primarily journalism majors. He noted in his interview that he had
different success rates depending on the type of majors in the class. The class with the
predominance of journalism majors was resistant to the process. They were also seniors and it was spring semester , so Lelek thought their lack of enthusiasm might have been
attributable to senioritis. For these students , everything about the class was new to them
which made them very uncomfortable. “I think they were a bit overwhelmed with the fact that they had to do it all” (Lelek interview). Sometimes students are overcome with the amount of work they must do to create and produce a theatre piece and the work is
multiplied when devising is used. When I taught my performance studies class my students raised the concern that we might have too much material for an hour long performance. That gave me the opportunity to talk with them about the importance of
trusting their director and the process. Lelek noted that usually in a collaborative piece the process creates camaraderie amongst the participants as they learn to work together. In the class that offered strong resistance he spoke with them about how through this process they were learning life skills that would aid them in the work world such as the ability to work together to complete a project.

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Lelek also created a devised work, A/Cross the Divide , based on ethnographical
research for his dissertation. His research is on the coming out process for the gay,
lesbian and bisexual community. In addition to the narratives provided by his subjects he also wanted to investigate how families deal t with this process as sons, daughters,
brothers or sisters revealed their sexual orientation. Over two years , he interviewed
almost twenty individuals ranging in age from twenty to sixty with an equal number of male and female participants. He used the in terviews as material for the work A/Cross the
Divide , which was produced by MU in April 2011 as part of the Life and Literature
Performance Series. Moreover , he provided his own narrative in an autoethnographical
view on the subject. In my interview with him he remarked how difficult it was for the performers to grasp the concept that they would be creating the script while they worked. “In A/Cross the Divide I didn’t have time to teach them devising theory. I had eleven
weeks and only the weekends and I di dn’t have that time” (Lelek interview). He felt that
the ability to teach his students devising theory before asking them to create a piece helped them understand what devising is about and how it can be accomplished.
In my performance studies class I als o taught theory , but not until after the
students completed the performance project. I felt the use of immediate immersion assuaged their fears; they simply did not have time to think about it. Lelek had eleven weeks to create his piece A/Cross the Divide and I had my students create Giving Voice in
four weeks. The cast in Lelek’s work did not have previous experience with devising and had not taken a class where devising was used. In reviewing his work Lelek thought one of the strong themes was “the dichot omy between disconnection and connection” (Lelek

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dissertation 177). Lelek describes a poignant moment in movement that amplifies this
point in his dissertation :
I still remember the connection I felt when Brian grabbed my hands and lead me
downstage right and placed me in the first of three images. I felt disconnected
from him and the rest of the cast when he left. I then remember the feeling when Brian placed Austin in front of me, the weight of Austin’s body holding me up as Brian carefully placed my head on Austin’s shoulder. A moment after Brain placed my head on Austin’s shoulder; Brian removed Austin to move him into the next image. I felt the loss. I felt the negative space left by Austin. (Lelek dissertation 178)

He describes more moments that show connection and disconnection physically and
emotionally as part of the coming out process. This is an example of how dance and movement can be integral in a devised piece.
At Kent State – Stark , professors Brian Newberg and Robert Miltner teach a two
semester course in devising and approach their class differently than the way Lelek and I approached devising. This course is the result of an incident of sexual harassment that
happened to one of his cast members during a show he was directing. The incide nt was
outside of the show , but the cast member was unable to rehearse one day due to the
emotional battering she received. The rest of the cast was very supportive of their classmate. The incident escalated to the point that campus police and counselors w ere
brought in. When Professor Newberg discussed the incident with the student cast members , he was surprised by how many had similar experiences. He suggested they
might create some type of performance and was amazed how the students “lit up with expectat ion” (Newberg interview). Newberg came to Kent State from California where
he had been involved in developing agit -prop in the eighties. He worked as an actor with

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the San Francisco Guerilla Girls.45 He believes theatre should educate and inform so the
opportunity to work with the students in devising on the subject of bullying and
harassment was organic.
With this proposition in mind, he approached English professor Robert Miltner
with the idea of teaching devising in a two -semester course that would culmin ate in a
performance for the spring season. Miltner teaches creative writing and they used that
structure for the first semester’s class. The students had to have special permission to take
the class. They had to express why they were interested in the course and Newberg had
them commit to the workshop process and agree to take both courses. He selected sixteen students to participate. The course is titled “Devising Theatre: Bullying and Abuse” and the performance is titled Voices from Hurt Street . Due to t he emotional discourse on the
topic the college counselor is part of the team. She participates as a guest lecturer for the course to explain what she does as a counselor and what resources are available to them. Newberg sees the first class in the course as a writing class and the second class as the
production session. In the first class the students write first drafts and share them
electronically through BlackBoard. They critique each other and spend fifteen minutes with the writer explaining their comments. During this time , the writer is not allowed to
respond. The point of the commenting session is to offer constructive criticism for improvement. The writer then creates a second draft. This happens in succession for each writing assignment. During the second class , the students will choose which pieces to
keep and how to develop them for the stage. The challenge will be how to make the writing dramatically effective but keep the integrity of the work. Newberg sees the piece as a collage of poetry, song, movement and narrative. The students in the class may

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participate as performers if they wish. Auditions will be held in the spring once the piece
is finalized and the class knows what roles will be cast. Some of the students may perform and others will work behind the scenes as stage manager, designers and director.
As with Lelek, Newberg and I talked about what the students learn from the
course. His two main goals are ensemble and empowerment. He is delighted with this course because the students ‘own’ the project. H e suggested that this generation is used to
collaboration so this process is exciting for them. Newberg sees this process as life –
changing and he believes it will allow them to change others’ lives. Some results of this course already include meetings with the community domestic violence center, guest
lecturers from the Domestic Violence Project, Inc., and work with child advocacy. He sees this course as building networking across the campus and the community. Likewise ,
Miltner wants the students to participate in creating a larger artistic community and to have the experience of collaboration. He wants them to experience writing and bringing
that writing to life, he wants actors to have the opportunity to create their own work. He believes the theme is part icularly important in garnering campus support. He was asked
why the title was Voices from Hurt Street rather than “ Healing ,” and his answer was
because it begins with the hurt, talking about the hurt begins the healing (Miltner interview). In agreement wi th Newberg, Miltner believes that social change is the most
important part of art.
I also asked Miltner what he gains from teaching the course. His reply was that
his colleagues limit themselves. He believes in the ideal that when he teaches a subject he learns more about it. “Everything I learn enriches my writing. At one time I was taking
classes in everything, konga drums, jewelry making, anything” (Miltner interview). So,

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for Miltner , teaching enriches his own art. For Newberg , it is the Yiddish word na ches,
which means the pride one feels when their children make them proud. For Lelek, the
dividend in teaching devising is the collaboration. “I like devising because I do a lot of things. I design, I write and I direct but you get better artistry with other people there” (Lelek interview).
The advantage of interviewing Newberg and Miltner on their current class is that I
was able to also interview some of their students. This provides a perspective from the students that is invaluable. Adam Yeich never had a theatre related class prior to the
devising course. He considers himself a writer, mostly of poetry and young adult fiction. When Dr. Miltner suggested the class on devising with the one year commitment , his first
response was no but then the topic attr acted him. He is openly gay and wants to fight for
the LGBQ community. He thought the class would be a playwriting class. He is concerned that they are behind in creating a finished product but since he has never
experienced a theatre production before he allows that perhaps he does not know. He believes that he is gaining experience in how theatre works, working on a group project, networking and getting meaningful work out there (Yeich interview). He was attracted to the project by the bullying aspect. He wants to show both sides, that the victims are not
along and that bullying ends with adults, parents, and administrators. As I am interested in the impact of the digital age , I asked each student what participating in live theatre
means to them. Yeich rep lied that he doesn’t thing it is important for people to participate
in live theatre. This class is simply an additional opportunity of which he is taking advantage. He wants to get the message out to as many people as possible. He would like to see the s how tour to high schools uncensored so young students can discuss the themes

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openly. Often high school productions are censored from profanity and adult themes
which Yeich considers pointless since “this is what these kids are living with every day” (Yeich interview).
Olivia Durell has been involved with acting since she was five and is interested in
being a director. She has never taken a devised theatre course before. She was one of the original three women that were part of the impetus for Voices from Hu rt Street . Her
friend was being stalked by an older student. She is surprised that this project is running smoothly. She expected chaos. She was interested in the class due to the subject the same way that Yeich was attracted to it. She did not believe tha t she was a writer until she
turned in her first piece. When she found out that she could write , it boosted her self –
confidence. In contrast to Yeich’s opinion of live theatre, Durell believes it is important for everyone to experience live theatre. Since her first experience of being an audience member at her brother’s high school production, she had to be involved in live
performance whether it was a play, a rock band or whatever (Durell interview). She does not think the experience of a media production of live theatre is the same as the live production but it is a good second choice. Like Yeich, she is excited about the possibility to take this performance on tour for high school students. “It is real, raw, gruesome and it is what is happening to them ri ght now” (Durell interview). She wants them to know they
are not alone, to start the healing process, that the bullying does end and that they have resources. She wants people to know that bullies have problems too, that they invariably come from abusive homes.
Charlie Dale is a non -traditional student who is a twenty -one year survivor of
AIDs. Like Yeich , he thought the class would be a playwriting class. He is looking

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forward to how their writing will be transformed to the stage. He is uneasy with the ide a
that his long pieces will be reduced to snippets , but he is excited that his writing will be
performed. He never thought that was a possibility. He was honored that Miltner
nominated him for the class. He believes that he has survived AIDs to tell the st ory as
encouragement to others. At the time of the interview , he was conducting research on
homosexual abuse during the holocaust and writing on the subject. He had previously written a short piece about being bullied as a gay and about the shunning of a c hild who
had Asperger’s which prompted Miltner’s suggestion that he take the course.
In canvassing several professors on their approach to devising pedagogy , I also
interviewed musical theatre profess Kaitlin Hopkins. I mentioned her as the director of musical theatre at Texas State earlier in this chapter when discussing whether the
workshop method of creating musicals is a form of devising or simply a collaborative effort. Hopkins uses devising (in the true sense of the word) in her musical theatre
training. Her BFA sophomores devise a show together as their creative project for the year. It is a three credit hour class typically taught in the spring semester. In this course they take a couple of weeks in the beginning to discuss what is important to them, possibly including their fears, their obsessions, and perhaps world change. They use a worksheet and answer questions to begin the discussion. Hopkins brings in quotes, news articles, and literature to generate ideas. One of her classes went back to their childhoods
for inspiration. Last year (2011) , she had the students start with their heartbeats.
46 She
often team teaches with her husband Jim Price, professor of playwriting at Texas State. They discussed dispensing with this creative project at one time w hen the students
responded that it was one of the most influential parts of their career development.

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Students reported that they learned more about themselves as artists through that project
than many of their other courses combined. As a result of the de mand of the students the
project continues to be a sophomore requirement.
I asked Hopkins a similar question that I posed to Lelek, Newberg and Miltner,
how does teaching devising affect the students? Hopkins reply is:
There’s a frustration they feel with who they are and what they have to say. This
teaches them to be braver and less fearful. It teaches them to have a point of view in the artwork. This is a way to facilitate finding themselves. (Hopkins interview)

She asks them to express their feelings ph ysically using pain, joy, anger, fear, etc. As
with most devising artists she maintains that a common thread always appears in the
process. Then there is a turning point where the student finds their own creativity and responds with something similar to what Durell said in her interview, “I didn’t know I could write .” Hopkins feels this is important in training musical theatre performers
because once the find their own creativity they become better performers. This is due to becoming more secure in what the y can do. “There is pride, astonishment, and
wonderment. Then they experience the audience and the talkback. With that they discover the power of their art” (Hopkins interview).
When I asked Hopkins how the digital world impacts our students , she replied
that “live theater teaches students to slow down and be aware of their environment” (Hopkins interview). She points out that digital media keeps people at a fast pace. Technology takes away what it really means to work moment to moment. Hopkins believes th at students today do not realize that technology gives them so many avenues to
avoid feeling. This is why they resist acting techniques. Acting techniques force students

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to feel , whereas technology allows them to escape their feelings or avoid releasing th eir
feelings. She reports that when she asks her students to recall a time when everything
stopped for one moment she gets examples of: dragonflies mating make a heart shape, a tailless squirrel or the heartbeat of someone when they lean their head against their chest.
In her opinion, a good acting teacher teaches what moment to moment really means, to perceive their environment differently.
An important part of teaching devising includes some type of reflection on the
process from the interviews I conduct ed. I required the students who created Giving
Voice to reflect on the experience and write an essay on what it meant to them to participate in the production. Every one of them expressed their doubt that we could create a production in only four weeks. They were worried that we had too much material, that they were not talented enough, that we did not have enough rehearsal time and more but they were willing to trust the process and the director. They discovered that
not only did they learn about themselve s and found a deep respect for each other , but that
they were having fun in the process. None of them had participated in a devised piece before and were amazed at how well they were able to collaborate to create a performance. Almost all of them indicated that they became closer to their classmates
through this experience. Those who contributed light -hearted material wished they had
written narratives that were more personal after hearing some of their cast mates’ stories. After the performance of Giving V oice when we explored performance theory , they were
asked to perform in class once more, a poem, a story and a personal narrative. This time ,
those who had been shy during the creation of Giving Voice were able to share more of
themselves. This type of sha ring encourages the understanding of the other when we step

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outside of homogenous environments. Higher education is a perfect opportunity to
introduce students to the global community. In a more expansive approach , theatre artist
Noël Grieg creates theatre that encompasses what he terms as intercultural process.
Grieg’s comprehensive book, Young People, New Theatre describes the process
of collaboration between communities in the Contacting the World project. He never uses the term devising or devised theat re while he describes the approach and exercises that he
used in creating this project, rather he emphasizes the word collaboration. The project started in 2001 and continues today:
Contacting the World is a pioneering international theatre exchange projec t for
young people involving young companies from around the globe. The festival
provides an international platform and profile for theatre made by young people around the world and at its core it creates mutual understanding and respect between young people from different backgrounds while producing new performance work which reflects cultural and creative diversity . (Contact
Web page)

Contacting the World supports a multicultural pedagogy. This project uses devising to
connect young people from all parts of the world in a cultural exchange. Grieg’s book explains the process from how to find participants to detailed exercises and examples of results. As he states, "This book is primarily a practical guide to a specific process of
creative work: the twinning of groups of young artists from different cultures and communities, leading to new theatre that is rooted in a collaborative enterprise" ( Grieg 1) .
This project is an example of how devising pedagogy can open a community to other cultures from across the globe. It also shows how digital media can be used to connect diverse communities. Technology can be a useful tool to connect a somewhat

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homogenous community to the outside world. Video conferencing and electronic
exchange provide practical approaches to working long -distance.
The variety in approaches to professional devised theatre offers a multitude of
opportunities and methods for multicultural pedagog y. The emphasis seems to be on
exploration, discovery of self and how the world works in a global society. The professional theatre in the USA stresses community and social justice. They also use several different approaches to devising , even though they a re all ensemble based
companies. In some , the director brings the idea and orchestrates the approach to the
creation of material, in this case the director also claims authorship. Others use a totally democratic process and give authorship to the ensemble. Either works in terms of pedagogy and it is up to the professor to decide what will work with their classroom setting. Musical theatre, dance, and ceremonial theatre show how different forms of devising provide a rich collection from which classes may choose methods and ideas. In
the last chapter of this dissertation I conclude with a framework for create coursework in devised theatre.

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Chapter Five: Conclusion
Devised theatre allows professors a unique opportunity to teach creativity,
performance studies, theatre arts, identity, community and social conscience. Devising
often includes commentaries on social mores and political stances. Devising is used as a tool for community discussion and healing for groups, it is used to communicate across cultu res, and it is used to educate. A devised theatre piece can be purely entertaining , but
most likely has a message or invites the audience to contemplate life differently than when they walked into the performance. As Artaud’s writings compel artists to loo k
beyond entertainment, devising is one way to answer his call for, “ A theater which,
abandoning psychology, recounts the extraordinary, puts on the stage natural conflicts, natural and subtle forces, and which presents itself first of all as an exceptional force of redirection ” (Artaud 259) . This redirection allows theatre in higher education to
contribute to creating individuals who support a multicultural workplace in the global community.
In Chapter One and throughout the dissertation I reviewed schola rship on
devising, digital age theories, the practice of devising and the pedagogy of devising.
What I touched on is brief and offers an overview for readers to continue their own search. There are a few books on the history of devising, each emphasizing different sections of history , but all of them are in agreement on the early theatre that led to
devising. This includes C ommedia D ell’Arte, Antonin Artaud, Dadaism, the
experimental theatre of the sixties, Happenings and physical theatre. I also explored a range of definitions for the digital age to include common terms currently used in the technical world as well as words used by performance theorists like Baudrillard and

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Auslander. This serves to offer how wide and encompassing technology is and the effe ct
it has on our culture and the performing arts. I also felt required to define devising in
order to focus on an area small enough for a dissertation. I chose to concentrate on devising by a group of performers who create the piece in a collaborative effort by starting with an idea and then writing and staging the script. Continuing with definitions ,
I explained multicultural pedagogy and why it enhances our efforts to create individuals who support and thrive in a pluralistic society. The definitions and overview prepared the foundation that my arguments were built on.
In Chapter Two I took an in depth look at Artaud and Grotowski in order to
ascertain why Artaud’s writings and Grotowski’s theatre continue to influence devised theatre today. I elected to d eliberate on a few influences from history rather than give a
broad overview. I referred to books like Heddon and Milling’s Devising Performance: a Critical History and Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary
Practices by Govan, et al. to direct the reader to more comprehensive texts for history.
The experimental theatre of the sixties includes so many companies and artists that I chose to limit my historical discussion to what happened in the USA due to the lack of scholarship in that are a. Since Happenings are always mentioned when scholars trace the
history of devising , it was important to explain them in detail and how they came about. I
also included how musicals and modern dance have influenced devising.
Chapter T hree explored the mor e prominent theories that are used to discuss the
digital age to focus them on devised theatre. I decided that the debate on the ontology of liveness and Baudrillard’s theory on simulation were two of the most influential theories on the effects of the dig ital age on performance. I introduced some of the technology that

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directly affects devised theatre such as work with computers, motion capture and
telematic dance. There is so much technology that is being explored in terms of entertainment and art that I limited my study to a brief overview of what has happened in performance art and theatre. I t was important to take a moment to include a view from
the digital programming side to suggest that as the digital influences art, art also influences the digital.
In the fourth chapter as I reviewed the current practice of devised theatre I
concentrated on what is being done in the USA due to the sparse coverage of American devising companies. I incorporated additional discussion on how musicals are created today and offered a glimpse into contemporary Native American practices that are like devising. Then I discussed how modern dance pushes the boundaries into theatre ,
especially in terms of incorporating technology as an example of where devising can take us. The w ide scope of the practice of devising was used to encourage professors and
practitioners to explore the art by expanding their view of it. In the comprehensive analysis of multicultural pedagogy I emphasized how devising is an excellent tool for encouragin g the growth of students and for preparing them to enter a pluralistic society. I
explained in detail how my class worked on their devised piece Giving Voice in an effort
to demonstrate how devising works. I included interviews from professors who are currently using devising in their coursework to show the range of possibilities for the inclusion of devised theatre in the curriculum.
How the Digital Age Affects Us
How does a course in devising theatre help us better understand our students and
ourselves in a digital age? The opportunity that devising affords us to explore our

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relationships, our culture and our community supports professors in understanding
students and in turn allows them to teach students how to understand each other and their
changing world. This mutual understanding is essential in a global society and in preparing students to join a pluralistic workforce. Devising offers a community explora tion of cultural values, current events, historical perspectives and any other
subject that the group might want to explore. Devising is interdisciplinary and can be used across many course subjects. Devising can be the entire focus of the course under performance studies or theatre arts , or it can be used as a tool in the creative exploration
of any subject matter. Devised theatre offers a method for approaching the creative work that must happen to encourage the inventive thinking in the fields of science , business,
medicine and law.
In Chapter Three I submitted that , although the theory of liveness and simulation
is a fascinating discussion , the argument that live theatre is at odds with technology is
false. It is not a competition. Most of society accept s the new technology that constantly
pours forth permeating every aspect of our lives. This is especially true for students who have known nothing else but the digital age. For these students , the merge of technology
into their daily lives is common and or dinary. Rather than rebel against technology and
bemoan what is happening to live theatre , I invite professors to embrace the use of
technology and incorporate it into the classroom and the performance. The advantage of integrating technology into devising pedagogy is that we expose the students to live
performance, something they most likely are not familiar with, and allow them to educate us in how technology can be used in these performances. Due to the collaborative nature

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of devising , it allows us a flexible method for investigating the digital age and exploring
the creative possibilities as the technology continually changes.
The opportunities for including technology are endless. In the previous chapters I
described the use of motion capture in live dance performances that have evolved into
what is now termed telematic dance. I also described how collaboration is expanded via the Internet and teleconferencing to introduce disparate communities from across the
globe to one another. This type of interac tion expands our awareness and understanding
as it opens us to other cultures and their way of life. In Chapters Three and Four I
mentioned some of the use of technology in performance art and discussed the interactive performance that is emerging through role playing games (RPGs). The work of Blast Theory takes us out of the traditional presentation of theatre and into an interactive realm that is experienced rather than viewed. Another form of technology expanding theatre today is in hyperdrama , where scenes occur simultaneously as observers move from
scene to scene and experience the play differently each time they see it. This form of theatre has stretched from live performance to the televisual on the Internet .
47 The list
continues in an ever increasing array of potential. The limitation is in upgrading theatre
facilities and studio classrooms to accommodate the technology one would like to include. I recommend collaboration between disciplines to share in technical expertise. Technology changes rapidly s o the challenge is to stay abreast of what is available to
continue exploration into how it can be used in artistic practice.
From this overview of my arguments for the use of devising in curriculum that
promotes multicultural pedagogy , I would now like t o turn to the practical matters of
developing coursework in devising. This framework for developing devising curriculum

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includes an outline of the different approaches that are used in devised theatre
coursework. Then, a description of how I created my syl labus and lesson plan is included
followed by a detailed account of the exercises I used . The appendices include a list of
resources and more exercises from my colleagues that I thought were particularly inventive and useful.
Developing Curriculum: A pproac hes
There are several different ways to approach the pedagogy of devising in higher
education. Devising sometimes becomes part of courses in performance studies, adaptation of literature to the stage, creative drama, and physical theatre. A course in adap tation can focus solely on oral interpretation and solo performance. A course in
literature can focus on using text as a basis for writing a script. A course in social justice can use devising to explore personal narrative or ethnography. Devising can be used as a form of group work in weekly assignments similar to Lecoq’s autocours. For the purpose of this dissertation , I prefer to focus on creating coursework specifically in devising for
the purpose of teaching live theatre.
When addressing how to approac h a course in devising , the professors I spoke
with agree that a two semester approach is best. The first semester course would consist of teaching the class the history and theory behind devising and introducing them to some of the tools and techniques to use. The class would begin creating pieces to include in the
script during the first semester. Then , in the second semester , they would discuss form
and content, choosing what to include or discard and creating a structure for the piece. Of course, during this semester the students would participate in the entire production
process of creating props, costumes, sets, lighting and sound as well as programs and

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perhaps advertising. Dr. Noah Lelek and I conjectured how courses would work if a
college had an on going devising process. In addition to the two- semester coursework
suggested above , additional classes could include documenting the process as a reflection
class for the participants and as dramaturgy for observers. An ongoing process would allow students to work on a piece for perhaps two years using many experimental
techniques and allowing them to hone a work for production and perhaps a tour.
In contrast, Joan Schirle believes that devising must, “have a viable methodology
for process -oriented explora tions as well as for developing finished works for the stage”
(Schirle 97). She believes that often works created in higher education by the students in a devising process results in self -referential works where students do not explore a
character outside of themselves. Many times , classes in devised theatre focus on personal
narratives or autoethnography. The Dell’Arte school works to create actors who can embody a persona outside of their own personalities. “Students must learn to prepare a
role and do an actor’s homework, to cultivate an informed critical viewpoint and the
ability to look at results as well as process” (Schirle 97). The Dell’Arte purpose is to build students into performers who embody the actor -creator mindset. This is how
devising course s can be grounding coursework for performance work such as acting,
dance or playwriting. There are many approaches for including devising in the curriculum and it is up to the professor to choose how devising will help fulfill their department’s mission.
Just as there are many approaches for the intent supporting a class in devising
there are several approaches for the design of the class. The method can start with creative writing exercises the way that the program at Kent State – Stark works. By

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contrast , it can start with physical work such as the method the Dell’Arte International
School in Physical Theatre begins. Dr. Lelek began with theory in his Devising Theatre
for Social Change class. The class can start with writing, music, dance, acting, improvi sation or theory. I encourage the reader to explore the resources listed at the end
of this chapter and use the technique that best fits their purpose. It is important to remember that devising is experimental and does not necessarily end with a piece read y
for performance. I think it is essential that the work is performed for an audience to give the students the benefit of that experience. The performance validates their experience and expands their knowledge and skills. I also believe that the value is i n the process and
that the administration must indulge failed attempts as a viable method of training.
Developing the Syllabus
When I develop a course , I start with both the syllabus and the lesson plans and
build them simultaneously. I conduct research i nto what books I will require and how the
class will progress. The intent of the course guides the exercises and the assessment activities. My class was an introduction to performance studies. I decided to implement an immediate immersion process and use d evising to start the course. I knew that I might
have students from all disciplines and all levels (first years through seniors) so I wanted them to jump into creating a piece without having time to worry over it. I knew the Life and Literature Performance weekend would be September 15th – 18th in 2011 and
classes started on August 23rd. This class was a Tuesday/Thursday class that would meet for 75 minutes each time.
The first item on my agenda was to describe the class and I reviewed what other
professor s used to describe performance studies courses and devising classes before

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deciding on my own description. I liked the description from Professor Mary S. Strine of
the University of Utah for her Introduction to Performance Studies class and I also reviewed the texts that she chose. Here is her course description:
This course is an introduction to the study of written texts through the medium of
performance. The word performance is used broadly to suggest action, a doing, a consciously interactive experience created by text and performer. Through a number of individual and group performances, selected readings, and written exercises, the course aims to assist you in exploring the communicative and artistic dimensions of a variety of written texts. It assumes that what happens in our engagement with written texts can be a significantly humanizing experience and that through performance we might achieve a better understanding of the pleasure and power of that engagement.

I ended up using her description the way that she wrote it, but added objectives and used
different exercises for my class. When creating the objectives for the class I always ask the question, why take this class? Rather than using objectives from the perspective of why I teach the class , I use the view of the student. I decided on two simple objectives: 1.
to explore self, others, and contexts through the performance of literature, and 2. to develop the analytic, critical, and performance skills necessary to fully engage literature in perfor mance. From there, I had to decide on textbooks for the class. I knew I wanted to
work with poetry, short stories and personal narrative so I explored the anthologies that Strine used in her class. I wanted books that would stimulate their curiosity. I chose three textbooks: Performance Studies: An Introduction by Richard Schechner, Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times by Neil Astley, and Our Story Begins by Tobias Wolff. I
chose Astley’s book of poetry because its description was “life -affirming poems fired by
belief in the human and the spiritual at a time when much in the world feels unreal and inhuman” (Astley back cover). I thought contemporary poetry like this would touch them.

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The anthology is comprised of many different poems from many authors so there ought
to be at least one to which a student could respond. As I read through the short stories by Tobias Wolff , they seemed to be of a contemporary n ature that would intrigue the
students as well. I reviewed several performance studies books and I chose Schechner’s because it had snippets about various artists throughout the text and a section at the end of each chapter with suggestions for discussions , performing exercises and additional
reading , besides being a comprehensive introduction to performance studies. I used the
snippets on artists as tools to stimulate additional research by the students. I had the students choose a single artist to research and share more information on in class. As it turns out , when I gave my class mid -semester and final semester course evaluations they
felt that the theory in the Schechner text was too expansive for an introductory course. They felt his textbook would be better suited for an intermediate level class.
With only four weeks from the first day of class until the performance and a class
that only met twice a week I knew I would require rehearsal time outside of class. I did not think the students could commit to daily rehearsals , so I asked for four additional two
hour times during these weeks. Besides the usual name games and introductory speeches ,
I spent the first day describing how we would create a performance in four weeks and asking them to look at thei r schedule so we could decide when everyone could rehearse.
The course allowed sixteen students, some of whom dropped when discovering what the class would entail and some who added as openings became available. We agreed upon Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday evening rehearsals from seven pm to nine pm and
Sunday afternoons at two pm. As we began to rehearse the class evened out with ten participants. I developed a lesson plan that would be flexible for the first four weeks to

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allow changes in rehearsal times and give me the freedom as the director to allow the
creative impulses room to grow. In other words, classwork and rehearsal assignments blended together.
After the performance, I wanted to review and discuss the experience then begin
the study of perform ance theory. I developed each week’s exercises based on the chapters
in Schechner’s textbook, allowing for the possibility that the class might get interested in
spending more time on one chapter and less time on another. Our department requests that profe ssors incorporate the theatre season into their lesson plans , so I planned
discussion of the season performances in terms of what we had learned about performance theory at that point. I required the students to write a short review of these performances b y using the show to comment on one of the theories they had learned.
Most of them were used to writing standard performance reviews where they comment on the story, the design work, the acting and the staging of the concert. They were
reluctant to change w hat they were comfortable with , so in preparation I asked them in
class how a television show or film fit or refuted a theory we had discussed. This helped them understand how to write their critiques using performance theory. As I stated in Chapter Four, we repeated the exercises using poetry, short story and personal narrative after our show while we studied performance theory. Now that they had more time to analyze each exercise they became more interested in the theory and how they could use the exercis e for expanded creativity.
Finally , the question of assessment has to be addressed when developing a class. I
assured the students that participation was the bulk of their grade for this class especially during the first four weeks. Everyone had to attend all the rehearsals, contribute to the

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performance, perform and they all had to share their critiques of the material we created.
I always have to assure students that they will not be graded on talent, only on participation. It invariably turns out that t hey are equally talented once they conquer their
fear and join in. The first four weeks were easy as far as measurement is concerned , since
it involved attendance and participation. I was blessed with an enthusiastic group of ten students who gave their ut most to prepare a performance. My idea that immediate
immersion would not give them time to worry over their talent was correct. They did not have time to decry their abilities or this crazy process. One of the students summarized her feelings in her refle ctive essay:
When the idea of bringing together various types of media to create a piece in a
mere three weeks was first presented, I had very little faith in the success of the project…As we neared tech week, I realized that the show was going to go on whether I felt okay with the script or not. From that point forward, I decided I was
going to embrace the show and give it my best shot no matter what… Thanks to my new attitude, I felt like the believability of what I was saying on stage significantly incre ased. In addition, I found myself really enjoying the dancing
and the singing rather than fearing how embarrassing it may be. (Student essay)
48

Most of the students expressed similar doubts in this idea that we could create a piece and
perform it in only four weeks. However they were all proud of what they presented and enjoyed the process. After the performance they were required to write a reflective essay on their experience. I included a balance between writing assignments, exams and performance work. In addition to the reflective essay and essays on the three seasonal performances they were required to attend, I planned a midterm and final exam on the Schechner book. I adapted grading rubrics from Dr. Kevin Brown to use for their essays. I allow for flexibility in lesson planning and by the end of the semester we took a class

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vote on whether they would prefer a final exam or the assignment of a short essay. They
already had a final paper to write and a final performance for class due. They chose to
write a short essay rather than take an exam. The rubrics, syllabus and lesson plans for this class are included in the appendices.
Giving Voice Exer cises
In Chapter Four I gave a brief overview of the exercises that comprised my class,
here I give a detailed explanation for each one. After I described what we were going to
do with devising I then told them the theme would be “Who Am I?” and to think about
what that means as we began exercises to explore the performance of that question. First ,
I started with vocalization. This usually breaks the ice and gets the class to start creating without thinking about it. I asked them to create a sound with the ir voice and I gave them
some examples such as squeaks, animal sounds or machine sounds that can be made with the voice. It always helps if the professor starts the process. They laughed and started experimenting. I asked them to settle on one sound per pe rson. I had them stand in a
circle and we went around the circle and everyone made their sound. Then, I asked them
to elongate the sounds, shorten them and I began conducting them in different rhythms. I then grouped them according to their sounds and show ed them my signals as a conductor
for begin, stop, elongate, continue, soften and increased volume. I conducted them like an
orchestra and we created an impromptu composition. From there I asked them to create a simple movement to go with their sound. The movement might consist of raising one arm, snapping the fingers, lifting a leg or bending the legs. Then, I arranged the group
into the formation of a triangle and had them begin walking, peeling off in two directions until they formed a circle. We repeated this change in formation adding the movements

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and the sounds they created. Now they had a short performance piece that consisted of
movement, vocalization, rhythm and the use of space. They learned it all in one class period. This exercise encourages stu dents to believe that they are capable of creating a
devised piece and introduces them to vocalization and simple pedestrian movement. I assigned my class a book of poetry and in one of the classes I told them to
choose one or two poems that ‘spoke’ to them. They each read their poem to the class. I asked them to choose the most important phrases in the poem and write them down on separate pieces of paper. I limited them to five each. After they completed that assignment I put the papers into a container a nd mixed them up. I took the container
around the room and had them draw five pieces of paper. T hey each recited their five
pieces of paper in succession. Next I had them analyze what happened to the poetry with this exercise. I asked them to think about i f the phrases went together in this random
drawing and if there was any kind of rhythm that occurred. Their discussion led them to
find the similarities in the poetry or specific words or the rhythms in the phrasing. The next assignment with poetry was for them to bring to class their favorite poem, this time
it could have been from the book I assigned or from somewhere else. Finally, I asked
them to think about how they could perform the poem besides simply reciting it.
When they next met they once again recited their poem s. I put them in small
groups to discuss ways they could perform their poem s. Then they each perform ed their
poem. After everyone presented their poem we brainstormed ways to perform them. The class talked about singing or using rhythm such as clapping to accompany the poetry or dancing the poem. I encouraged them to use movement and to think about acting out the poem. Then, we brainstormed and talked about choosing only certain words from the

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poems or if any of the poems are similar and i f so, in what way. I made suggestions such
as having three people recite their poems simultaneously so that one says the first line,
then the second speaks, then the third, in a round. To encourage them to use movement to interpret their poem I asked them to choose one word from the poetry and create a movement for it. W e put the words and movements together to create a new segment that
involved all of them. After the work with poetry , I asked them to read a short story from the Tobias
Wolff book. By now t he class understood how we work in this process and they began
creatively discussing the stories to find similarities or interesting oppositions. The next assignment was to bring in their favorite short story. From this exercise many of the students brought children’s stories or their favorite fairy tale. Many of the stories were familiar to all of them so I had them read aloud the ones that some of them had not heard before. Again I put them in small groups to work and they discussed possible
performances of these stories. They performed the stories for each other and critiqued one another, making suggestions as to how to improve the performance. They spontaneously used each other in the performance of their stories as well as creating solo performances.
The way that I introduced personal narrative was to have them each bring in a one
page story about themselves that they did not mind sharing with the class. As with the poetry and short stories , they read their narratives aloud in class. They were amazed at
how many of them were similar and impressed with how willing they all were to share something so personal. In this class , several of them told about childhood injuries and one
of the students told how her family vacation home burned down. This started a discussion of how these stories might answer the question “Who Am I?” All of these exercises

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served to introduce one another and to get to know each other a little better which made
them more comfortable with performing together. By now they were willing to share
what additional talents they had such as playing a musical instrument, singing, or writing poetry. In this class we had a young man who wrote musical parodies and he shared a couple with the class. He had written a parody of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” entitled “Origami”. The entire class loved his parody and agreed to perform it in our piece. As we worked together to figure out how we could perform this piece they got the idea to create origami to hand out to the audience. Two women volunteered to resea rch origami and
teach us all how to make pieces in class. We learned the art of paper folding together and several volunteered to make some simple pieces that we could distribute to the audience. From these ideas one of the women choreographed some simple movement they could all perform while singing the piece. We originally thought the author of the piece would sing it as a solo but in rehearsals I made the director’s choice to have all of them sing it so we
would have better volume in our performance spac e.
By this time , everyone in the class was excited by how devising worked and some
had chosen personal narratives to perform while others choreographed dances and others decided to sing. As I found threads that tied the various pieces together we discusse d
what to keep and what to discard. As the director I decided we had plenty of material and opted for a one hour long performance. I knew this would fit into the production of Life and Literature as the artistic directors were showcasing a short play durin g this series as
well. My students expressed concern that we had too many pieces and frustration with how this would all come together. That is when I talked about trusting the director and believing that I would not let them do something that would look bad. They all attempted

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modes of performance they had never tried before. Some of them had never danced but
they all danced together in “Origami .” Some of them did not consider themselves singers
but they were comfortable singing together as a group. We had two guitar players who were willing to play live music that a fellow classmate had chosen as accompaniment for her dance. One of the women was a choreographer like me so she choreographed “Origami” and a duet in which she appeared. I included two dance pi eces, one about a
mother waiting for her son to return and one on domestic violence.
These are just a few exercises to use in a devising class. The indices include some
resources that describe exercises in detail that would be useful in a devised theatre course. The most important point to remember is that the teacher simply needs to get the students to start creating. Once they get going they will spontaneously introduce more ideas that everyone may choose from to continue the process. When they realize t hat
failure is acceptable they become free to explore and experiment which is what creativity
is all about. As Lecoq admonishes, it must be fun. Learning must be fun in order to be remembered and fully utilized.
Incorporating Technology
Today , the technol ogy that is readily available i nclude s projections, video,
lighting, sound and innovative ways to include audience participation. "The next stages of smart and virtual environments with robust interactivity will hold the possibility of creating a theatre n ot of actors and spectators but of individual interactivity in dramatic
scenarios. … What is obvious is that the performativity of cyberspace is being explored and colonized. What is less apparent are how these experiments in theatre will alter our knowledge of performance, theatre, and art within and without the new technologies"

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(Causey 49) . The future holds possibilities that we have not yet imagined. For practical
purposes I will describe what we used in the Giving Voice performance.
In Giving Voice , the students discussed how to involve the audience. They all
liked the idea of projecting Twitter and Facebook feeds onto a screen so that the audience
could tweet and post comments about the show while it was being performed. This is certainly possible giv en the right equipment available in the performance space but we
discovered that we did not have live Internet feed to be able to reliably incorporate that
idea. There is also the possibility that audience members may post derogatory remarks
and that peopl e who are not in the audience may post remarks remotely . If we had used
this type of technology we would have instituted rules at the beginning of each show. It would also be possible for a technician to monitor the tweets and Facebook posts and edit what is displayed on the projection screen.
We used the technology of background slides projected behind the actors. For the
scene that children’s stories were performed in, we projected the drawings included in the
book Go the Fuck t o Sleep. The students chos e where to include slides, music and
sounds and created them on their own. For my dance on domestic violence, Ricky found many slides of men and women fighting and reconciling with the last slide using a
headline of Stop Domestic Violence . Ricky also creat ed a video of slides and music for
the war background to enhance the poetry recitations on that subject. He meticulously timed sounds of explosions and music to intertwine with the live actors’ voices. We also experimented with recorded sound woven with li ve sound, placing actors in different
areas of the stage and behind the bleacher style seats of the audience.

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If the space is equipped with video, lighting, sound, computer software and the
type of movement monitoring that I described in Chapter Four with Temple University
and Liverpool John Moores University , then there are all kinds of possibilities for
incorporating technology available. This is when a two semester course or a longer program is useful so that the students can learn to use the technologie s available to them.
The thought of incorporating technology also allows for interdisciplinary coursework for creating a devised piece. Digital media classes would teach students how to use motion capture, videos, lighting and recorded music or sound in the piece. Technical theatre classes would teach the students how to use the equipment and design classes would teach the students how to use the technology available in a live theatre setting. Students could rotate through all these classes and learn how to use the software, how to create motion, music, and sound, and how to distort those sounds and images to create a totally new segment to the overall piece.
In this way , technology becomes an extension of the artistic disciplines. For
example, in a dance de gree students learn how to move, how to hone their bodies into
performance tools and they learn to choreograph. The technology of videography and motion capture can be extensions of learning dance and choreography. The students would learn contact improvis ation as a tool for choreography and by adding technology
they would then learn how to record the movement. They would learn how to manipulate the live performance and the visual effects to create art (telematic dance) that captures an audience’s awareness . Likewise classes in digital media and televisual design extend
from visual art, computer science, playwriting, and the theatre arts of acting, directing

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and design. Devising allows for the collaboration of all these students to create a
performance piece.
A devising program allows students from various disciplines to work together and
learn from each other. Collaboration like this sparks interest in courses that students may not have considered before working on a devised piece. In my performance studies class
it was important to the students to involve the audience interactively. Since we were unable to include tweeting , the students opted for distributing origami during that
segment and for sharing sandwiches during another. A simple way to include technology in the classroom is to consider collaborating with a class or group remotely located through the use of teleconferencing such as the project Contacting the World described in Chapter Four . By sharing via email and Skype two groups can simultaneously collaborate
to create one completed work. Rather than reaching across the world the class could join with a class in another school or university or theatre group to create a combined piece.
For those who are intimidated by technology I will repeat what I always told my users
when I worked in Information Technology, “you are smarter than the machine.” Remember that an ordinary person (like you) wrote the software you are attempting to use and you will be able to experiment with it until you gain control and can use it adroitly. The use of technology uses the same guiding intent as devising, experiment and explore.
Contemplations
When I employed immediate immersion to create a devised work with my
students I exploited techniques that I had been developing since I started choreographing

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when I was a teenager. One of the students in Dr. Noah Lelek’s class that met the
semester after my class concluded , said to me:
“When I saw your performance I wondered how you knew to have them do all
those different things. Then in class Noah gave us articles to read and that’s when
I thought, that’s how she knew to do that!”

I was amused and asked Dr. Lelek for his syllabus so I could read the articles he was
including in his course . As a dancer and choreographer I have been creating devised
theatre all my adult life under varying names other than devising. The experimentation that expands the ideas behind choreography also applies to theatre and playwriting. My experience with technol ogy and music makes it natural to experiment with how
technology can be used to push the envelope of creativity. The incorporation of technology into the classroom and the theatre , enhances our ability to teach a
multicultural pedagogy. As I go forth to te ach in higher education and continue to expand
the practice of my art I am pleased that I have found a way to unite all the diverse components of my distinct careers into one whole. I am devised.

Notes

2. For example, on devised theatre see Devised and Collaborative Theatre: A
Practical Guide by Tina Bicat and Chris Baldwin, “The Archaeology of Performance” by
Mary Zimmerman, and “Devising Utopia, or Asking for the Moon” by Virginie Magnat. For history of devised theatre see A History of Oral Interpretation by Eugene and Margaret L. Bahn, Devising Performance: a Critical History by Deirdre Heddon and Jane Milling, and Remembering: Oral History Performance by Della Pollack, to name a few. For application of physical theatre see Through the Body: a Practical G uide to Physical
Theatre by Dymphna Callery, “Creativity and the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre” by Peter Buckley, “The Practice of Astonishment: Devising,

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Phenomenology, and Jacques Lecoq” by Jon Foley Sherman, and On Directing and
Dramaturgy: Burning the House by Eugenio Barba. (Full references included in the
bibliography.)

3. Kaitlin Hopkins is the head of the Musical Theatre program at Texas State
University and is an accomplished actor/singer with credits on Broadway, regional theatre, film, television, opera and radio. She originated the award winning role of
Meredith Parker in Bat Boy the Musical , Claire in Bare: a pop opera, Jeannie in The
Great American Trailer Park Musical and Diane in Disney’s On the Record. For more
infor mation see her web page www.KaitlinHopkins.com.

4. See “Part One: Genealogies and Histories” of the book Making a Performance:
Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices .

5. Jennifer Meagher. “Commedia dell’arte.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000- .
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/comm/hd_comm.html Web. Accessed 23 Feb. 2013.

6. I have given a bare outline of theatre between Commedia and Artaud. There is a
great deal more to be said about this time. Many of the introductory history textbooks are good references for the historical timeline of theatre such as:
Theatre, The Lively Art by Edwin Wilson and Alvin Goldfarb, and Living
Theatre: A History by Edwin Wilson and Alvin Goldfarb. A good series of books about
modern drama are the Modern Drama in Theory and Practice by J.L. Styan. Any book by
Oscar G. Brockett who was an expert in theatre history is excellent. There are myriads of texts on Shakespeare, one in particular is Shakespeare, the Queen’s Men, and the Elizabethan Performance of History by Brian Walsh.

7. Scholars such as the authors of Devising Performance , Making a Performance,
and American Avant -garde Theatre all mention Artaud in their historical overviews.

8. Thomas Crombez. “Artaud, the Parodist? The Appropriations of the Theatre
Alfred Jarry, 1927- 1930.” Forum Modernes Theater , 20: 2005, 33- 51.
http://www.zombrec.be/appropriations.pdf Accessed 4 Jan . 2013.

9. Gene A. Plunka. “The Suffering Shaman of the Modern Theater.” Antonin
Artaud and the Modern Theater . London: Associated University Presses, 1994.

10. James Slowiak and Jairo Cuesta. Jerzy Grotowski . London: Routledge, 2007,
18.

11. Described in detail in Slowiak’s book Jerzy Grotowski, 40 – 44.

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12. Viola Spolin in internationally r ecognized for theatre games based on
improvisation. See her website www.spolin.us for additional information. Chaikin’s
sound- and-movement exercises are described in detail in Aronson’s American Avant –
garde Theatre , 87.

13. The Open Theatre is describe in more detail in Aronson’s American Avant –
garde Theatre , 85-97.

14. Kirby spends the entire Introduction of the book Happenings defining the term.

15. The script and the production is described in Kirby’s book. Michael Kirby.
Happenings . New York: E.P. Dutton & Co, Inc., 1965. 53- 83.

16. See the Odin Teatret webpage “Eugenio Barba.” www.odinteatret.dk Accessed
21 Feb. 2013.

17. This is paraphrased from Garebian’s description, Keith Garebian. The Making
of West Side Story . Oakland, ON: Mos aic Press, 1998. 30- 31.

18. Garebian attributes much of this background on how the musical developed to
the book Sondheim & Company .

19. Taken from Robert Viagas, Baayor k Lee and Thom mie Walsh. On the Line:
The Creation of a Chorus Line . New Jersey: Limelight Editions, 2006.

20. As described by Carolyn Brown. Chance and Circumstance . Chicago:
Northwestern University Press, 2007. 20- 21.

21. Yvonne Rainer. “Yvonne Rainer Interviews Ann Halprin.” Happenings and
Other Acts . ed Mariellen R. Sandford. London: Routledge, 1995. 137 -159.

22. George Jackson. “Judson Church: Dance.” Dance Heritage Coalition. Web.
Accessed 07 Mar. 2013.

23. Dixon is an interdisciplinary artist- scholar who is currently the President of
LaSalle College of the Arts in Singapore afte r serving as Head of the School of Arts and
as the Pro -Vice Chancellor at Brunel University (UK). Smith is currently professor of
ontology and biomedical informatics at the University of Buffalo in New York (US) who is also a research scientist in the Cent er of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life
Sciences.

24. Philip Auslander. Liveness: Performance in a mediatized culture . London:
Routledge, 1999. 38 He cites an Atlanta performance of the rock group Yes.

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25. Ibid. On page 7 he suggests this is her stance from her book Unmarked: The
Politics of Performance . London: Routledge, 1993.

26. Auslander’s first edition of Liveness was in 1999 when he made his argument
against her essay.

27. Auslander updated his book Liveness in 2008 stating, “One of the central goals
of preparing a second edition was to make the book more responsive to a highly volatile
cultural scene” (Auslander, Liveness 2nd ed xii) . He addresses some of the statements
scholars made about the limited scope of his arguments in the 1999 version by including discourse on the “distinctive characteristics often attributed to live performance” (xii).

28. An American Family was a 12 hour documentary series on PBS broadcast in
1973. It followed the lives of the Loud family in Santa Barbara, CA for seven months.
PBS. 2002. Web. www.pbs.org/lanceloud/American. Accessed 05 May 2013.

29. “Variations V.” Electronic Arts Intermix . n.p. n.d. Web.
<www.eai.org/title.htm?id=15056> Accessed 12 April 2013.

30. Johannes Birringer is artistic director of AlienNation Co. which is a laboratory
for cross -cultural, multimedia production. <www.aliennationcompany.com> He has been
a professor of performance studies at Northwestern University and is now the Chair/Professor of performance technologies at Brunel University in London.

31. Birringer reported the address of this art as www.webdances.com in his 2002
article but when I tried to access it 31 March 2013 the domain was no longer in use.

32. Laura Flaunders . “Interview with Laurie Anderson.” GRITtv . Web. Accessed 3
April 2013.

33. Laurel served as professor and founding chair of the graduate program in
design at California College of the Arts until 2012. She designed the graduate media design program at the Art Center College of Design and was a distinguished engineer at
Sun Microsystems. <www.tauzero.com/Brenda_Laurel/BrendaBio.html>. Accessed 2 April 2013.

34. The Mediawork project is an exercise in collaborative practice. It is a
transmedia system that explores art, literature, design, music and architecture in the context of emergent technologies and rapid economic and social change. Taken from www.peterlunenfeld.com/mediawork, accessed 1 April 2013.

35. Mike Bradwell is a UK actor, playwright and director. He founded Hull Truck
Theatre Company in 1971, was artistic director at The Bush (1996 – 2007), and directed screen, television and stage. He is a free -lance director and author.

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36. Amleto Sartori was an Italian sculptor who conducted research on the masks of
the Italian Commedia. The characters and construction techniques for the masks were
forgotten for more than two centures. Sartori and his son Donato reinvented the
techniques and worked with Barrault, Lecoq and others in collaboration to create masks for their performances. “Art of the Mask in the Commedia Dell’Arte.” Sartori Mask Museum . Web. Accessed 5 April 2013.
<www.sartorimaskmeuseum.it/eng/seminario_eng2011.html>.

37. See the CBT web page www.carpetbagtheatre.org for more information.

38. Bat Boy: The Musical premiered at the Actors Gang Theatre on October 31,
1997. Book is by Keythe Farley and Brain Flemming with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe.

39. This statement is from Kaitlin Hopkins. I have been unable to verify it as fact.

40. In 1999 Running Man w as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and
awarded a 1999 Obie. In 2002 a production of Brutal Imagination won the 2002 Oppenheimer award for the best first play by an American Playwright. Brutal Imagination is a narration by a black man who is the imaginary man Susan Smith blamed for kidnapping her children. She had in fact drowned her two children in the John D. Long Lake. Running Man presents an African American male who crashes the barriers of
color and class in the United States.

41. Teresa Stan kiewicz. “ Native Acts: Indian Performance 1603- 1932 and
Ceremony, Spirituality, and Ritual in Native American Performance: A Creative Notebook.” Book Review . Theatre History Studies , Volume 33, Pending.

42. The students in this class signed consent forms that allow me to use their
names and the name of the class. For those students who wished to remain anonymous I have changed their names throughout the dissertation.

43. Mark H. Chae "Gender and Ethnic Identity Development Among College
Students From Four Ethnic Groups." Annual Conference of the American Psychological
Association. Washington, DC. 4- 8 Aug. 2000. ERIC . Web. 11 Nov. 2011. Report, 17.

44. See more information on Storycatchers theater on their website,
http://www.storycatcherstheatre.org.

45. The definition of agitprop is “Political propaganda, especially favoring
communism and disseminated through literature, drama, art, or music”. The Free

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Dictionary by Farlex. 28 Mar 2013. <www.thefreedictinoary.com/agitprop>. Although I
disagree that it esp ecially favors communism, it is a shortened term for agitation
propaganda and usually refers to the use of drama. The skits created for agit -prop were
often used devising and was popular in the sixties. The Guer rilla Girls are a feminist
group out of San F rancisco that works to expose sexism, racism and corruption in
politics, art, film and pop culture. Started in 1985 it split into three separate groups in 2000, Guerrilla Girls On Tour, Guerrilla Girls and Guerrilla Girls Broadband. See <www.guerrillagirls .com> and <guerrillagirlsontour.blogspot.com>.

46. This exercise is described in detail in the appendices.

47. See “The New Hyperdrama: How Hypertext Scripts are Changing the
Parameters of Dramatic Storytelling.” Charles Deemer. Theatre in Cyberspace. ed. Stephen A. Scrum. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1999.

48. This student preferred that she not be identified in any publication that dealt
with Giving Voice or the class.

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APPENDIX A: GIVING VOICE SCRIPT

Pre-show music stops
House lights at half, stage black
Triangle in place, Keith & Ricky start their sounds
Em is in the audience. She stands and as she walks down steps to the stage she reads:
This is the first sentence of this story. This is the second sentence. This is the title of this
story, which is also found several times in the story itself. This sentence is questioning
the intrinsic value of the first two sentences. This sentence is to inform you, in case you haven’t already realized it, that this is a self -referential story, that is, a story containing
sentences that refer to their own structure and function. This is a sentence that provides an ending to the first paragraph.
Once Em is in place the triangle moves dsr, more noises add, they b reak into a large circle.
The circle collapses, they turn to face out and the circle expands. Leslie stops her sound and goes
to get the big origami sculpture, then row two stops and gets their cubes, row three stops and gets their cubes, two from row four stop to get their cubes and Keith & Ricky stop their sounds.
Music: Origami starts
Ricky offers arm to Lanita. Keith and Ryan get table and chairs and place them dsl. Ricky escorts Lanita to the table and chairs. Qiana gets a plate with a crane on it and serves it to Ricky
& Lanita. Keith and Ryan hand out paper. Ensemble creates origami sculptures as they sing.
We go to eat (Ricky sits) (Qiana serves)
We t -take a seat
What is this on my plate?
It looks just like a crane (Ricky stands and w alks cs)
It’s so beautiful
And a bit unusual
Folded and shaped
With no glue or tape
Not sure what it’s called
But this paper sculpture
Should be kept the same
I know this art’s got a name
So I asked the server “Miss?…” (Tap Qiana)

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Chorus: What do you call this?
she said that it’s an art so lovely
Ori-origami
Invented in the six- teen hun -dreds
Well, thank you Bobbie.
It’s ori -origami
Paper or some cloth
And I’m so glad that this art wasn’t lost
You can fold some flowers
It’s better than a tsunami
Ori-origami

(Ryan and Carmen move the table and chairs off, Maya holds the curtain open for
them)

Then we went home ( Ricky, Lanita, Qiana and Keith go to Leslie to get paper and
stand cs, Ricky gives Em the origami sculpture on tray)
It’s still on my mind
So I went on Youtube
Just to learn how to do
What those people did
So hard to make an orchid!
Paper cuts mount I can’t figure this out
Don’t get this design, and I think I might cry (throw crumpled paper at the audience,
Leslie resc ues large crane)
It’s so frustrating
But it’s still so amazing
Cuz you know that baby I…
Chorus: I’m its biggest fan (dance)
I’ll fold paper until it’s lovely
Ori-origami
Baby it’s the great -est in -vention
Since smoked salami
It’s ori -origami
It’s like I’m on crack
Think that I’m an Origa -maniac
Does this have a rehab?
I’ll be in like good pastrami
Ori-origami!

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At the end of the dance Keith and Carmen take chairs and table offstage. Maya holds
the curtain open for them.

Bridge: Relapse, I’m sculpting a small masterpiece ( Ryan, Erin, Leslie, Lanita &
Qiana hand out origami to the audience, others Vogue)
Fold, fold, its revenge from the Japanese
Won’t stop, for anyone
It’s so wrong, but it’s so damn fun!

Chorus: You could make a crop (make half circle cs, Leslie replaces origami crane)
Or you could make a flock of cloth geese
Ori-origami
Baby there’s no lim -its long as
It’s a bird with moxie
Ori-origami!
Clothes and books beware
Cuz I may make some groups of birds in air
Baby I’m addicted
To making paper less floppy
Ori-origami.

Em comes downstage to recite:
This is the first sentence of a new paragraph in a self -referential story. This sentence is
introducing you to the protagonist of the story, a young boy named Billy. This sentence
is telling you that Billy is blond and blue -eyed and American and twelve years old and
strangling his mother. This sentence reminds us, with no trace of facetiousness, that children are a precious gift from God and that the world is a better place when graced by
the unique joys and delights they bring to it.
While Em is reciting Maya exits and gets childrens books. Hands to others. They stand on
cubes and state the name of their children’s stories.
Little Red Riding Hood – Leslie
Jack in the Beanstalk – Carmen
Where the Wild Things Are – Keith
The Emperor’s New Clothes – Maya
How the Leopard Got His Spots – Lanita

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After they state the name of their story, they sit down as if to read. Keith recites Where the Wild
Things Are , Lanita retells How the Leopard Got His Spots and Ryan acts out Go the Fuck to
Sleep :
(the slides match Ryan’s paragraphs, 1 slide for each paragraph)
Ryan: The cats nestle close to their kittens now.
The lambs have laid down with the sheep.
You’re cozy and warm in your bed, my dear.
Please go the fuck to sleep.

The windows are dark in the town, child.
The whales huddle down in the deep.
I’ll read you one very last book if you swear
You’ll go the fuck to sleep.

Keith: The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind.
And another
His mother called him “WILD THING!”
And Max said “I’LL EAT YOU UP!”
So he was sent to bed without eating anything.

Lanita: So back in the day the leopard, giraffe and zebra and this Ethiopian dude all
lived on the high plains. They were all the same sandy yellow brown color all over. And
this was bad for the giraffe and zebra. Because the Ethiopian with bows and arrows and the leopard with teeth and claws scared the beejabers out of giraffe and zebra all the time. Like that was their dinn er and stuff.
Ryan: The eagles who soar through the sky are at rest
And the creatures who crawl, run and creep.
I know you’re not thirsty. That’s bullshit. Stop lying.
Lie the fuck down, my darling, and sleep.

The wind whispers soft through the grass, hon.
The field mice, they make not a peep.
It’s been thirty -eight minutes already.
Jesus Christ, what the fuck? Go to sleep.

Keith: That very night in Max’s room a forest grew.
And grew –
And grew until his ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around.
And an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max and he sailed off through night and
day.

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And in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the wild things are.

Lanita: So finally the giraffe and the zebra got a clue and s tarted bookin’ every time
they came across anything that might look like tall grass. Or a leopard or an Ethiopian.
And they hiked it out far enough that they came to this great big ole forest full of trees
and bushes with stripy speckly patchy shadows.
Ryan: All the kids from day care are in dreamland.
The froggie has made his last leap.
Hell no, you can’t go the bathroom. You know where you can go? The fuck to sleep.
The owls fly forth from the treetops.
Through the air, they soar and they sweep.
A hot crimson rage fills my heart, love.
For real, shut the fuck up and sleep.

Keith: And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their
terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed
their terrible claws.
Till Max said “BE STILL!”
And tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without
blinking once and they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all.
And made him king of all wild things.
Lanita: So man, zebra grew stripy and giraffe grew speckly. They had a beautiful time
in the forest where they could hardly be seen. Meantime the leopard and the Ethiopian
were wandering around wondering where dinner had gone. They saw this baboon and
asked him “what’s up with all the dinner being gone?”
Ryan: The cubs and the lions are snoring,
Wrapped in a big snuggly heap.
How is it you can do all this other great shit
But you can’t lie the fuck down and sleep?

The seeds slumber beneath the earth now
And the crops that the farmers will reap.
No more questions. This interview’s over.
I’ve got two words for you, kid: fucking sleep.

Keith: “And now,” cried Max, “let the wild rumpus start!” (All begin to rumpus)

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Lanita: The baboon said, “they went to other spots and you should to. And yo, they
changed because it was high time for a change. You both should change too.”

Keith: “Now stop!” Max said and sent the wild things off to bed without their supper .
(All stop and return to their places to read)

Lanita: This confused them but they set out truckin’. After walking, walking and
walking a long time they saw a great, high, tall forest full of tree trunks all speckled and
sprottled and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed and hatched and cross -hatched
with the shadows. Say that fast out loud and you’ll see how shadowy the forest was.

Keith: And Max the king of all wild things was lonely and wanted to be where someone
loved him best of all.
Ryan: The tiger reclines in the simmering jungle.
The sparrow has silenced her cheep.
Fuck your stuffed bear, I’m not getting you shit.
Close your eyes. Cut the crap. Sleep.

Lanita: Leopard and the Ethiopian could smell giraffe and zebra, and they could hear
giraffe and zebra but they couldn’t see giraffe and zebra. And they said, “Why can’t we
see them? They should stick out here like bananas hanging in a smoke house!” They
waited til dark and both caught something but waited until morning to see what they
caught.

Keith: But the wild things cried, “Oh please don’t go – we’ll eat you up – we love you
so!”
And Max said, “No!”
The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws but Max stepped into his private boat and
waved good -bye.
Ryan: The flowers doze low in the meadows
And high on the mountains so steep.
My life is a failure, I’m a shitty -ass parent.
Stop fucking with me, please, and sleep.
Lanita: Wow, were they surprised to see zebra with stripes and gir affe with patches.
The Ethiopian said, “Man, don’t you know I could spot you a mile off in the plains with
these stripes?” So zebra says, “yeah but we’re not in the plains anymore”. And leopard
says, “Whoa, how’d you do that?” Giraffe answered, “let us up and we’ll show you”.

189
Ryan: The giant pangolins of Madagascar are snoozing.
As I lie here and openly weep.
Sure, fine, whatever, I’ll bring you some milk.
Who the fuck cares? You’re not gonna sleep.

This room is all I can remember.
The furniture crappy and cheap.
You win. You escape. You run down the hall.
As I nod the fuck off, and sleep.
Keith: Max sailed back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day
And into the night of his very own room where he found his supper waiting for him.
And it was still hot.
Lanita: So they let them up and giraffe and zebra moved into the bushes where they
could barely be seen. Together they shouted, “One, two, three, where’s your breakfast?”
and ran off laughing. The leopard said, “whoa dude, we should try that. Right now you
stick out like a bar of soap under a black light.” “You should talk”, said the Ethiopian,
“you look like mustard on whole wheat bread”. The Ethiopian went first and changed his
skin to a dark black -brown color with a litt le purple and some slate blue. The leopard
was so excited to see a man change his skin like that. “What about me?” he cried. The
Ethiopian said, “the baboon told you to go to spots”. The leopard cried, “yeah I came to
this spot with you and look what g ood it’s done me!” “No, no, put spots on your skin.
Or stripes. Or patches.” So the leopard put spots all over his skin. Then they skipped off and lived happily ever after. So now when a grown- up says “Can the leopard change his
spots or the Ethiopia n change his skin?” You’ll see just how dumb they are because
you’ll know they already did and they are perfectly happy with it.
Ryan: Bleary and dazed I awaken
To find your eyes shut, so I keep
My fingers crossed tight as I tiptoe away
And pray that you’ re fucking asleep. ( All lay back or down as if asleep )

We’re finally watching our movie.
Popcorn’s in the microwave. Beep. (All sit up wide awake)
Oh shit. Goddamn it. You’ve gotta be kidding. Come on, go the fuck back to sleep.
All now stand and remov e cubes except one usr and exit. (2 cubes sl, 2 cubes sr – Projection
stops)
Erin ’s Personal Narrative : (Ryan brings 2 chairs, Keith brings table , Keith will ring a
buzzer)

190
ERIN: And then one night you’re gonna fall the fuck to sleep and wake up in the
morning finding you need to find the fuck a job. (Pause.) So you’ll go to an interview.
Where a man in a tie—not unlike your own father — (Pulls RYAN to chair.) is going to
ask you a series of meaningless questions set to evaluate your entire worth as a human
being in relation to their company. (Pauses to look at RYAN and KEITH .) This is
cake. (Comes into ‘office’ sits down.)
Hi. (Buzzer. Right as INGRID sits down. INGRID jumps up and tries again.)
Hi I’m Ingrid . (Buzzer. Right as INGRID sits down. INGRID jumps up and tries one
more time, reaching to shake his hand.)
Hello sir how are you this morning, my name’s Ingrid Torrey so happy to be
here.
RYAN: Please, take a seat.
INGRID: Don’t mind if I do! (Buzzer.) No thanks I’ll stand. (Buzzer.) Thank
you, sir.
RYAN: So I see here your last employment was Taco Bell?
INGRID: Love me some bean burrrritos. (Buzzer.) Burger King wasn’t
hiring. (Buzzer.)
Why yes, sir, yes it was.
RYAN: And you were only there for three months?
INGRID: Boss was an ass — (Buzzer interrupts.) You know how you buy a
burrito and they never put on enough cheese? Well I always put on enough
cheese. (Buzzer.) Well I wanted to explor e my options, which is why I
decided to leave the restaurant business.
RYAN: And what in your opinion is your greatest asset?
INGRID: These. (Gestures to her chest.) (Buzzer.) Asss….. ( INGRID
hesititates looks questioningly at KEITH while moving her hand towards her
butt, but KEITH continues buzzing so she continues to move her hand to
different parts of her body until she reaches her head.) …Asssss…….Miiinndd. Mind. My mind. The power of intellect!
RYAN: And what would you consider to be your biggest weakness?
INGRID: Cheesecake. (Buzzer.) Applebees. (Buzzer.) Online poker.
(Buzzer.)
Porn. (Buzzer.) Ceramic turtles. (Buzzer. INGRID hesitates, then answers.)
Work -aholic. Sometimes I just work too hard.
RYAN: A train leaves San Anton io for Houston at 60 mph. Another train leaves
Houston for San Antonio at 80 mph. Houston and San Antonio are 300 miles apart. If a bird leaves San Antonio at 100 mph, and turns around and flies back once it reaches the Houston train, and continues to fly between the two, how far
will it have flown when they collide? (Silence. After a time. Buzzer.)
RYAN: Next question. If you were to compare yourself to any U.S. president,
who would it be and why?
INGRID: (With confidence.) Benjamin Franklin because — (Buzzer.
KEITH and RYAN exchange glances, look back at me and shake their heads.

191
They take the table sl and chairs bs. INGRID gets up and begins to exit.) Look
at it this way, I get to go the fuck back to sleep.

Ricky ’s Personal Narrative: (play sound effects)
The air in the men’s locker room was as thick as fog. I stood staring at myself in front of
the mirror. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest like that beat of a two hundred
elephant stampede. With each passing minut e, the temperature in the room seemed to
increase exponentially. I could hear the roar of the crowd rumbling just above my head. Throughout my entire life, I have always talked about doing something like this, but that’s all it’s ever been. It’s just al ways been talk. Sure, I’ve done a small performance
her, a little lip -sync there, but nothing like this. I just kept saying to myself, “You got
this Ricky. You got this. Chill out!” In those moments, while I was staring into my reflection, seconds seemed like hours. My forehead began to sweat, and my nerves
began mounting with every tick of that damn hanging clock on the wall. The thoughts of
quitting and leaving were fleeting in my mind. Suddenly, a heavy metal door swings
open and my friend says, “Okay, Ricky, you’re on! Knock ‘em dead!” With a quick
glance back at my reflection in the mirror, threw on the giant bulldog head without
hesitation. Time seemed to freeze for a split second. As I ran out onto the football field
to earn my place as my school’s symbolic representation, I knew this is what I was meant
to do. I know that in the broad span of my life, this event may not seem too significant in
retrospect. But at the time, nothing seemed more important.
Maya recites her poem Tale of War f rom usr cube.
There is always war,
but never peace.
With anger and violence
countries win victories.

Spies with aliases;
secret names,
Play unfair and
win the game.

Allies and enemies
who can you trust.
Friends and countrymen
sometimes you fuss.

Airplanes with bombs
efface entire cities.
Men with guns

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demolish infantries.

Soldiers they come
beating on their drums
People they run
no longer having fun.

When the smoke clears
citizens appear.
Winners or losers
all surrender. Maya exits with the cube .

Gershwin song Prelude II, Teresa and Tim dance.
Em recites dsl: This sentence makes the observation that these are uncertain and difficult times,
and that relationships, even seemingly deep -rooted and permanent ones, do have a tendency to
break down.

Carmen ’s personal narrative – body image ( Carmen faces audience dsc )
There has never been a time that I was not aware of my body. (All enter and stand in
curve behind her looking outward into a mirror and pantomime looking in the
mirror). Growing up, puberty was never puberty, it was something called the age of 8
and 9. At the age of 8, I had breast. There was never that time where I started to bud,
because as I previously stated I have always been chunky and we (myself, family, and doctor) just believed that the fat had begun to matriculate to the breast region. How right
or wrong that belief is was never resolved. I really believe that one day I just woke up to breast. There was no training bra, that’s a joke. I can’t tell you what one looks like. My chest grew big, so rapidly that I had to buy my bras from boutiques, because my size
wasn’t in regular stores. My bra size was irregular. Now, I often hear many women
complain about not having the desired breast size or even breast at all and I say, you
don’t want that life. The bigger bras are just atrocious! If you can find a bigger bra in a
regular, more convenient store, they’re all the way in the back, behind ghost, goblins, and
the 1800’s. The color and designs of these bras are like the walls of a docto r’s office,
uninviting. Not something you want to look at or even purchase. That’s how they do us
more endowed women. Just look at the bras that they have for A and b cups. Yea you do
some comparison. Growing up with breast, I often wondered did the boys l ike me
because of my protruding forehead, sassy mouth and intellect or the exploding mounds
that rested on my chest? C’mon now, let’s not act like we don’t know which reason they
liked me. Boys are just nasty like that.
All exit except Keith

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Keith ’s person al narrative – selfish (Done in the style of a poetry slam)
My name is keith Wresinski and I am not important – but, neither are you. I believe it is
necessary to tell you this because I am selfish, and this is MY narrative. Perhaps, if you
were the su bject of a dissatisfied family, a complete paradigm shift, and an excellent
education, then you would understand your unimportance and YOU would be selfish too.
In my world, my mother is unstable, my mother is Jewish, my mother is the root of my
independen t nature. I am independent because I have seen the downfalls of an overly
dependent mother who fails to accomplish anything important for herself. I love my
mother because she is my mother.
My father is stable, my father is Christian, my father is the ro ot of my future success.
When you witness your dad change his lifestyle by means of a re -marriage, five years of
unemployment, and seemingly paying more attention to your step brothers and sisters
than you, nature motivates you toward financial and domest ic success. I love my father
very much.
My excellent education is the motivation for my paradigm shift. I grew up in a
synagogue, I grew up in a church, I went to a Christian University to promote my
religious ways. Then – I went to a school of science, I investigated every reason for
being, I collapsed my Christian ways and abandoned them for reason, logic, and truth. In that, I discovered that religion is perfectly fine, that science seeks the truth, and that every
individual is MOST focused on THEIR ability to explain THEIR reason for being – And,
as it happens, the rest of the world and myself couldn’t give two shits. You are unimportant, you are selfish, and I am too.
Em appears dsl and crosses in front of audience dsr while reciting: ( Ricky & Keit h enter and set
up guitars)
Introduce, in this paragraph, the device of sentence fragments.
Shows placards, one after the other with the following:
A sentence fragment. Another. Good device.
She says: Will be used more later.
Qiana ’s dance, Ricky & Keith play live music. (play recorded voice)
Three/Quarters Time By Nikki Giovanni
Dance with me. . . dance with me. . . we are the song. . . we are the music. . .
Dance with me. . .
Waltz me. . . twirl me. . . do- si-do please. . . peppermint twist me. . .

194
Philly squeeze
Cha cha cha. . . tango. . . two step two. . . cakewalk. . . Charleston. . .
Bougaloo. . .
Dance with me. . . dance with me. . . all night long. . . we are the music. . . we are the song
Play music: O Fortuna Lanita brings a cube in to st and on and recites Song from usl. Maya
enters with a cube and recites Tale of War dsr. (Show war slides)
Lanita – Listen: there was a goat’s head hanging by ropes in a tree.
All night it hung there and sang. And those who heard it
Felt a hurt in the ir hearts and thought they were hearing
The song of a night bird.

Keith and Ingrid enter from sr and sl, x to center and lay down.
Maya: There is always war,
but never peace.
With anger and violence
countries win victories.

Lanita : They sat up in their beds, and then They lay back down again. In the night
wind, the goat’s head swayed back and forth, and from far off it shone faintly The way
the moonlight shone on the train track miles away beside which the goat’s headless body
lay.

Keith and Ingrid sit up and lay back down.

Maya: Spies with aliases;
secret names,
Play unfair and win the game.

Lanita : Some boys had hacked its head off. It was harder work than they had imagined.
The goat cried like a man and struggled hard. But they finished the job. They hung the
bleeding head by the school and then ran off into the darkness that seems to hide
everything.

Keith and Ingrid sit up onto knees and whisper as if conspiring. Then run offstage
conspiratorially.

Maya: Allies a nd enemies

195
who can you trust.
Friends and countrymen
sometimes you fuss.

Lanita : The head hung in the tree. The body lay by the tracks. The head called to the
body. The body to the head. They missed each other. The missing grew large between
them, until it pulled the heart right out of the body, until the drawn heart flew toward the
head, flew as a bird flies. Back to its cage and the familiar perch from which it trills.
Then the heart sang in the head, softly at first and then louder, sang long a nd low until the
morning light came up over the school and over the tree, and then the singing stopped…

Maya: Airplanes with bombs
efface entire cities.
Men with guns
demolish infantries.

Lanita : The goat had belonged to a small girl. She named the goat Broken Thorn Sweet
Blackberry, named it after the night’s bush of stars, because the goat’s silky hair was dark
as well water, because it had eyes like wild fruit. The girl lived near a high railroad track.
At night she heard the trains passing, the sweet sound of the train’s horn pouring softly
over her bed, and each morning she woke to give the bleating goat his pail of warm milk.
She sang him songs about girls with ropes and cooks in boats. She brushed him with a
stiff brush. She dreamed daily that he grew bigger and he did. She thought her dreaming
made it so.

Maya: Soldiers they come
beating on their drums
People they run
no longer having fun.
Lanita : But one night the girl didn’t hear the train’s horn, and the next morning she
woke to an empty yard. The goat was gone. Everything looked strange. It was as if a
storm had passed through while she slept, wind and stones, rain stripping the branches of fruit. She knew that someone had stolen the goat and that he had come to harm. She
called to him. All morning and into the afternoon, she called and called. She walked and
walked. In her chest a bad feeling like the feeling of the stones gouging the soft
undersides of her bare feet.

Maya: When the smoke clears
citizens appear.
Winners or losers
all surrender.

196

Lanita : Then somebody found the goat’s body by the high tracks, the flies already filling
their soft bottles at the goat’s torn neck. Then somebody found the head hanging in a tree
by the school. They hurried to take these things away so that the girl would not see them. They hurried to raise money to buy the girl another goat. They hurried to find the boys
who had done this, to hear them say it was a joke, a joke, it was nothing but a joke…

(Before Lanita finishes Maya gets a cube and moves usc to another place)
Maya: There is always war,
but never peace.
With anger and violence
countries win victories.

Lanita : But listen: here is t he point. The boys thought to have their fun and be done
with it. It was harder work than they had imagined, this silly sacrifice, but they finished the job. Whistling as they washed their large hands in the dark.
Maya: Allies and enemies
who can you trust.
Friends and countrymen
sometimes you fuss.

Lanita : What they didn’t know was that the goat’s head was already singing behind
them in the tree. What they didn’t know was that the goat’s head would go on singing,
just for them, long after the ropes were down, and that they would learn to listen, pail
after pail, stroke after patient stroke.
Maya: Airplanes with bombs
efface entire cities.
Men with guns
demolish infantries.

Lanita : They would wake in the night thinking they heard the wind in the t rees or a
night bird, but their hearts beating harder. There would be a whistle, a hum, a high
murmur, and, at last, a song, the low song a lost boy sings remembering his mother’s call.
Maya: Soldiers they come
beating on their drums
People they run
no longer having fun.

197
Lanita : Not a cruel song, no, no, not cruel at all. This song is sweet. It is sweet. The
heart dies of this sweetness.

Maya: When the smoke clears
citizens appear.
Winners or losers
all surrender.
(Slide projection and music stop)
Maya and Lanita leave their cubes and exit. Lanita sits in the audience. As they leave
Qiana and Carmen enter, bring the cubes together center stage and sit back to back.
Em: Title of Story (enters from backstage, walks ds before Qiana and Carmen place their cubes)
This sentence is actually the last sentence of the story but has been placed here by
mistake. This is the title of this story, which is also found several times in the story itself.
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he fou nd himself in his bed
transformed into a gigantic insect. This sentence informs you that the preceding sentence is from another story entirely (a much better one, it must be noted) and has no place at all
in this particular narrative. Despite claims of t he preceding sentence, this sentence feels
compelled to inform you that the story you are reading is in actuality “The
Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka, and that the sentence referred to by the preceding
sentence is the only sentence which does indeed belong in this story.
Em walks back us and through the curtain going around the cubes still looking at paper.
Masturbation/ A Girl’s First Kiss
Carmen : Masturbation.
Qiana : The first kiss…
Carmen : No one talks about girls doing it.
Qiana : A young girl’s first kiss should be magical, filled with blissful anticipation, a
young girl’s fantasy fulfilled.
Carmen : Spaces of fun and privilege.
Qiana : Anticipation, nervousness,
Carmen : Reserved for the boy child – his passion for sexuality celebrated, talked about
with smiles of triumph and pleasure.
Qiana : fear and doubt can fill a girl’s heart and mess with her head so badly, that the
first kiss can turn out to be an absolute disaster!

198
Carmen : Girls —have no such moments. Sexuality is something that wil l be done to
them, something they have to fear. It can bring unwanted pregnancy. It can turn one into
a whore. It is a curse. Girls are not sexual. They will not get pregnant. Sexuality
synonymous with pregnancy, with being a whore, slut.
Qiana : Of course, there are many websites which show in vivid (sometimes pointless)
detail on how to kiss a guy for the first time, which can be just as anti -climactic as the
stories told by your mother about her first kiss.
Carmen: Pleasure touching her body. Is wrong. Keep hidden. Do in secret. Shame.
Shame. Shame.
Qiana : The first thing a girl needs to know, and this is very important…let your guy
make the first move!
Carmen: Touching herself. Hidden parts of her body. The place of woman’s pain and
misery. The place men want to enter. The place babies come through.
Qiana : Today’s modern millennial might scoff at that advice, but guy’s like to lead.
Carmen: This pleasure is her secret and her shame.
Qiana : A first kiss should be gentle and clean. No tongue kissing should be allowed on a
first date. A French kiss is okay, with your lips slightly parted over his.
Carmen: She denies to herself that she is being sexual. She refuses to think about it.
Qiana : Under no circumstances do you keep y our eyes open. Open eyes are a sign of
domination, control, and if your guy does that as well, leave him immediately.
Carmen: Males are not the object of her lust. It is contentedness and bliss. It is a place
of refuge, a sanctuary.
Qiana : There are so many different ways to learn to kiss a guy for the first time, they
cannot be listed here,
Carmen: Like all secret pleasure she finds the hiding hard. Her sisters wonder. They
catch her. They bear witness to her pleasure and her shame. They can’t wai t to tell.
Qiana : because it would take up too much space, and either bore you to tears, or send
you running for the hills in fear.
Carmen: She prepares her denial. She goes over and over it in her head. She knows the
secret moments are gone. The p leasure. The deep cool ecstasy.
Qiana : Just remember, the first kiss should be sweet, gentle, clean, and most
importantly, magical.

199
Qiana and Carmen exit us. Ricky enters as he is talking .
Ricky : recites Dreams by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken -winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Ricky steps onto cube.

(The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost)

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Ricky steps out of the light. Ricky stacks cubes and stands behind them while Em speaks and
then Carmen is talking.
Em: Title of Story
This sentence informs the listener (poor, confused wretch) that this piece of literature is
actually the Declaration of Independence, but that the author, in a show of extreme
negligence (if not malicious sabotage), has so far failed to include even one single sentence from that stirring document, although he has condescended to use a small
sentence fragment, namely, “When in the course of human events”, embedded in
quotation marks near the end of a sentence.
Ice Cream
(Carmen lays white tiles on the floor in a checkerboard pattern.)
Carmen : It was a spring day, the sort that gives people hope: all soft winds and delicate
smells of warm earth. Suicide weather. Daisy had killed herself the week before.
(Carmen sits on a cube)
The floor of the ice cream parlor bothered me. It was black -and-white checkerboard tile,
bigger than supermarket checker -board. If I looked only at a white square, I would be all

200
right, but it was hard to ignore the black squares that surrounded the shit e ones. The
contrast got under my skin. I always felt itchy in the ice cream parlor. The floor meant
Yes, No, This, That, Up, Down, Day, Night – all the indecisions and opposites that were
bad enough in life without having them spelled out for you on the floor.
A new boy was dishing out cones. ( All the girls enter.)
We approached him in a phalanx. (All the girls approach Ricky together)
(Act out as if in a scene)
“We want eight ice cream cones,” said one of the nurses. ( Teresa )
“Okay,” ( Ricky )
“What kind do you want?” ( Maya ) “What are you gonna get?” ( Lanita )
“I don’t know, what are you getting?” ( Qiana ) “I don’t know.” ( Leslie)
“Peppermint stick”. ( Ingrid )
“It’s just called peppermint.” ( Em)
“Peppermint dick.” ( Ingrid )
“Honestly.” ( Em)
“Pepp ermint clit.” ( Ingrid )
Carmen : The Martian’s girlfriend got a nurse nip for that. ( Teresa lightly slaps Ingrid )
There were no other takers for peppermint, chocolate was a big favorite. For spring they had a new flavor, peach melba. I ordered that.
“You gonna want nuts on these?” Ricky .
The girls look at each other daring each other to say it. Teresa gives them a stern
“you better not” look. (Ryan and Keith whistle)
“I don’t think we need them.” ( Em)
(Girls giggle and exit. Ricky shrugs and exits, taking one cube. Ryan and Keith.)
Em: Title of Story
Showing a keen awareness of the boredom and downright hostility of the average reader with regard to the pointless conceptual games indulged in by the preceding sentences, this
sentence returns us at la st to the scenario of the story by asking the question, “Why is

201
Billy strangling his mother?” This sentence attempts to shed some light on the question
posed by the preceding sentence but fails.
Play music: Relations Between Bisons Bananas and Rods the P revious Night
Maya enters , use cube
Maya’s Tale of War:
There is always war,
but never peace.
With anger and violence
countries win victories.

Spies with aliases;
secret names,
Play unfair and
win the game.

Allies and enemies
who can you trust.
Friends and countrymen
sometimes you fuss.

Airplanes with bombs
efface entire cities.
Men with guns
demolish infantries.

Soldiers they come
beating on their drums
People they run
no longer having fun.
When the smoke clears
citizens appear.
Winners or losers
all surrender.

Lanita ’s personal narrative – abusive relationship (Ricky, Ingrid , Ryan, Quiana, Em sl/Keith,
Carmen, Teresa, Leslie , Maya sr)
I hadn’t planned on a response like this. “Why don’t you come back in 40 years
and then we’ll talk about how terr ible life is?” That’s the one thing I remember

202
from a conversation with a professor. I was only asking for help. Maybe even a good
friend…
When I was 4 or 5 years old, I went downstairs to see my dad. All I wanted was a
hug. The next thing I remember is he grabbed me and started spanking me. I howled
and cried, begging him to stop. But he didn’t. He just kept on smacking my poste rior
as if it was a paddle ball . I didn’t understand it; I hadn’t done anything wrong. Why
did he do this? Why does he hate me so much? What have I done wrong now?
It just continued to go downhill from there. I can’t be open about my own feelings without him questioning them. The only subjects I can openly converse with are
sports and politics – two things I’m not too fond of. Just a sking him for help with
groceries or taking me to the library gets him upset. He expects me to do things for
myself. He laughs at me whenever I try to be my own person, calls me stupid, or even stays silent for the rest of the day show how much he’s disapp ointed in me.
Maybe that’s what I am, I’d think to myself. A disappointment. A big, god -forsaken
disappointment because I have to walk on eggshells just to make him gob
smacking happy, and whenever one breaks, all hell breaks loose. If I slip up
even once in my school work, I’m a disappointment. If I have to ask him for help for simple things, I’m a disappointment. If I want to talk to him about my
feelings, or even cry… I’m a disappointment.
And that’s only the beginning…
Things had gotten rough for my mom . She had just been laid off, and I was usually
the breadwinner since I was saving my money for a while. She’d been considerate
enough not to ask me too many times, and this particular time was hard since we
needed food on the table and a place to stay. I’ d politely say, “I don’t have enough
money right now, Mom,” or even “no” and that was that. But this was different one day. My older sister came up to me, and called me selfish. Then she goes on to say
that if I didn’t help out at all I’d be an ungrateful daughter. I was stunned. My sister
never said anything like that to me before. Then again, she never said anything so
painful before…
I never had a close relationship with my sister. ( Girls enter and circle Lanita) Of
course, it wasn’t even a real relatio nship, either. As I started high school, she
began to pick on me. Not just call me names, but really tear me down. My sister
would criticize me on my hair, clothes, eating, friends, and my weight. She must’ve
called me “fat” at least four times in my life. I always gave into her opinions because
I didn’t matter to her. She did. But that’s not the worst of it. She would ask me for
money, promise to pay me back, and then never does. And you know why? Because I’m a fool. A senseless, fat, scatterbrained, ugly fool. I had believed her lies and

203
mistreatment for all this time, and I’ve been stupid enough to believe that she
would stop. And this caused me to become a monster to others. Who am I?
I knew I had to end this. When I was junior, I came home to take a dri ving course. I
deeply regretted coming home for one obvious reason: my older sister somehow found a way to ask me for money again. Not just a couple of dollars, but something
like $300 -$1000 of my money. And she would always use that sweet, threatening
voice, “I’ll pay you back, I promise. And please don’t tell anyone about this.”
And you know what this fool did? She gave in. Again. I was scared to say “no”
because I felt like I had no voice. But maybe, just this once, I had a chance. I called
my mother to tell her what’s happened…
But I hadn’t counted on what happened next. After talking on the phone outside, I came inside to my room to relax, but my sister stopped me. She demanded to know
why I had called mom when she specifically told me not to. I simply replied, “You
don’t need me to tell you.” And then, I raced to my room, locking my door. All I can
remember after that is my sister pounding the door, screaming at the top of her
lungs, “YOU ARE THE WORLD’S WORST LITTLE SISTER! YOU ARE A CUNT! I
WILL KICK YOUR ASS IF YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING ANYTHING ELSE!” I
was shaking, crying, praying this would end. Soon, the door slammed, and I was alone. I picked up the phone to call my mother again, and told her to just come over
to the house…
You say that I should come back in 40 years to discuss how bad life is. No, I came
back here now to tell you how miserable my life has been for over 15 years of my
life. I never asked for any of this mistreatment, and yet you have the gall to tell me to
come back when I’m twen ty years older to talk. Let me tell you something: if I had
waited twenty more years holding back how my father and sister abused me, I
would be dead!
Neither my dad nor my sister has laid a hand on me in over a decade. But I still flinch
easily, and if s omeone raises a hand to me, or even says something terrible, I expect
the blow to fall…
(Lanita takes the cube off with her ) (Music stops if it hasn’t already)
Salala – Tim and Teresa dance, Carmen steps (Play music Salala and slides of
violence/relations hips) (End of projection slides)
(Maya, Em, Qiana and Leslie all enter bringing cubes with them . They rotate to other cubes
as they speak.)
Leslie: One second, I feel like I’m flying. The next, I’m screaming in pain.
Qiana : Crack!! It was the sound of my dreams being demolished.

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Maya: I can still remember the day we got the call. It was a nice summer day in June
and my brother and I were lounging around.
Em: I was fourteen when my house burned down. No, it's not nearly as harrowing as it
sounds. I wasn't there. It wasn't even my primary residence.
Rotate
Leslie: I was only four, but I had managed to shatter my heel bone. As a bubbly,
adventurous, have no fear child, I often found myself in situations that I hadn’t fully
thought through. This was one of them. I was over at the neighbor boy Luke’s house on
a play date. We were the best of friends and always spent time together. He was five,
and I was four, so naturally, I thought he knew everything. That extra ca ndle that he
always had on his birthday cake was a BIG DEAL to me.
Qiana : My knee had given out for good and it wasn’t gonna try to get back in the game.
It wasn’t the first time my knee acted out. For weeks it would pop and crack a little. I brushed it off thinking “Oh I’m just a little stiff. I can stretch it out.”
Maya: I don’t remember who called, but I remember rushing to take a shower and
putting on clothes. My father was in the hospital. When we arrived I remember stepping
into the room and seeing him sitting on the edge of the bed in a hospital gown.
Em: Technically, it was my grandparents' house, but it wasn't their primary residence
either. It was a small cabin in the north woods of Wisconsin, in a pretty isolated area.
The nearest to wn, about a 15 minute drive away, more or less consists of a grocery store,
a pub, a hardware store, and a post office. Actually, I don't even know where the fire
station is.
Rotate
Qiana : But this time the pain shot through me like a bullet. It happened just walking up
the stairs. Of all the things I did throughout the day walking up the stairs seemed to be
the least threatening. How ironic. On the third step is where my body decide d to show
me who’s boss. It said to me with that crack that dancing for me would never be the
same.
Em: Not many people live in that area year round, and the fire was in April, when it's
still freezing. I'm sure our immediate neighbors weren't there. B ut eventually someone
across the lake noticed and called the fire department. I don't know how long it took
them to get there, but it wasn't fast enough. The boathouse was okay though, just a little
scorched.
Leslie: Anyway, on this perfectly ordinary afternoon, we were playing in his basement in
his plastic playhouse. Luke had evidently gotten sick of playing IN the house, however, so like any adventurous little boy, he climbed up it. Now this wasn’t just a little house; it

205
was about nine foot tall. Definitely not a safe height for small children to be climbing it.
But, with his dad upstairs making dinner and no one else around to stop us, I followed
him right on up!
Maya: I wanted to just cry at the sight of him, I think he knew, but I didn’t becau se I
didn’t want him to know how scared I was. There was something wrong with his white blood cells – they were too low.
Rotate
Qiana : “Patella Instability”. What? What the hell is that? I thought to myself as Dr.
Martin gave me and my mom the rundown o f my new found condition. “Looks like
you’ve had it all along and it’s just gotten a little worse.” Since I was three years old I’ve been a dancer. I’ve been one of the best. Now I would have to fall back into the shadows of those girls who do pointe a nd leaps and all the moves that my body would no longer
allow me to do.
Em: That summer I made the ten hour drive with my family as usual. The house was
completely gone. It was surreal. My cousins and I picked through the rubble, looking for
anything familiar from our childhoods. We found one spoon, some bed springs, and
some fragments of dishes.
Leslie: Once we had both reached the top, I realized that I really didn’t know how to get
down. He was A -OK with the situation and slid down the side of it with no problem! I,
however, had reached panic mode. Luke laughed at me and told me to just jump. Seeing
no other option (and still thinking he knew everything), I jumped. It was cool for about a second when I thought I was flying… until the whole “landing on a VERY had concrete
floor” thing happened. Needless to say, it wasn’t so cool anymore. There was a massive
amount of screaming and tears. LOTS of tears.
Maya: When I left that day I didn’t know there would be many more days going back, but to the I.C.U. I didn’t know I would see fear in his eyes and that I would be terrified.
Rotate
Em: We stood around for a while in awe, and then we jumped into the lake, excited,
because it wasn't the house that mattered, it was the place.
Qiana : I sat there frozen in that doctor’s office listening to what it would take to get my
knee back to normal. I heard “and surgery would be your next option”. Whoa, no, no, go back to the first choice. I would have to be on crutches and do two and a half months of
physical therapy if I wanted to even have a chance to dance again. I wanted it. I had to
get it.
Maya: I didn’t know his heart would stop and that mine would break. I didn’t know he would be given another chance at life.

206
Leslie: My mother came to pi ck me up, but apparently didn’t believe anything was
actually wrong with me because she didn’t take me to the doctor… for a week. Yupp,
that’s right. Spent a week crawling around the house on my hands and knees trying to
convince my parents that I was in deed actually hurt and not just being a four -year-old
baby. Once I finally made it to the doctor, my mother told me he looked at her like,
“Hellooooo! Your kid fractured her heel bone a week ago! How do you not bring her to the doctor?!?” Apparently I di dn’t act hurt enough. Whatever. I guess I’m just a tough
cookie! But that’s how I broke my foot. Moral of the story: don’t trust five year old
boys. And don’t act tough. You may just have a shattered heel bone.
Move the cubes slightly us
Em: Title of Story
Bizarre. A sentence fragment. Another fragment. Twelve years old. This is a sentence
that. Fragmented. And strangling his mother. Sorry, sorry. Bizarre. This. More
fragments. This is it. Fragments. The title of this story, which. Blond. Sorry, sorry. Fragment after frag -ment. Harder. This is a sentence that. Fragments. Damn good
device.
Peanut Butter skit:
Carmen gets the table and bring it ds center. Ricky brings the bread, jelly, knives, and
napkins. Leslie moves the cube. They begin making sandwiches. Qiana, Ryan and
Maya enter bringing sandwiches and hand out to the audience. Keith, Ingrid , Lanita
and Em enter and stand in a group wondering what is going on. Leslie slaps the table
and takes a bite of h er sandwich and gets her mouth stuck. Everyone freezes. Leslie
gets Carmen’s attention and Carmen freaks out. She and Ingrid continue to freak out,
running into each other. Leslie gets Ricky’s attention and he claps loudly to get
everyone’s attention. (Start Benny Hill music when Ricky claps) They all rush to
Leslie to see what is wrong.
Ryan gets idea and goes sl to get pliers. He returns and tries to help Leslie .
Keith then goes sr to get wrench. He returns and tries to help Leslie .
Maya goes bs and brings a crow bar. Em tries to help by lifting Leslie ’s leg then arm.
Ricky goes sl and gets a rubber ducky. Leslie pushes him away.
Qiana grabs Em and goes sr to get a rope. They return and tug of war with Leslie .
Ingrid and Carmen bring in dynamite . Keith and Ricky pick Leslie up and place her on
the dynamite box.

207
Just as Carmen is about to push the lever, Em, Qiana and Maya stop them. (Turn music
off)
Lanita watches from side the whole time. She shakes her head at them all and the
audience. She says “Yoohoo”. She exits sr and returns with a carton of milk. Leslie
drinks it and says:
“How about a peanut butter sandwich?”
Em walks ds and the others watch her walk back and forth.
Em: This is the title of this story, which is also found several times in the story itself.
This is the last sentence of the story. This is the last sentence of the story. This is the last
sentence of the story. ( Leslie gets up a nd stops Em ) This is.
(Em looks at group then audience ) Sorry.
Lights out – The End
Applause & bows

208
APPENDIX B: RELEASE FORMS
TERESA G. STANKIEWICZ
PHOTOGRAPH/INTE RVIEW RE LEASE AND INDEMNITY AGREEMENT:

The undersigned GRAN TS PERM ISSION to be PHOTOGRAPHED or INTER VIEWED in connect ion
with articles, dissertation, book and author’s webpage by Teresa G. Stankiewicz, henceforth referred to
as the Activity . The undersigned understands that interview includes class discussions, reflection papers
and other coursework conducted by Teresa G. Stankiewicz. The undersigned understands tha t any such
photog raph or interview may be used by Teresa G. Stankiewicz for the purposes of writing academic
articles for journal publication, her dissertation for a PhD in Theatre, a published book based on the
dissertation and her personal webpage used as a digital portfolio. The undersigned agrees to RELEASE
and INDEMNIFY Teresa G. Stankiewicz with respect to any Claims related to t he usage of su ch
photographs or interviews by the Teresa G. Stankiewicz or any media-including, but not limited to, the
types of Claims e nume rated in p aragrah2.

As further induc ement to Teresa G. Stankiewicz to pe rmit the undersigned’s entry into and particip ation
in the Activity, the un dersigned represents that they thoroug hly and completely understand that th is is a
complete and final release and indemni ty agreement, th at they are freely and volun tarily entering into
this Agreement, and that no re presentatio ns, promis es, or stat ements made by Teresa G. Stankiewicz has
influ enced the un dersigned in c ausing them to sign this A greement.
The undersigned understands tha t this A greement shall be binding on their heirs, executors, successors,
and assigns th at the Agreement sh all lay in a T exas State Court. If any part of this Agreement is
determined to be inv alid or u nenforceable, it does not a ffect the v alidity of the remainder of this
Agreement. T he undersigned agrees to t he terms and c onditions abov e, and acknowl edges receipt of this
Agreement.

Date: Signature:
Printed Name
Place initials in the box to the left of the statement that you prefer with regards to identification in interview
or photograph.

Teresa G. Stankiewicz has permission to use my full name in the article or to identify me in a
photograph.
Teresa G. Stankiewicz must change my name and use a generic name when quoting me or using my story in a n article to keep my identity anonymous.
It is permissible to use the name of the institution, University of Misssouri in reference to the interview or photograph.
I prefer that the institution be generic such as “large university in midwest” in referenc e to the
interview or photograph.
It is permissible to use the name of the production or course in reference to the interview or
photograph.
I prefer that the production name or course name be generic in reference to the interview or photograph.

209

TERESA G. STANKIEWICZ
PHOTOGRAPH/INTE RVIEW RE LEASE AND INDEMNITY AGREEMENT:

The undersigned GRAN TS PERM ISSION to be PHOTOGRAPHED or INTER VIEWED in connect ion
with articles, dissertation, book and author’s webpage by Teresa G. Stankiewicz, henceforth referred to
as the Activity . The undersigned understands tha t any such photog raph or interview may be used by
Teresa G. Stankiewicz for the purposes of writing academic articles for journal publication, her
dissertation for a PhD in Theatre, a published book based on the dissertation and her personal webpage
used as a digital portfolio. The undersigned agrees to RELEASE and INDEMNIFY Teresa G.
Stankiewicz with respect to any Claims related to t he usage of su ch photographs or interviews by the
Teresa G. Stankiewicz or any media-including, but not limited to, the t ypes of Claims e nume rated in
paragrah2.

As further induc ement to Teresa G. Stankiewicz to pe rmit the undersigned’s entry into and particip ation
in the Activity, the un dersigned represents that they thoroug hly and completely understand that th is is a
complete and final release and indemni ty agreement, th at they are freely and volun tarily entering into
this Agreement, and that no re presentatio ns, promis es, or stat ements made by Teresa G. Stankiewicz has
influ enced the un dersigned in c ausing them to sign this A greement.
The undersigned understands tha t this A greement shall be binding on their heirs, executors, successors,
and assigns th at the Agreement sh all lay in a T exas State Court. If any part of this Agreement is
determined to be inv alid or u nenforceable, it does not a ffect the v alidity of the remainder of this
Agreement. T he undersigned agrees to t he terms and c onditions abov e, and acknowl edges receipt of this
Agreement.

Date: Signature:
Printed Name
Place initials in the box to the left of the statement that you prefer with regards to identification in interview
or photograph.

Teresa G. Stankiewicz has permission to use my full name in the article or to identify me in a
photograph.
Teresa G. Stankiewicz must change my name and use a generic name when quoting me or using my story in a n article to keep my identity anonymous.
It is permissible to use the name of the institution, Kent State University -Stark in reference to the
interview or photograph.
I prefer that the institution be generic such as “large university in midwest” in refe rence to the
interview or photograph.
It is permissible to use the name of the production or course in reference to the interview or photograph.
I prefer that the production name or course name be generic in reference to the interview or
photograph.

210
APPENDIX C: SYLLABUS

Syllabus for Theatre 22 00: Introduction to Performance Studies
Tuesday and Thursday 11:00am -12:15pm
Fine Arts Annex 116

Instructor: Teresa Stankiewicz
Email: Teresa.stankiewicz@mizzou.edu
Office Hours: by appointment

There may be changes to the course syllabus and calendar throughout the semester. Any
changes will be announced in class and posted on the course website.

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is an introduction to the study of written texts through the medium of performanc e.
The word performance is used broadly to suggest action, a doing, a consciously interactive
experience created by text and performer. Through a number of individual and group
performances, selected readings, and written exercises, the course aims to as sist you in exploring
the communicative and artistic dimensions of a variety of written texts. It assumes that what happens in our engagement with written texts can be a significantly humanizing experience, and
that through performance we might achieve a better understanding of the pleasure and power of
that engagement.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. To explore self, others, and contexts through the performance of literature.
2. To develop the analytic, critical and performance skills necessary to fully engage literature in performance
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Schechner, Performance Studies: An introduction
Astley, Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times
Wolff, Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)
ASSIGNMENTS:
**Perform in the Life & Literature series, “Giving Voice”
This will be a class created transmedia performance event. Rehearsals will be Tuesday,
Wednesday & Friday, 7 pm – 9 pm, Corner Playhouse and 3 – 5pm Sunday. Performances will be
Sept. 15 – 18, 7:30pm Thursday – Saturday a nd 2:00pm Sunday. This is 30% of your grade.

211
You will be required to attend all rehearsals and perform in all performances. Allowances will be
made for those who notify me of conflicts during the first class.

• Write an evaluation paper on the performance experience.
• Performance Reviews: write an analytical essay on each required performance (3)
• Two exams, midterm and final.
• Additional individual in- class performances.

REQUIRED THEATRICAL VIEWING:
You must attend THREE MU theatre productions this semester.
Into the Woods
Rhynsburger Theatre, Oct. 5 – 9

Girl in a Cube
Corner Playhouse, November 3 – 5, 10 – 13
Reason to Be Pretty
Corner Playhouse , November 30 – Dec 4

• All weekday and Saturday performances, unless otherwise noted,
are at 7:30 P.M.
• All Sunday performances, unless otherwise noted, are at 2 P.M.
o Ticket prices:
General Public Rhynsburger $12 ($14 musicals)
Faculty/Staff Rhynsburger $10 ($12 musicals)
Students/Seniors Rhynsburger $8 ($10 musicals)
All tickets to Corner Playhouse $7
o Contact: theatre.missouri.edu or through the theatre box office 882- PLAY

Your theatre ticket stub must be turned in to your instructor (FOR ALL THREE
PRODUCTIONS) by the assigned date in order to get credit for attending. Staple your ticket to
your critique. Put your name on the ticket. Ask the house manager to sign the ticket. A sold out performance is NOT an excuse for not attending a show. Tickets for ALL
University Productions should be reserved well in advance. Ti ckets may NOT be purchased with
student charge. You may sign up to usher at a performance and receive free admission to the
play. The box office, located in the Rhynsburger Theatre lobby, opens a week prior to each
show. Specific hours of operation will be announced in class. Box office number: (573) 882-
PLAY

212
IMPORTANT NOTES:
• DRESS APPROPRIATELY! As a performance lab class we will be moving,
wear loose comfortable clothing that you can move in freel y (as if for a gym or
dance class) – we will not spend the class sitting at a desk!
• All cell phones, pagers and electronic devices must be off during class!
• No food, gum, or beverages (other than water) are permitted in class.
• Absolutely no firearms or ot her weapons are allowed in class.
• Bring your books , syllabus, paper and pen to every class.
• ALL written assignments completed outside the classroom must be typed. Use
Times New Roman font; size 12 pt . All 4 margins must be 1”. Include in the
top left h and corner:
Name
Date
TH 2200 Teresa Stankiewicz
Center the title, use the title of the performance for critiques, use the title of the play
and type of scene (i.e. monologue, duet) for analysis assignments. Double space. Staple multiple pages together. Handwritten work will not be accepted!
• Read and familiarize yourself with the course calendar. It lists the activities for the day, what is due on that day, and performances.
• Save a copy of all typed assignments in hard copy form, on disc, or on your hard
drive.
• Keep a notebook containing all of your written assignments.
• Check your e -mail and the course Blackboard website daily.
• This class requires attending performances that contain mature content (violence, language, and/or sexual content). The work in this class also
requires close physical contact with members of the class, as well as potentially witnessing a performance that contains adult subject matter. Please consult with the instructor if you have any questions/concerns about the performances.

ATTENDANCE POLICY
• Regular and prompt attendance is expected and crucial to success in this class.
Attendance is mandatory. In a performance course your colleagues must be confident that
you will be there. It is this trust that is the cornerstone of all co llaborative efforts.
• For each absence over 2 absences I will deduct 4 0 points from your final grade; 4
absences will = – 40, 5 absences = – 80, 6 absences = – 120, etc. This equals dropping your
grade one level, i.e. from A to A -, A- to B+, etc.
• Additionally , you will have points deducted from participation for each class
period you miss.
• Three ( 2) instances of lateness (>5 minutes late arrival or 5 minute early departure) count
as 1 absence.

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• Because of the nature of the coursework, which is interactive, p articipatory, and
collaborative, excessive absences, for any reason, are a problem, and any student who is
not able to attend class regularly is advised to drop.

LATE ASSIGNMENTS:
Late assignments will not be accepted. In case of emergency they may be
accepted under the following terms: a 10% reduction in grade will be made for
each calendar day the assignment is late. You will need documented proof of an excuse for missing the assignment.

ABOUT GRADES:
• Information regarding the expectations of each assignment will be given to you prior to
the assignment.
• Participation: this includes arriving in class on time ready and willing to work;
willingness to stretch yourself; respect for others; active participation in daily work without “taking over” and dom inating the discussion; constructive critiques of your peers.
• Exam s:
o There will be 2 exam s over course syllabus, readings and discussions.
• If you have any questions about grading, ASK . A question about a specific grade must be
posed to the instructor with in 72 hours from grade distribution.

ACADEMIC HONESTY:
Academic honesty is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university. All members of
the academic community must be confident that each person’s work has been responsibly and
honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Suspected instances of academic dishonesty will
be reported to the Provost. Any effort to gain an advantage not given to all students is dishonest
whether or not the effort is successful. The academic community regards academic dishonesty as an extremely serious matter, with serious consequences that range from probation to expulsion.
When in doubt about plagiarism, paraphrasing, quoting, or collaboration, consult the
course instructor .
Plagiarism is the failure to distinguish the student’s own words and ideas from those of a
source the student has consulted. Ideas derived from another, whether presented as exact
words, a paraphrase, summary, or quoted phrase, must always be appropriately referenced to
the source, whether the source is printed, electronic, or spoken. Whenever exact words are used, quotation marks or an indented block indicator of a quotation must be used, together
with the proper citation in a style required by the professor (Harris, 2001, p. 132).
If evidence of a violation of academic honesty is discovered, University policy will be followed
to adjudicate the violation. Further, should the case be deemed plagiarism, the student will
receive a point total grade of 0 for that assignment

214
DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION POLICY
If you need accommodations because of a di sability, if you have emergency medical information
to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated,
please inform me immediately. Please see me privately after class, or at my office. To request
academic accomm odations (for example, a note taker), students must also register with Disability
Services, AO38 Brady Commons, 882 -4696. For other MU resources for students with
disabilities, click on Disability Resources on the MU homepage.

INTELLECTUAL PLURALISM
The University community welcomes intellectual diversity and respects student rights. Students
who have questions concerning the quality of instruction in this class may address concerns to
either the Departmental Chair or Divisional leader or Director of the Office of Students Rights
and Responsibilities (http://osrr.missouri.edu/). All students will have the opportunity to submit
an anonymous evalua tion of the instructor(s) at the end of the course.
WEBPAGE: Blackboard course http://courses.missouri.edu
Blackboard is a major means of keeping you informed about upcoming events, instructions &
submissions for assignments, and for providing discussions about class. It is important to check
Blackboard daily to keep current. Under course login, select Blackboard and enter your PAW
Print. If you have difficulty in logging in to the course or you do not see the course listed, please
contact the IAT Services Help Desk at 882 -5000. NOTE: Computer and electronic
malfunctions never qualify as an excuse for missing a deadline.
** If anyone is interested in becoming a theatre major or minor please contact Dr. David Crespy,
Director of Undergraduate Studies, CrespyD@missouri.edu

REQUIRED ASSIGNMENTS and GRADING:
Life & Lit Performance 300 Includes rehearsals & written
analysis
3 Performance Reviews 150 (50 pts for each review)
2 Exams 200 (100 pts for each exam)
Personal Narrative Performance 50 No analysis
Poetry Performance 50 Includes analysis
Short Story Performance 50 Includes analysis
Class Participation 100
Final Performance 100 Includes analysis
Total Points 1000
Course Grading
Scale
A+ 1000 – 970
A 969 – 930
A- 929 – 900
B+ 899 – 870
B 869 – 830
B- 829 – 800
C+ 799 – 770
C 769 – 730
C- 729 – 700
D+ 699 – 670
D 669 – 630
D- 629 – 600
F below 600

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COURSE CALENDAR
Date Day Activity Assignment Due
Aug.
23 Tues. Introductions, review syllabus,
discuss upcoming performance
Aug.
25 Thurs. Rehearse – working with poetry Bring in a favorite poem ** Last day to
add or change sections Aug. 29
Aug.
30 Tues. Rehearse – working with story Bring short story
Sep. 1 Thurs. Rehearse – share personal
narrative Bring personal narrative
Sep. 6 Tues. Rehearse – rhythm and voice Bring musical instrument if you have one
Sep. 8 Thurs. Rehearse – music
Sep.
13 Tues. Rehearse – movement
Sep.
15 Thurs. Rehearse Life & Literature Sept. 15 – 18
Sep.
20 Tues. Review and discuss Life &
Literature performance Written analysis due
Sep.
22 Thurs. Chapter 1 – What is Performance
Studies? Read Chapter 1** Last day to drop
without a grade Sept. 26
Sep.
27 Tues. Chapter 2 – What is Performance? Read Chapter 2
Sep.
29 Thurs. No class
Oct. 4 Tues. Chapter 3 – Ritual Read Chapter 3, See Into the Woods Oct.
5-9
Oct. 6 Thurs. Ritual
Oct. 11 Tues. Chapter 4 – Play Read Chapter 4, turn in Into the Woods
review
Oct. 13 Thurs. Exam
Oct. 18 Tues. Chapter 5 – Performativity Read Chapter 5
Oct. 20 Thurs. Performativity
Oct. 25 Tues. Chapter 6 – Performing Read Chapter 6
Oct. 27 Thurs. Performing ** Last day to withdraw from a course
Oct. 31
Nov. 1 Tues. Chapter 7 – Performance
Processes Read Chapter 7
Nov. 3 Thurs. Performance Processes See Girl in a Cube , 3-5 and 10 -13
Nov. 8 Tues. Chapter 8 – Global and
Intercultural Performance Read Chapter 8
Nov.
10 Thurs. Global and Intercultural
Performance
Nov.
15 Tues. Art Gallery Turn in Girl in a Cube review
Nov. Thurs. Perform poetry Prepare poetry performance

216
17
Nov.
22 Tues. NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break
Nov.
24 Thurs. NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break
Nov.
29 Tues. Perform short story Prepare short story performance, see
Reason to be Pretty Nov. 30 – Dec. 4
Dec. 1 Thurs. Continue short story
performances
Dec. 6 Tues. Prepare final performance Turn in Reason to be Pretty review
Dec. 8 Thurs. Exam
Dec.
13 Tues. Final Exam Day, 12:30 – 2:30 Final Performances in the Corner
Playhouse

217
APPENDIX D: LESSON PLAN, GRADING RUBRICS,
REFLECTIVE ASSIGNMENT and EVALUATIONS
Introduction to Performance Studies – Lesson Plan

Date Day Exercises Assignment Due
Week 1
Aug. 23 Tues. Introductions, review syllabus,
discuss upcoming performance.
Start with name game, then voice
as instrument work, maybe movement.

Aug. 25 Thurs.
Rehearse – working with poetry Bring in a favorite poem/** Last
day to add or change sections
Aug. 29
Aug. 26 Fri. Rehearse – performing poetry,
abstract the poems
Aug. 28 Sun. Rehearse – performing poetry
Week 2
Aug. 30 Tues.
Rehearse – working with story Bring short story
Aug. 30 Tues.
Rehearse – performing story
Aug. 31 Wed. Rehearse – performing story
Sep. 1 Thurs. Rehearse – share personal story Bring personal story
Sep. 2 Fri. Rehearse – performing personal
story

218
Sep. 4 Sun. Rehearse – performing personal
story
Week 3
Sep. 6 Tues.
Rehearse – rhythm and voice Bring musical instrument if you
have one
Sep. 6 Tues. Rehearse – singing and using
voice
Sep. 7 Wed. Rehearse – singing and using
voice
Sep. 8 Thurs. Rehearse – music
Sep. 9 Fri. Rehearse – playing
music/instruments
Sep. 11 Sun. Rehearse – playing
music/instruments
Week 4
Sep. 13 Tues. Rehearse – movement
Sep. 13 Tues. Rehearse – movement
Sep. 14 Wed. Dress/tech
Sep. 15 Thurs. Rehearse Life & Literature Sept. 15 – 18
Sep. 16 Fri. Perform
Sep. 18 Sun. Perform
Week 5
Sep. 20 Tues. Review and discuss Life &
Literature
Sep. 22 Thurs. Chapter 1 – What is Performance
Studies? Read Chapter 1** Last day to
drop without a grade Sept. 26

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Week 6
Sep. 27 Tues.
Chapter 2 – What is Performance? Read Chapter 2
Sep. 29 Thurs.
Week 7
Oct. 4 Tues. Chapter 3 – Ritual – perform
created rituals and discuss rituals Read Chapter 3, See Into the
Woods 5-9
Oct. 6 Thurs.
Week 8
Oct. 11 Tues.
Chapter 4 – Play Read Chapter 4, turn in Into the
Woods review
Oct. 13 Thurs. Exam
Week 9
Oct. 18 Tues. Chapter 5 – Performativity Read Chapter 5
Oct. 20 Thurs. writing exercise
Week 10
Oct. 25 Tues. Performativity continued
Oct. 27 Thurs. performing exercise with
personal narrative ** Last day to withdraw from a
course Oct. 31
Week 11
Nov. 1 Tues. Chapter 6 – Performing Read Chapter 6

Nov. 3 Thurs.
perform personal narrative See Girl in a Cube , 3-5 and 10 –
13

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Week 12
Nov. 8 Tues. Chapter 7 – Performance
Processes Read Chapter 7

Nov. 10 Thurs. discuss poems choose a poem for performance

Week 13
Nov. 15 Tues. Chapter 8 – Global and
Intercultural Performance, Art
Gallery Read Chapter 8
Turn in Girl in a Cube review
Nov. 17 Thurs. Perform poetry Prepare poetry performance
Week 14
Nov. 22 Tues. NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break NO CLASS – Thanksgiving
break
Nov. 24 Thurs. NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break NO CLASS – Thanksgiving
break
Week 15
Nov. 29 Tues.
rehearse Prepare final performance, see
Reason to be Pretty Nov. 30 –
Dec. 4
Dec. 1 Thurs. rehearse
Week 16
Dec. 6 Tues. Prepare final performance Turn in Reason to be Pretty
review
Dec. 8 Thurs. rehearse
Dec. 13 Tues. Final Exam Day, 12:30 – 2:30.
This will be a final performance. Turn in final paper

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Introduction to Performance Studies – Grading Rubrics

This is the rubric used for evaluating the performance reviews the students were required to
attend for the department’s theatre season.
THEATR 2200 EVALUATION SHEET FOR PERFORMANCE REVIEW – Total Poin ts = 50
points
Student Name _____________________________
_____ 1. INTRODUCTION (1- 5 points)
__ contains a strong hook, and a good preview of the main ideas
__ contains both a hook and preview, but ___ hook ___ preview not clear
__ does not contain a ___ hook ___ preview
__ does not contain a hook or a thesis statement
_____ 2. THESIS STATEMENT/STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (1 -5 points)
__ contains a sharply focused and clearly identifiable statement of purpose
__ contains discernible and focused statement of purpose
__ contains a poorly focused thesis statement
__ fails to present a thesis or statement of purpose that is clearly identifiable or
developed
_____ 3. ORGANIZATION (1- 5 points)
__ sound organizational strategy with an original or inter esting approach
__ good organization– logical and coherent
__ acceptable organizational pattern
__ a different organizational pattern would have been more effective
__ totally lacks organization
__ problems with paragraph organization; paragraphs fail to develop a clear,
specific topic sentence

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_____ 4. STYLE (1- 5 points)
__ writing is clear, attractive, and individual
__ writing is clear and has a hint of inspiration or individuality
__ writing is acceptable
__ writing is unclear _ _ writing lacks vitality __ writing is awkward
__ writing is wordy

_____ 5. IDEAS (1- 5 points)
__ ideas are engaging and insightful; illuminating insights into the subject
__ some good ideas developed; a spark of originality
__ ideas are acceptable
__ insight does not go beyond the obvious
__ random, undeveloped ideas

_____ 6. ASSERTIONS (1- 5 points)
__ major points are supported by strong, concrete examples
__ major points are supported acceptably
__ points are not always supported by strong examples
__ major points are unsupported

_____ 7. MECHANICS (diction, grammar, spelling, proof -reading) (1 -5 points)
__ no errors
__ few distracting errors –see notations on manuscript
__ some errors –see notation s on manuscript
__ a number of major errors –see notations on manuscript

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_____ 8. PURPOSE (fulfillment of assignment) (1- 5 points)
__ fulfilled the assignment in an imaginative or original way
__ fulfilled the assignment satisfactorily
__ fulfilled t he assignment only partially
__ gave evidence of having read the play carefully
__ made interesting use of concepts and terminology discussed in class

_____ 9. USE OF SOURCES (1- 5 points)
__ Effective use of sources
__ Problems with handling of quot ations, integrating quotations into paper
__ Over -reliance on sources; too many and/or too long quotations
__ Insufficient documentation of ideas from other sources
__ Problems with in- text citations
__ Problems with works cited page

_____ 10. CONCLU SION (1 -5 points)
__ contains a strong restatement of the thesis, a summary of the main ideas, and
brings closure to the paper
__ contains a restatement of thesis, summary, and closure, but ___ thesis
___ summary ___ closure is not pr esented clearly
__ does not contain a ___ thesis ___ summary ___ closure
__ does not contain a restatement of thesis, summary, or closure
_____ TOTAL POINTS
GENERAL COMMENTS:

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For the evaluation on their participation in the production Giving Voice I took the rubric and
added points for participation. The assignment for their reflective essay follows this rubric.

THEATR 2200 EVALUATION SHEET FOR GIVING VOICE – Total Points = 300 points
Student Name _____________________________

Production Participation = 100 points
__ contributed ideas, poem, short story, personal narrative and other talent
__ offered encouragement during the process
__ voiced opinions during the process
__ helped in any capacity they felt comfortable contributing

Rehearsal Pr ocess = 100 points
__ on time to agreed upon rehearsals (individual schedules taken into consideration)
__ attended all agreed upon rehearsals
__ stayed through all agreed upon rehearsals
__ helped in any capacity they felt comfortable contributing
Analysis = 100 points
_____ 1. INTRODUCTION (1- 10 points)
__ contains a strong hook, and a good preview of the main ideas
__ contains both a hook and preview, but ___ hook ___ preview not clear
__ does not contain a ___ hook ___ preview
__ does not conta in a hook or a thesis statement

225
_____ 2. THESIS STATEMENT/STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (1 -10 points)
__ contains a sharply focused and clearly identifiable statement of purpose
__ contains discernible and focused statement of purpose
__ contains a poorly focused thesis statement
__ fails to present a thesis or statement of purpose that is clearly identifiable or
developed

_____ 3. ORGANIZATION (1- 10 points)
__ sound organizational strategy with an original or interesting approach
__ good organi zation –logical and coherent
__ acceptable organizational pattern
__ a different organizational pattern would have been more effective
__ totally lacks organization
__ problems with paragraph organization; paragraphs fail to develop a clear,
spec ific topic sentence

_____ 4. STYLE (1- 10 points)
__ writing is clear, attractive, and individual
__ writing is clear and has a hint of inspiration or individuality
__ writing is acceptable
__ writing is unclear __ writing lacks vitality __ writing is awkward
__ writing is wordy

226
_____ 5. IDEAS (1- 10 points)
__ ideas are engaging and insightful; illuminating insights into the subject
__ some good ideas developed; a spark of originality
__ ideas are acceptable
__ insight does not go beyond the obvious
__ random, undeveloped ideas

_____ 6. ASSERTIONS (1- 10 points)
__ major points are supported by strong, concrete examples
__ major points are supported acceptably
__ points are not always supported by strong examples
__ major points are unsupported

_____ 7. MECHANICS (diction, grammar, spelling, proof -reading) (1 -10 points)
__ no errors
__ few distracting errors –see notations on manuscript
__ some errors –see notations on manuscript
__ a number of major errors –see notations on manuscript

_____ 8. PURPOSE (fulfillment of assignment) (1- 10 points)
__ fulfilled the assignment in an imaginative or original way
__ fulfilled the assignment satisfactorily
__ fulfilled the assignment only partially
__ gave evid ence of having read the play carefully
__ made interesting use of concepts and terminology discussed in class

227

_____ 9. USE OF SOURCES (1- 10 points) (not required, but if used must be cited)
__ Effective use of sources
__ Problems with handling of quo tations, integrating quotations into paper
__ Over -reliance on sources; too many and/or too long quotations
__ Insufficient documentation of ideas from other sources
__ Problems with in- text citations
__ Problems with works cited page

_____ 10. CONCLUSION (1 -10 points)
__ contains a strong restatement of the thesis, a summary of the main ideas, and
brings closure to the paper
__ contains a restatement of thesis, summary, and closure, but ___ thesis
___ summary ___ closure is not presented clearly
__ does not contain a ___ thesis ___ summary ___ closure
__ does not contain a restatement of thesis, summary, or closure

_____ TOTAL POINTS

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Assignment: Reflective Essay

Theatre 2200: Introduction to Performance Studies
Fall Semester 2011
Performance Analysis of “Giving Voice”

Write a standard formal essay in at least a five paragraph form (it must have five paragraphs, it
could have more than five) . This essay should be between 3 – 5 pages in length. Use Times New
Roman font, 12 pt., double space, use 1” margins all the way around. Number your pages at the
bottom. On the first page only use a heading on the left with your name, date, title of the class
and the professor’s name. Create a title for your essay and ce nter it. Do not use extra space
between paragraphs.

Analyze the performance answering the following questions and incorporating the following
discussions (these are suggestions, you don’t have to use all of them and you may create your
own) :
• Analyze th e process, how did we construct “Giving Voice”? What was
your role?
• How did you contribute to the piece? Did you like your contribution?
What did your contribution mean to you?
• How did we answer the question “Who Am I?” Did we answer the question?
• How did the piece evolve?
• How did we work individually and collectively? What was the difference?
• What did you like about the finished performance? What didn’t you like?
• How did the audience react? Did this make a difference to the performance?

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• Was the perf ormance different each show?
• What is the role of the audience in performances?
• Did the audience understand the performance?
• What was the purpose of the performance?
• Is it important for the audience to understand the point of the
performance?
• How would you improve the piece?
• What would you do differently?

See below for a description of a standard 5 paragraph essay (from Dr. Kevin Brown).

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT

Your paper should have at least five paragraphs. The first paragraph is the
introduction of the paper. Three paragraphs discuss the thesis with supporting
material. The final paragraph is the conclusion of the paper. In the next section,
we will look at each of these parts in more detail.
DIRECTIONS

1) Write an Introductio n Paragraph that includes:
 A Hook = one or two sentences that grab the attention of the reader and
introduces the topic of your paper. This could be a quote, definition,
example, question, metaphor, dilemma, or anecdote.
 A Preview = One or two sentences about each of the main ideas that you are
going to write about in your paper.
 A Thesis = A sentence that states the central opinion that you are going to
prove in your paper.

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2) In your first body paragraph, make sure that you include:
 A Topic Sentence = (this is the main idea that will be expressed in this
paragraph).
 At least three Supporting Details = Support your main idea with several
detailed examples form the text.
 A Transition = A sentence that transitions from your first main idea to the
main idea that you are going to write about in your next paragraph.

3) Just like in the second body paragraph, make sure that you include:
 A Topic Sentence = Clearly state the main idea that is expressed in this
paragraph.
 At least three Supporting Details = Support your main idea with several
detailed examples. Try to use specific language to describe each supporting
detail (that is, do not use examples which are too general).
 A Transition = Try to end each body paragraph with a sentence that
transitions from your first main idea to the main idea that you are going to
write about in your next paragraph.

4) In your Third Body Paragraph
Just like in the first three body paragraphs, make su re that you include:
 A Topic Sentence = Clearly state the main idea that is expressed in this
paragraph.
 At least three Supporting Details = Support your main idea with several
detailed examples.

5) Write a Conclusion Paragraph that includes:
 Restatement of the Thesis = restate the thesis that you introduced in the
introductory paragraph. Try to rephrase the thesis in a new and interesting
way. Do not just cut and paste.
 A Summary = Write one or two sentences about each of the main ideas that
you wrote about in your paper. ( Hint: these are these main ideas that you
stated in the topic sentences in each of your three body paragraphs). Make
sure that you rephrase each of the ideas. Do not just cut and paste.
 Closure = A sentence or two that brings the pape r to a final conclusion.
There should be a feeling that you are done writing about all of the ideas that
you wanted to present in your paper. Think about what kinds of things you
might say when you bring a telephone conversation to a close. The reader
should be able to tell that the paper is finished.
 If you use a quote or cite works from any source you must cite them
appropriately. Use MLA format.

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CHECKLIST
Use the following checklist to make sure you have met all the requirements for
this assignment.
Introduction
_____ Hook
_____ Preview
_____ Thesis
First Body Paragraph
_____ Topic sentence
_____ Supporting details
_____ Transition

Second Body Paragraph
_____ Topic sentence
_____ Supporting details
_____ Transition
Third Body Paragraph
_____ Topic sentence
_____ Supporting details

Conclusion
_____ Restate Thesis
_____ Summary
_____ Closure
Other Concerns
_____ Proofread
_____ Revisions
_____ Spell checked
_____ Edited
_____ Is the paper formatted correctly?
_____ Have you followed and completed the assignment?

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Evaluation

TH 2200: Introduction to Performance Studies
Mid-term evaluation
October 25, 2011
Teresa Stankiewicz

1. The instructor presents the material well. True False

2. The course meets my expectations. True False

3. What is the most rewarding aspect of this class?

4. What is the least rewarding aspect of this class?

5. This course can be improved by the following:

6. Comments:

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APPENDIX E: EXAM QUESTIONS

TH 2200 Introduction to Performance Studies
Teresa Stankiewicz
Exam 1 = 100 points total
October 13, 2011

NAME:_________________________________

1. An example of "twice -behaved" behavior is an actor recreating behavior in a
play.
a. True
b. False

2. Define performance
a. Ritualized behavior conditioned and/or permeated by play
b. Actions
c. Social drama
d. All of the above

3. What is ritual?
a. A form of play
b. Collective memories encoded into actions
c. Sacred beliefs
d. Everyday actions

4. Why do we have ritual?
a. To help deal with difficult transitions
b. To help deal with ambivalent relationships
c. To hel p deal with hierarchies
d. All of the above

5. What does play accomplish? It gives us the chance to temporarily experience:
a. The taboo
b. The excessive
c. The risky
d. All of the above

6. What two things transform people temporarily?
a. Ritual and play
b. Play only
c. Ritual only

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d. None of the above

7. What are rites of passage?
a. Weddings
b. Bar mitzvahs
c. Rituals that transform people permanently
d. All of the above

8. The performing arts, sports and games combine what?
a. Ritual and play
b. Play only
c. Ritual only
d. None of the above

9. Rituals are only religious.
a. True
b. False

10. We no longer have rituals in the present day.
a. True
b. False

11. What are the two main types of ritual?
a. Sacred and secular
b. Play and taboo
c. Sacred and play
d. Transportation and transformation
12. Give an example of a combined secular -sacred ritu al.

13. What is not part of the four perspectives that can define rituals and ritualizing?
a. Structure
b. Process
c. Taboo
d. Experience

14. Which theme does not relate ritual to performance studies?
a. Human and animal rituals
b. Social drama
c. The efficacy -entertainment dyad
d. Sports

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15. What is not one of the four main phases of public action?
a. Breach
b. Play
c. Crisis
d. Schism

16. Social Darwinism mistakenly assumes a hierarchy of culture
a. True
b. False

17. Rituals cannot be invented
a. True
b. False
18. Play is a genetically based lifelong activity of humans and a number of other animals.
a. True
b. False

19. Which of the following are types of play?
a. Competition
b. Mimicry
c. A&B
d. Ritual

20. One of the decisive qualities of postmodernism is the application of the “performance principle” to all aspects of social and artis tic life.
a. True
b. False

21. Richard Schechner worked with the following anthropologist in creating performance studies at NYU.
a. Victor Turner
b. Jane Goodall
c. Dwight Conquergood
d. Peggy Phelan

22. “To perform” can be understood in relation to :
a. Being
b. Doing
c. Both A&B
d. Neither A or B

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23. Dark Play refers to:
a. Luck
b. Black cards in a deck
c. Ritual
d. None of the above

24. Which of the following matches is correct?
a. Nietzsche – God’s play, child’s play, artist’s play
b. Lacan – Performance graphic of fan or web
c. Parcell – BurningAngel.com
d. Langer – Art is ritual

25. Performance studies began at Northwestern University as part of the theatre program.
a. True
b. False

ESSAY = 25 points: Write a standard five paragraph essay on ONE of the following
topics. The first paragraph should be the introduction with a strong hook and a thesis statement. The subsequent paragraphs should discuss and support the thesis statement. The last paragraph should a conclusion with a summary restatem ent of the thesis. Each
paragraph should have a topic sentence and at least three sentences to support it.
1. Discuss rituals as liminal performances, include what the difference between liminal and liminoid is and give examples to support your statements.

2. What is the relationship between flow and communitas? Give examples of each.

3. Discuss how performance studies might help to deal with some of the problems facing the world, such as threats to the environment, the oppression and exploitation of people, overpopulation, and war.

237
APPENDIX F: RESOURCES

Here I include a list of resources that can specifically be used to find exercises
that aide in creating a devised piece. The book Spaces of Creation: The Creative Process of Playwriting by Suzan Zeder and Jim Hancock contains exercises these professors use
for teaching playwriting however many of them are useful for teaching devising and creative work in general. The advantage of this book is that they incorporate movement exercises into their cr eative writing visualizations. In his book The Moving Body:
Teaching Creative Theatre Jacques Lecoq has several exercises outlined. He includes an
entire section on improvisation and explains the use of the neutral mask. Any book on theatre games and impro visation is helpful. There are exercises that develop the voice,
physical coordination and character development. 112 Acting Games by Gavin Levy and
Theater Games for the Classroom by Viola Spolin are two that I use extensively. Spolin
has many more books on improvisation such as Improvisation for the Theatre , third
edition. The Levy book is grouped by purpose for the exercise and the Spolin book does the same with more explanation as to why we use theatre games in the classroom. Many acting books include e xercises that teach some of the creative work necessary for
devising such as Acting is Believing by McGaw, Stilson and Clark and Acting One/Acting
Two by Robert Cohen as well as books on composition such as The Viewpoints Book by
Anne Bogart and Tina Landa u.
Devising Theatre: A practical and theoretical handbook by Alison Oddey remains
one of the few books that specifically addresses devising. Her chapters progress logically from “Beginnings: How and where to start” to “Process”, “From Process to Product”,

238
“Space”, and “Theory and Practice.” She concludes with “Learning to Devise: Practical
ideas and suggestions.” In the last chapter she includes brainstorming and group beginnings as well as describing how she uses yoga exercises for physical warm -ups. I
also use yoga exercises in my classes, my favorite being some modification of the Sun
Salutation. I like the Sun Salutation because it is a simple exercise that warms the entire body and prepares us to move. In much the same way that the theatre games books
categorize their exercises Oddey continues with exercises based on their intent. She includes exercises for all five senses, concentration exercises, trust exercises, pairs work and relaxation. I include relaxation exercises in all of my studio classes because so many people do not slow down and relax, especially students. Further descriptions of specific exercises that are not included in these books are included in appendix G: Exercises.

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APPENDIX G: EXERCISES

Heartbeat from Kaitlin Hopkins
Hopkins’ musical theatre sophomores devise a show together as their creative
project for the year that is set up as a three credit hour class. They take a couple of weeks
in the beginning discussing what is important to them, their fears, their obsessions, and possibly world change. They use a worksheet and answer questions to begin discussions. Hopkins brings in quotes, new articles, literature, etc. to generate ideas. One class went back to their childhoods. Last year she had a mixture of actors, playwrights, c omposers,
etc. and she started with their heartbeats.
They sat in a circle and tapped out the rhythm of their heartbeat. It started with
them all tapping together, then in a round robin, adding to what the previous person did. Then they were asked to stand and tap all over the room as they moved. A s they built to a
crescendo she shouted STOP so they would experience the moment that someone limited them and said “ No, you cannot be yourself. ” They became more aggressive with the
piece and it led to another number and more dialogue. It became a discovery of the
essence of who you are in musical motif and then built from there. I asked her how this
class affected them in the interview. Here is her answer:
There's a frustration they feel with who they are and what they have to say . This
teaches them to be braver and less fearful, it teaches them to have a point of view
in the artwork. This is a way to facilitate them finding themselves.

She asks them what it look s like physically . She uses emotions as examples such as pain,
joy, anger, fear, etc. There always ends up being a common thread like anger. She tries
to get to what is common or universal. There is a turning point where they find their own

240
creativity and inevitably express something like "I had no ide a that I could write ." Once
they find their own creativity they become better performers because they become more
secure in what they can do. There is pride, astonishment, and wonderment. Then they experience the audience and the talkback. With that they discover the power of their art.
Song Lyrics as P oetry From Laura Nelson
In one of her classes professor Laura Nelson decided to use lyrics from songs in a
devising exercise. She had the students bring in the lyrics to a song that they liked. They
read the lyrics aloud and discuss ed how to perform the lyrics . She suggest ed that they
find quot ation s that exemplify the theme or topic of what is being discussed or literature
that relates to the theme of the lyrics. In this way they build a performance around the
lyrics of one of their favorite songs.
Then she added the idea o f asking them to take their personal narrative and find
songs that identify with points in their narrative. In this way the students explore
literature to build a performance of their pers onal narrative.
Miniature Worlds from Suzan Zeder
This exercise is paraphrased from Suzan Zeder’s book Space of Creation (Zeder
95). I gave my students small Chinese food take -out boxes and gave them fifteen minutes
to gather items to place in the box. The y were allowed to go outside, look through their
bags, and explore the room and the building to find objects. They were told to create the world of the scene that they were about to write. The boxes were white and I brought crayons and colored markers for them to use to decorate the boxes. After fifteen minutes they returned with their boxes and studied their miniature worlds to write a short scene

241
using what they had created. This gives them a starting point for creative thinking and
encourages them to experience the space in their scene. Then they read the scenes aloud and critique one another, asking questions about the world of the scene. Additional discussions include how would this be staged, how else can the items be used in the world of the play and how does working this way create something that can be used in the final piece.
Spider Diagram for C luster Analysis
The business world is the source for this exercise that I used when as a leader I
invited the team to brainstorm creative solutions to a pro blem. In devising it can be used
to generate ideas for creative work. For this exercise I find it easier to use a chalk board or a white board. It is possible to use a diagram tool such as PowerPoint or Viseo if you prefer to work electronically. First explain brainstorming and build rules such as never say no, no self -censure, any idea is a good one, etc. Then encourage them to say the first
thing that pops into their mind. When the first word is stated, for example red, write the word in the center of the board and draw a circle around it. Then ask for more words
based on red, as they are expressed write the words and draw circles around them. Then connect the circles. As you can see in the following example, the connections can get crazy.

242
The point is to generate ideas and see if any
common threads appear. It helps to keep
it going as quickly as possible to
get the participants to blurt out the first thing on
their mind. The free association brings about
some wonderfully creative ideas and from there the class
can analyze how any of the groupings can be used
to create a scene.

Red
Pink
Purple
Beige
Haze
Rain
Sunshine
Bunnies
Strip Poles
Firemen
of your
love

243
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VITA

Teresa Stankiewicz holds an MA in Theatre – Playwriting from Texas State University and an
MFA in Modern Dance from the University of Illinois. An award winning choreographer she
founded and directed the Tobias! Dance Company in Austin, Texas for six years . She has fifteen
years of dance teaching experience specializing in Modern Dance and Jazz. She has also taught Ballet, Character, Ballroom, Bellydancing and Tap dance. She is certified as a Hatha Yoga instructor, teaching yoga and meditation. Her first te n minute play, The Pink Bathtub Murders
was produced by the Vestige Group in Austin in June, 2008 and a short work, Duty to Warn played in FronteraFest Short Fringe, Hyde Park Theatre, Austin, TX in 2009. Additional plays have received staged readings at t he Missouri Playwrights Workshop, Alive and Reading, and
Austin Script Works. She spent over twenty -one years working in Information Technology (IT)
and her IT articles have been published in technical and educational journals. She has articles and
book re views published in The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy , the LMDA University
Caucus SourceBook , the Journal of Research on Women and Gender , Theatre History Studies,
and Theatre Topics . Her research interests include devised theatre, women playwrights,
dramaturgy, Native American drama, and feminism. She has presented her research at
international conferences including ASTR, ATHE, ISS, TETA, and the International
Interdisciplinary Conference. She taught Acting I, Acting for Non- majors, Introduction to
Performance Studies and Beginning Playwriting at the University of Missouri, Musical Theatre
Workshop at St. Edward’s University and Beginning Jazz Dance at the University of Illinois. She has also assisted with Script Analysis and Theatre in Society at the Un iversity of Missouri as well
as Dance History II and Introduction to Fine Arts at Texas State University.