Why Devise?

  • Crystal Brian's (2005) article around the student devised project Antigone (a work exploring the experience of war veterans) highlights that theatre is a "powerful educative tool... that becomes a transformative agent which places the audience or participants in direct and immediate situtations where they can witness, confront, and deconstruct immediate situations as well as aspects of (their) own and others' actions" (Taylor in Brian 2005, p2).

My own experience, coupled with audience feedback indicated that Quarter Acre Dreaming had a thought provoking effect. Audience members reported being made to consider the evolvement of the suburbs, social movements, prejudices and the calamity of modern life. Having the Dutch perspective as we shaped our play also enhanced some confronting themes - which we may not have visited so blatantly. In particular the inherent racism and ignorance that the Australian (suburban) consciousness is percieved to harbour by the global community.

  • Brian (2005) also suggests that devising can be a "potent tool in building bridges between artists and the larger community, whether that community is local, national or global" (p2).

This was certainly the case in the global sense as we built relationships with English Language students across the other side of the world in Amsterdam.

  • Falkenberg (2005) concludes from his experience in New Zealand that "a country that is built upon colonization must be seen in the act of continually devising an identity through itself". He suggests that "instead of conforming to a fixed script which is always in danger of being frozen in some other place, time and ideology, it is better to look identity through provisional art, where texts and participants become the material of performance in a dialectical process." (pp 39 & 40)

Looking specifically at Australian identity through this devised theatre project enabled us to capture some of the ephemeral nature of identity - the chaotic existential mobile sequence depicting a sense of spiritual disharmony and ironic disconnection, for example, would not have been represented in a script written 15 years ago, when cell phones were not so common.

  • Lewis (2005) argues that "the aim of artists must now include the development not only of new work and new types of artmaking, but also the new sense of place" (p23). He postulates that in a globalised world of cookie-cut corporations and city scapes, in order to reshape the world, it becomes increasingly important to root our identites in the authenticiy of our local experiences of identity: of place, gender, faith and culture and to recognise and give those identities voice through devising art.

Quarter Acre Dreaming experiemented with new ways of devising art - transnationally and using technology. It was also very much rooted in our local (Melbournian) history and personal experiences with a focus on dreams (realised or not). It certainly had gaps and probably led to more questions than answers about the Australian identity. I assume that those watching came away with thoughts, perhaps even some dissonance about how they fit into Australian suburbia. This project encouraged me to think more about the unsustainable nature of the sprawling suburbs - which indeed creates many questions. Thus as Magnat (2005) states, "the danger and promise inherent in devising lie in its transformative properties" (p86).

  • Bowles (2005) states the reason for summounting the challenges of devising collaboratively as boiling down to the notion that "just as cavemen developed different stone blades for killing, skinning, cutting, etc. Often the perfect play/piece does not alread exist to accomplish the specific task at hand"(p15). She notes that theatre is a powerful tool for raising consciousness and opening constructive dialogue about social justice issues - but that the effective addressing of an issue means it must be rooted in the specifics of circumstances, time and place.

The specific task of the hour of this particular project was to incorporate the Dutch students as a part of the performance via a live streamed video hook-up - a never before achieved technological and socially experimental challenge. That challenge lent itself well to a "hand crafted" piece of theatre.

 

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How To Devise: The Process.
  • "The uniqueness of process and product for every group concerned is what distinguishes devised performances from those more conventionally structured around preexisting dramatic text" (Lowe, 2005, p121)

There are many starting points and variables when it comes to structuring group devised projects. The Australia-Netherlands project was very specifically scaffolded. I've heard a saying "the more decisions I make, the more I do". There was a miriad of choices made along the way of devising "Quarter Acre Dreaming", which narrowed the endless possibilities when it comes to devising a project. These limits and structures pushed the work forward to completion within the 10 week timeframe.  Below are some of the parameters within which we worked...

  1. Topic: Australian Identity: Suburbia was decided upon before the group assembled.
  2. Leadership: An appointed Director, Yoni Prior, made the final decisions on (among other things) what out of the creative material generated would make the final cut
  3. Goals: To incorporate live feed from Amsterdam in the performances, to utilise our Amsterdam counterparts as Dramaturgs who could give us feedback and input into the play's development.
  4. People: Participation by invitation: 13 Performers in Australia & 9 chosen out of a larger class of participants in Amsterdam. This created an enthusiasm around the project.
  5. Stimulus: Some of this was already provided through suggested literature, imagery, film, television, magazines, music and lectures from experts. We also needed examine our own experiences and places of residence.
  6. Production Tasks: were deligated to teams of two or more on the basis of their complexity and individual group member's interests and strengths.
  7. Audience-Actor relationship: Performing to both a local audience and a digital intercultural audience meant, at both ends of the world, we needed to ensure appropriate coherency and relevance.
  8. Play-Building: A combination of discussions of observations of themes, ideas and personal anecdotes, as well as decisions around the play's chronilogical structure (travelling from 2010 backwards to 1880 and stopping at significant junctures in history along the way). Also, a specific set design of a suburban street was decided upon early - which created parameters for experimentative improvisations.
  9. Schedule: Prearranged deadlines created for completion of sections of the project. Specifically the Amsterdam hook-ups served as work-in-progress showings. 

Overall, Quarter Acre Dreaming was a project that artfully blended the ideology of Australian history  and identity (among other things) with the practice of performance.

In the not so minced words of Moisés Kaufman: 

"Theory and practice should f*ck, and their children should be the plays, the result should be the plays."

(in Brown, 2005, p51)

 

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