The Prompt:
TITLE: We Gather To Bear Witness
TITLE: We Gather To Bear Witness
- Ensembles will select their sources of inspiration as their creative container (examples: a photograph, a poem, a fictional or non-fictional short story, a memory, interviews, a question, etc.). Ensembles will be asked to clearly articulate how their sources informed their process and product, form and content.
- Each ensemble will create a unique performance vocabulary informed by their source materials. This vocabulary should include movement, voice, visual image, sonic landscape, text and scenic environment and communicate the piece’s style and aesthetic.
- Ensemble should consider time restraints and travel considerations. These parameters are designed to form a creative container to spark your imaginations and deepen your exploration.
Logistics/parameters:
- Approximately 16’X16’ playing space; ensemble determines audience placement & interaction.
- Work lights up/down provided; any additional lighting will be ensemble-generated.
- Regions provide electrical power; ensemble must provide all technical sources (music sources, extension cords, projector, clip lights, etc.)
- There is a 20 minute time limit, which must include set-up, performance and strike. Set up and strike can be part of the performance.
- Contributions of the ensemble are to be balanced and evenly distributed.
- Not every member of the ensemble must perform, but the majority should.
- Faculty mentors may provide outside-eye feedback, but students should drive the work.
- No live flame.
- No smoking.
- No functional weapons.
Additional Information:
- Each showing will be given a short response from regional faculty and/or devising guest artists. Each deviser will be expected to speak articulately about their work, displaying rigor of process and responsibility for form and content.
- Devising isn’t an aesthetic; it’s a process. This approach to creating new work includes multiple aesthetics, production value spectrums, and performance styles.
- Participants should ensure that the content of their piece significantly reflects the prompt as it guides the creative process.
- Regions will only provide the space; ensembles must bring everything else. Be careful about making assumptions (availability of chairs, acting blocks, etc)
- Schools may enter multiple groups for the devising initiative.
Articles on Devised Theatre To Get You Inspired and Working:
The first includes live links to several other devising resources and the second can be accessed through your school library.
The first includes live links to several other devising resources and the second can be accessed through your school library.
- -“What is Devised Theatre?” Posted by Martine Kei Green-Rogers, 28th Sept. 2016, THEATRE TIMES, https://thetheatretimes.com/what-is-devised-theatre/
- -“On the Case for Devising Theatre on Social Justice on College Campuses,” Joan Lipkin, THEATRE TOPICS, John Hopkins University Press, Vol. 26, Number 2, July 2016 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/627135/
Deadline extended to January 20, 2023 at 5:00 pm.
Devised Theatre Project Coordinator Cat Gleason, devised@kcactf5.org