Devised Theatre

In a typical play, there is one playwright, one director and many actors. Devised theatre takes a different, more collaborative approach. In this unit, students work alongside the teacher/director to create an entirely original theatrical production based on the personal interests, passions or questions. Students are held individually accountable for their contribution while also working as a team to create a meaningful, transformative work that slowly takes shape over nine weeks and culminates in a performance for a live audience.

Dissertation by Keith G. Fitzgerald.

Theatre Triad is a new approach to devising collaborative ensemble theatre starting with the three main components of Performance: Voice, Movement, and Text. These components were deconstructed and reconstructed in pairs as the basis for the devising process. The performance process begins with creating an ensemble followed by four steps: exploring the theatrical genres affiliated with the pairings of Voice and Movement, Movement and Text, Voice and Text, and completed with reintegrating all three components. Through this process many things occur, a new play is created, ensemble members focus on exploring the elements of acting and performance, and a strong foundation of acting skills is laid for young actors. Theatre Triad can also be used as a method for teaching a number of courses in Devising Theatre or Acting classes. In this paper you will learn how Theatre Triad works as both a production approach and method in actor training.