our methodology.
Our creative process largely utilizes Anne Bogart and Tina Landau’s Viewpoints and compositions; when the artist participants are familiarized with the basic building blocks of performance, they have the tools they need to create, edit, and refine their own performance material. We also draw from exercises and methods of the Tectonic Theatre Project and their Moment WorkTM, the Theatre of the Oppressed, as well as devised practitioners Alison Oddey and Sheila Kerrigan, adjusting our process throughout to reflect the interests of the artists and support the direction their work is taking them. By allowing the artists to principally employ techniques of professional devised groups and practitioners, and by holding their potential to a high standard, the artist participants we work with are able to create work that is as complex and layered as they are.
We use a unique participant-driven dramaturgical process, focused on identifying a central show question and setting a goal for the audience experience. This process guides everything from the production content, to its aesthetics, to its overall form, and ensures the artist participants are actively engaging with and leading at every step. Furthermore, our participant-driven dramaturgical process also allows our productions to embrace plurality, dialogue, and contradictions; we don’t need to flatten many distinct perspectives into one unified story with a beginning, middle, end, and moral conclusion. Rather, we can encourage the artists to lean into the personal, the lived and experienced, and make space for an enriching diversity of perspectives and voices to be represented.
