Building a Theatrical Performance from the Ground Up
Devised theatre is the product of a collaborative process in which an ensemble of writers, actors, and designers create a theatrical performance from scratch. This process stems from themes the ensemble would like to explore and how they translate onto the stage. The ensemble then finds a way to break the themes down into smaller scenes that are later pieced together into full-scale production. In the fall of 2019, the Department of Theatre and Dance produced a devised performance piece in which I served as the Assistant Director/Dramaturg. As an Assistant Director/Dramaturg, I helped create and support the artistic vision of the show alongside the Director and my research faculty mentor Professor Anjalee Hutchinson, setting up the foundation of the narratives that the ensemble will be telling onstage in the Department of Theatre and Dance fall production. In order to prepare for this role, in my summer research, I looked for an answer to the question “How does an assistant director/dramaturg translate themes and storytelling methods into resonant narratives for devised theatrical productions?” My fellow student researcher, Orli Bernstein and I created a website containing all of our research. The information on this website was used as source material to draw inspiration for content to write a show about.
Here is a link to the website we created for our research-http://bucknelldevisingfall2019.scholar.bucknell.edu/
Learn more about our production here:
Our production was performed on campus in October. Our production was then selected to be performed at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival at the University of Maryland College Park. We were one of eight productions selected to be performed at the festival out of over sixty productions that entered. At the festival, we performed for an audience of over 600 people and received the prestigious award of the “Golden Hand Truck” for the fastest load-in and load-out.
