our process

Our work is collaboratively created by an ensemble and design team, led by a playwright. Our process is inspired by experimental and devised theater techniques, but developed over nearly two decades through experimentation and evolution.

IT STARTS WITH AN IDEA

We don’t start with a script. On the first day of rehearsal, we have a director, a playwright, an ensemble, a design team, and an idea. Usually the idea comes from the playwright and director, often it’s something they’ve been discussing for a while.

Next, the ensemble and production team dig into the idea and bring ideas of their own to the table. This looks a little different for every show: some shows are historical, and require more factual resources. For purely fictional shows, we might look for analogous inspiration or aesthetic guidance. If research is going to be heavily historical, we bring in a dramaturg to help. If the play is purely fictional, we use brainstorming methods to generate more ideas on which to build our story. Early on, the process is intended to be generative: to give the group options to build their story from.

We encourage production members to continue their research throughout the proces, and use email, Slack, and Pinterest to share ideas, links, and images that might inform the final story. Feel free to follow along on our boards as we pin, or our blog as we share our progress. This phase of our creation process is all about possibilities as we explore What Might Happen and How Could We with the ensemble and production team. For the ensemble, this will also involve brainstorming sessions where we zero in on the facets of our research that we find the most compelling. For our design team, this ends with our Big Idea Meeting, where we throw out ideas unconstrained by budget to open us all up to the possibilities of the world we are building.

CREATING THE SCRIPT

We use improvisation, devised theater techniques, and brainstorming to create rough scenes, which are refined by the cast and playwright in an iterative cycle, eventually leading to a rough script.

Eye opener

Once we have a rough script created, we put the work up in front of a small audience to get feedback. This work-shopped reading is known as an Eye Opener. Eye Openers are free and open to the public. Sign up now if you’d like to see a peek behind the curtain, a look at our process, and a chance to see the show before everyone else!

Phase 3: Rehearsal

After the Eye Opener, our playwright takes a week-long break to move the script towards a more final state. Then, we begin rehearsal, where the final touches are put on the script, design concepts are finalized, characters built, and staging refined.