Devised Theater¿s Collaborative Performance

This book provides a fascinating and concise history of devised theatre practice.

As both a founding member of Philadelphia¿s Pig Iron Theater Company and a Professor, Telory Arendell begins this journey with a brief history of Joan Littlewood¿s Theatre Workshop and Living Newspapers through Brecht¿s Berliner Ensemble and Joe Chaikin¿s Open Theatre to the racially inflected commentary of Luis Valdez¿s Teatro Campesino and Ariane Mnouchkine¿s collaboration with Th¿re de Soleil. This book explores the impact of devised theatre on social practice and analyzes Goat Island¿s use of Pina Bausch¿s gestural movement, Augusto Boal¿s Theatre of the Oppressed in Giving Voice, Anna Deavere Smith¿s devised envelope for Verbatim Theatre, The Tectonic Theatre Project¿s moment work, Teya Sepinuck¿s Theatre of Witness, Pig Iron¿s use of Lecoq mime to build complex physical theatre scripts, and The Riot Group¿s musical arrangement of collaborative devised text. Included are a foreword by Allen