Devising and Ensemble Practice
Devising and Ensemble Practice tests collaborative creation from a stimulus to a performable shape. The exam rewards evidence of process: research, improvisation, selection, editing, composition and documentation - not “we made it up in the room”.
Core rules
- Start with a stimulus: image, object, news story, poem, place, sound or question. Research it before improvising.
- Generate widely, then select ruthlessly. Keep a devising log of exercises, decisions and cut material.
- Compose with structure: motif, repetition, contrast, accumulation, stillness, chorus, direct address and stage image.
- Use ensemble practices such as Viewpoints (time and space), Lecoq’s physical play, or Frantic Assembly’s lifts and contact work only with trained supervision.
- Assign roles: outside eye, dramaturg, sound and music, movement, documentation. Everyone still performs.
Worked example
Stimulus: “the last bus home”. A group improvises waiting, missed connection and farewell. Raw material is chaotic. The ensemble selects a repeated image - a hand raised to stop a bus that never stops - and structures the piece in three loops: hope, argument, silence. Each loop shortens, so the final silence lands. Reasoning: repetition creates pattern; shortening creates acceleration; contrast between chatter and silence focuses attention. The devising log records why two other scenes were cut, which earns process marks.
Traps
- Treating improvisation as the finished product.
- Keeping every idea to avoid hurting feelings.
- No outside eye, so the piece is self-indulgent.
- Ignoring physical safety in contact work.
- No documentation, so process marks disappear.