Devising 2

From a few lessons of looking at the site and picking out its main features, we liked that it was on two levels, we also thought that the red paint was a major feature of the site, we initially thought of a hospital, but as the lower level seemed dirty and dusty it led us to think in a much more internal way, another aspect that led us to think this was, that we each set ourselves the task of getting a piece of text that related to our site, 2 of ours were Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’  we loved this idea of true love, but we all agreed that it was never possible, this was the moment we thought of disillusionment, and from this we got to mental illness, I believe that finding text was an excellent way to devise site specific theatre, as it can bring a whole new meaning to the site you have chosen. 

Also on my second week of work experience I worked with a company called ‘Fourth Monkey’ and currently the are working on a site specific piece of theatre which is based on Franz Kafka’s ‘In The Penal Colony.’  Some of the cast explained that they found it useful to use a text to devise from because, it gives a whole new way of looking at site specific theatre.  The two former ‘Complicite’ directors that were directing this piece, said using a text helped on a social basis between actors, one of the directors (Hamish MacDougall) said “if all the actors are all working from the same piece of text, they can communicate about it, and create a social relationship immediately, which is important in any piece of theatre.”