I believe in devised work. I believe in ensemble-based projects. I believe that new plays can have one writer and many creators or many writers in one collaborative process. Devised work is not new but it’s not been given the respect that the form deserves. Unless you’re Complicite or Pig Iron or Imago, where you had to literally invent a company to house your work.
As theaters re-imagine their season, their mission, their vision, especially the ones that say that they are dedicated to artists and new plays, I hope a part of that re-imagining is what they mean when they say new plays.
I have yet to see a mission statement dedicated to new plays and devised work, also new plays btw. Not all writers write plays in a traditional lock-me-in-a-room-till-I-birth-the-thing sort of way. And even if we do, not all stories come into being in one way. How incredible would it be to have our beloved organizations be driven to also new work that is devised, to foster creative processes in community around a theme, a story, an idea? I know it’s risky investing in a show without a script. But what are you investing?
You invest in artists.
You invest in process.
You invest in the inquiry.
You invest in the community.
You invest in new plays made in a unique way.
When you invite an audience in, you invite them into a living process — to explore, play, and discovery, in a way no other genre could.
As an actor I miss ensemble based processes. As a writer, I miss devised work. I want both. I want organizations to champion devised work along side new plays. Some works require you to write the thing first. Others works are investigations, curio cabinets that are unlocked by who lives in the room. There are so many ways to write a new play beyond the traditional model. We know this - storytellers have power. As we move towards a more inclusive future, we have to consider how to open more doors to allow different kinds of writers into the room.
“I’m excited for a new American theatre, where plays are written in the more traditional sense and where there are also devised new works, which are also plays, and all of this is programmed back-to-back and you can’t tell one from the other. My personal hope is that regional theatres will start to build infrastructure that will host and present this. I hope it becomes widespread.” Olivia Lilley