Devising Performance: A Critical History

Theatre and Performance Practices

by Deirdre Heddon, Jane Milling

The book charts the development of collaboratively-created performances from the 1950s to the present day. Companies discussed include the Living Theatre, Open Theatre, Australian Performing Group, People Show, Teatro Campesino, Théâtre de Complicité, Legs on the Wall, Forced Entertainment and Third Angel. Against this background of enormous variety, fundamental questions are posed: "What is devised theatre?"; "Why have theatre-makers chosen to devise performances since the 1950s?" and "How has devised performance changed over the last fifty years?"

Genres: Theatre

284 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2005

Reviews

[Col]

read for school (in full)

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gives a surprisingly cursory look at the history of "devised performance". The limited scope of the history - with a few exceptions, the authors restrict their analysis to companies operating Australia, Great Britain and United States - gives a strange bias to the overall structure of the book.

I think the bibliography might be the strongest aspect of this book - pointing the way to better material for analysis.

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

covers devising history in UK, US, and Australia. I found quite a few typos. Really focuses more on devising companies than anything else