Set-Up and Situation – Dramaturgy as Transformation

I explore the relationship between dramaturgy and scenography in our devising practice, and how that drives the development of material in rehearsals. By breaking the logic that demands dramaturgy determine scenography and its technology, we found an endlessly productive means of exploring and transforming material in the devising workshop. Through works such as Constants and DeliverUs, we developed a methodology that opened up the transformability of materials to a variety of forces – performers, technologies, sites. I trace how this approach developed into the sited performance Dream-work/ Dream-walk, and became central to how we transformed material across different media in portfolio projects.

Keywords: audience and space ; devising space ; integrating design into devising ; scenic design in devising performance ; scenography ; space and technology