PROJECT:
The Collaborative Project is a 12-15 minute theater piece that you will develop as a collaborative ensemble of no more than 5 collaborators. Your devised theater piece will be created by your ensemble from a "starting point" and for a "target audience". The "starting point" may be a picture, theme, non-dramatic text, music, gesture, etc. from which you begin to create your piece YOU DO NOT START WITH A SCRIPT, the script evolves over time through your devised rehearsal process. Sometimes a devised process turns results in a traditional script, but sometimes the script is more open or is more of a movement script than a dialogue script. The "target audience" is a specific group of people for whom you are creating your piece of theater. You do NOT have to ultimately perform for your "target audience", but you do have to create with a specific "target audience" in mind.
In addition to creating from your "starting point" and fro your "target audience", each member of the ensemble will run at least one rehearsal using a method or methods from the professional collaborative ensemble whom you individually chose to research. You will have a month to create a 12-15 minute devised piece of theater that will be presented to an audience with a talk back. Throughout your process you will keep a journal. At the end of the process you will assemble/write a process portfolio of up to 15 pages. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU REGULARLY WRITE IN YOUR JOURNAL, SKETCH AND TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR PROCESS IN ORDER TO ASSEMBLE AN ACCURATE PROCESS PORTFOLIO AT THE END OF YOUR PROJECT. SEE BELOW FOR ESSENTIAL STEPS.
These are the major steps of the Collaborative Project
Watch this video on devising.
KEEP A JOUNAL THROUGHOUT THIS PROCESS. YOU WILL HAVE JOURNAL ASSIGNMENTS, BUT, ALSO, MAKE A DAILY PRACTICE OF WRITING.
Whole class will do in-class explorations of collaborative devised work
Each student will research AND present on a Professional Company that creates devised work collaboratively BEFORE choosing ensemble members
Each student give a presentation on the company she/he researched clearly explaining what processes the company works with that you would like to use in creating your own collaborative devised piece
Share your personal context with the class - this will be done in-class, guided by the teacher
A variety of experiences including steps 1-3 that will help us to choose ensembles
Form collaborative ensembles
Ensembles decide on a starting point and target audience
Ensembles explore starting point, with each member leading some portion of the exploration using processes from the professional companies researched by the ensemble members
Devise a 12-15 minute piece of collaborative theatre
Present the piece and do an audience talk back. Presentation and talk back must be videotaped.
Create a Collaborative Project Process Portfolio of no more than 15 pages with an added Bibliography page (YOU MUST USE YOUR JOURNAL THROUGHOUT TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN CREATING YOUR PROCESS PORTFOLIO.)
As part of creating your Process Portfolio, you will choose 4 minutes of your video to illustrate YOUR specific artistic contributions to your piece which you will write about in your Process Portfolio.
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Below are the pages from the DP Theatre Guide that fully outline expectations:
DP THEATRE
COLLABORATIVE PROJECT TASK OUTLINE
Structuring the process portfolio
The process portfolio may be up to 15 pages in length and can contain a variety of materials in different formats (such as text, visuals, diagrams and so on) depending on the nature of the project. It should demonstrate the dynamic stages of a creative process; preparation, action, reflection.
Any illustrations, charts, mind maps, visuals, diagrams or designs used within the process portfolio must be clearly annotated and appropriately referenced to acknowledge the source, following the referencing style chosen by the school. When students include any of their own photographs or images in the portfolio, these must also be identified and acknowledged in the same way. There is no lower limit on the number of pages a student can submit and teachers are encouraged to remind students that their work will be assessed on how it best fulfills the assessment criteria for the task and not judged on how many pages are submitted.
The process portfolio should contain a table of contents (which is excluded from the page count) and all pages should be numbered. The main body of the process portfolio should be structured using the following subheadings:
My personal context in theatre (including my own approaches, interests and/or skills in theatre) and my research into a professional company that creates and stages original pieces of theatre
The formation of my group and our exploration of the starting point (including our target audience and intentions for the piece)
Reflections on the collaborative development of our piece and the specific explorations led by me
My artistic choices (as seen in the video) and my evaluation of the final piece considering the impact on the audience.
Students are required to submit a separate list of all sources cited.
Formal requirements of this task
Each student submits for assessment:
a process portfolio (15 pages maximum) which includes:
– the student’s identification of their own approaches, interests and skills in theatre and research into the approaches used by a professional company that creates and stages original pieces of theatre (not already studied in depth as part of the theatre course)
– the student’s account of the formation of the ensemble and the exploration of the starting point selected by the ensemble, which includes identifying the target audience and intentions for the piece
– the student’s reflections on their own specific contributions to the collaborative process and the development, structuring and preparation of the piece for presentation
– the student’s evaluation of the final 13–15 minute presentation, the extent to which the piece fulfilled its intentions, the impact it had on the audience and the analysis and justification of their specific artistic choices (as evidenced in the video recording outlined below)
a video recording (4 minutes maximum) evidencing the student’s contributions and artistic choices in the collaboratively created piece; the selected footage must be chosen by the student and must demonstrate artistic choices made by the student; it can be either one continuous shot or can be from two different moments (maximum) in the presentation; the combined total submitted must not exceed 4 minutes of footage for each student
a list of all sources cited.
The size and format of pages submitted for assessment is not prescribed to enable students to be creative with how they record and present their work. Submitted materials are assessed on screen and students must ensure that their work is clear and legible when presented in a digital, on-screen format. To ensure that examiners are able to gain an overall and legible impression of each page without excessive scrolling, students are recommended to use common page sizes (such as legal, A4 or folio). Overcrowded or illegible materials may result in assessors being unable to interpret and understand the intentions of the work
The procedure for submitting the assessment materials can be found in the Handbook of procedures for the Diploma Programme. Students are required to indicate the number of pages used and the length of the video recording when the materials are submitted. Where submitted materials exceed the prescribed page or time limits assessors are instructed to base their assessment solely on the materials that appear within the limits.