Devising Theatre and Performance: Curious Methods

A hands-on guide for artists, students, and teachers of devised theater, at any stage of their practice.

This book is packed with thoughtful exercises distilled from twenty-five years of interdisciplinary artist workshops and teaching devising and performance making at universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Created and curated by Leslie Hill and Helen Paris, artists who work internationally at the interface of academia and professional practice, this collection provides exercises for devising, composing, and editing original works. The exercises are clear and accessible, enhanced with vivid examples from contemporary performance practice and relevant political contexts. Moreover, the authors offer tools for giving and receiving feedback, fostering critical reflection, and framing artistic work within academic research contexts. Hill and Paris’s compelling approach does more than merely provide performance recipes; it highlights the vital cultural relevance and potential personal impact of the creative explorations that the authors invite us to undertake.

Helen Paris is an artist-scholar and associate professor of performance making in the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University. She is a codirector and founder of Curious, a theater company based in the UK, and the coauthor of Performing Proximity: Curious Intimacies.

Leslie Hill is professor of theater and performance making at the University of Roehampton in London and the cofounder and director of the UK-based theater company Curious. She is the author of Sex, Suffrage and the Stage: First Wave Feminism in British Theatre.