Devising Dragons: Create a Fantasy Play (Ages 11-14)

Have you ever finished reading a fantasy book, but your imagination keeps running through that magical world searching for more adventures? Have you imagined yourself inside the story as a character? Have you been frustrated with a fantasy story because it doesn't contain the characters you want to read about? Maybe you've written your own stories or poetry or songs. Maybe you've drawn your own original characters or creatures or magical worlds. In this 10-week course, we will put that imagination to good use and work together to create our own fantasy world, our own characters, and our own play.

What is devised theater? It's any kind of theater that starts with a group of people called an "ensemble," rather than with an existing script. The group works collaboratively to create a new play, usually through a process that combines different kinds of artistic expression (like playwriting, choreography, poetry, improvisation, visual art, music...). We will use this process to collaboratively create a completely original fantasy play. 

At our first class we will play theater games to get to know each other, brainstorm fantasy play ideas, and watch and discuss short examples of devised theater. Each week after that, we will play a warm-up game together and then jump right into brainstorming, writing, movement, acting, and visual art activities. Through these activities, the ensemble will develop material for our play. Between classes, I will assign short writing assignments that will allow us to collect more material. As we go, I will edit the ensemble's writing into a script. As the weeks go on, we will explore ways to stage or visually represent our script. At the last class, the ensemble will perform a dramatic reading of the play with movement and visual art. The recording of that class will be posted to the classroom so that the artists' families can see the results of their hard work!

Note: I realize that this is a difficult time for many people. If your family has experienced a significant loss of income and can't afford the cost of this class, please send me a message using the "Ask me a question" button on my profile and we will make this work for you.