INTRODUCTION TO DEVISING

Building Performance Without a Script

LegalAliens’ Introduction to Devising sessions are designed for actors and performers who want to experience the process of building original work without starting from a pre-written play. Whether you are trained in text-based acting, curious about collaborative creation, or interested in making your own work, this workshop offers a practical introduction to devising as a performance-making practice.

Many actors are highly skilled at interpreting existing scripts, but far fewer have the opportunity to create material from scratch.

Devising asks different questions:
How do you generate performance material without a playwright?
How do you create scenes through movement, image, improvisation, and ensemble work?
What is the role of physical theatre in shaping a piece?
How do you structure and refine raw ideas into a coherent performance?
What is dramaturgy in devised theatre, and how does it help a piece find form?
How do you move from instinct and experimentation to a finished show?

This workshop fills that gap with practical tools, creative prompts, and an introduction to the principles behind collaborative performance-making.

Who is it for?

  • Actors trained mainly in scripted work who want to explore collaborative creation.

  • Performers interested in physical theatre and non-text-based approaches.

  • Emerging artists who want to make their own work but do not know where to begin.

  • Drama students and early-career performers curious about devising and dramaturgy.

    This session is about creative agency: helping actors discover how to generate, shape, and perform original work, while gaining a deeper understanding of ensemble-making, physical storytelling, and the dramaturgical processes behind devised theatre.

WORKSHOP STRUCTURE

1. Introductions & Ensemble Building
Participants introduce themselves and share their performance background and interests.
The session begins with physical warm-ups, group exercises, and ensemble tasks designed to build trust, focus, responsiveness, and play.

2. What Is Devising?
An introduction to devised theatre and the many forms it can take.
Participants explore how performance can emerge from images, themes, personal experience, movement, text fragments, improvisation, and research rather than from a finished script.
We also look at different ways artists generate material collectively.

3. Physical Theatre as a Creative Tool
An exploration of how the body can be used to create meaning, atmosphere, character, and narrative.
Participants work with movement-based exercises, spatial composition, rhythm, gesture, and non-verbal storytelling.
The aim is to help actors move beyond naturalism and discover how physical vocabulary can generate theatrical material.

4. Improvisation & Generating Material
Participants are guided through practical devising tasks in pairs, small groups, and as a whole ensemble.
These may include image work, thematic improvisations, physical scores, text and movement combinations, and responding to prompts or source material.
The focus is on experimentation, risk-taking, and discovering what material begins to emerge.

5. Introduction to Dramaturgy
A practical introduction to dramaturgy within devised work.
Participants explore how to identify themes, connections, repetitions, tensions, and possible structures within the material they have created.
This section looks at how a piece begins to take shape and how dramaturgical thinking helps transform improvisation into performance.

6. Shaping a Devised Piece
Participants work on selecting, editing, and arranging material.
They explore questions such as:
What belongs in the piece?
What is the audience meant to experience?
What holds the work together?
How do transitions, rhythm, contrast, and visual composition help create structure?
This section introduces the journey from workshop material to performance draft.

7. Sharing & Reflection
Participants share short devised sequences created during the session.
The workshop ends with discussion and reflection on process, collaboration, authorship, and the possibilities of making original work as an actor.

General Information
    • Sessions can be booked as:
      –       A one-off 3-hour session
      – A series of sessions or full day workshop
      • Ideal number is 15-20 participants (but we can accommodate bigger or smaller groups if discussed when booking)

      If you’re a drama or acting department and would like to discuss a workshop in your premises, email Nada at legalalienstheatre@legalaliens.org. or click below

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