The Exploration Phase:

• The importance of respect for each other as collaborators and for the work is established at the beginning of the workshop, this includes the right of non-particpation.
• Participants train for performance using games and exercises to promote self-discovery, new ways of thinking, and collaborative ensemble building. See more about how we train here.
• Participants are given a reader of plays. Each session some of these plays are discussed. Participants should read the plays outside class time, some reading may be included in the discussion but there is rarely time to read the entire play or entry. See more about what plays and movements we have studied here.
• Attention is paid to the techniques used in each play or movement for communication with the audience because these are the techniques available to the participants when writing their new plays.

The Creation Phase:

• Participants make their “technique choice” by identifying which of the techniques they have studied in the reader they would most like to use when creating their own new works.
• Participants are put into small groups based on their technique choices.
• The group as a whole decides on a “target story,” which all the new pieces will be based on. This target story should be something from the participants and audiences’ shared culture such as fairy tales, myths, or well known novels or plays.
• Each small group collaborates to write and stage a new piece using their technique choice and the target story.
• Participants are given equal say in all the decisions made during the creation of the piece, which doesn’t mean they may always agree with every decision made, just that they are a part of every discussion.
• The whole group also works together to create one or more full company pieces based on some of the techniques from the reader that no small group chose, but interested many in the group.
• The pieces are worked on and rehearsed for a set amount of time. As much progress as can be made in that amount of time towards a fully realized production of the play is made.
• A workshop performance of the new work is presented to an audience. While the method is process oriented, the performance is the important final step in the process that allows participants to experience the success of their work.