In this chapter, David Crespy shares his dreamwork for dramatic writing workshop that he has taught through such venues as the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Mid-America Theatre Conference, the International Association... more
In this chapter, David Crespy shares his dreamwork for dramatic writing workshop that he has taught through such venues as the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the Mid-America Theatre Conference, the International Association for the Study of Dreams, Hollins University PlayLab, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. The work here focuses on dramatic writing , but the notion of the dream cache is useful to any storyteller looking for a creative method to innovate their story technique. Using the lens of phenomenology, and techniques suggested by performance theorist Bert O. States, Crespy attempts to "unmask" the way dreams and fiction interact for the playwright or screenwriter. Dreams offer an unlimited supply of ideas, form, technique, and structure for writers who are trying to surprise themselves out of clichés received from the echo chamber of Broadway and Hollywood. This form of dreamwork is about transforming as a storyteller and changing one's ideas about what makes an adventurous tale.
“This is an extremely bold attempt to investigate the cultural history of imagination in a European context and to analyse the cultural enactment of imagination in dramatic texts as potential performance. As a concept imagination is more... more
“This is an extremely bold attempt to investigate the cultural history of imagination in a European context and to analyse the cultural enactment of imagination in dramatic texts as potential performance. As a concept imagination is more often assumed than actually investigated or historicised, both which this study very definitely does.” (Christopher Balme, Chair of Theatre Studies at LMU Munich, Germany)
This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the fascinating and strikingly diverse history of imagination in the context of theatre and drama. Key questions that the book explores are: How do spectators engage with the drama in performance, and how does the historical context influence the dramaturgy of imagination? In addition to offering a study of the cultural history and theory of imagination in a European context including its philosophical, physiological, cultural and political implications, the book examines the cultural enactment of imagination in the drama text and offers practical strategies for analyzing the aesthetic practice of imagination in drama texts. It covers the early modern to the late modernist period and includes three in-depth case studies: William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (c.1606); Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879); and Eugène Ionesco’s The Killer (1957).
Written for 'Women, Collective Creation and Devised Performance' (Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva and Scott Proudfit, eds), this chapter explores concepts of writing and authorship in the work of Monstrous Regiment, focusing particularly on the... more
Written for 'Women, Collective Creation and Devised Performance' (Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva and Scott Proudfit, eds), this chapter explores concepts of writing and authorship in the work of Monstrous Regiment, focusing particularly on the ways in which collaboration, the writer’s role and notions of authorship evolved throughout the processes of making Scum and Vinegar Tom, their first two productions. Although the company’s approach to writing and devising changed throughout their history, the methodological shift between these first and second productions was useful for company members in terms of negotiating a rough model of working with writers. This chapter demonstrates how this shift became symbolic of the change that ultimately occurred between the 1970s, when Monstrous Regiment utilised processes that were more influenced by devising, and the 1980s and 90s when they produced more singly-authored, commissioned work.
