ABSTRACT
This chapter describes and articulates the nature of devising as a model of creation. Starting with a brief contextualisation of the term ‘devising’ and situating it as an approach to performance-making within the independent scene, in particular, the chapter proposes that devising can be ensemble as well as director-led. Using examples from a number of contemporary performance, theatre, and dance processes and makers, the chapter sets out to map the nature of a devising process, and it proposes that there are certain common denominators. The chapter foregoes the definition of devising as pertaining to an exclusively democratic or non-text-based approach and instead it seeks to explain devising as a particular model of creation, approach, and compositional process.
