By Emily Harrison, Dept. of Theatre and Dance
Adam Stone (he/him), a director and sound designer and Jess Buttery (she/hers), a lighting designer and educator, both Denver-based artists, visited my Devising class in the Theatre & Dance Department at Sewanee in February. Adam came twice, and Jess three times. Each of them did a mini workshop in their area of discipline (sound and lighting design, respectively), that focused on the generation of original performance work from the starting point of design (rather than text, as is the norm in the US). Elements of the work created in those mini workshops were ultimately used in our final performance for the course, and students commented repeatedly how useful having both of them visit was to the arc of the semester and in the generation of our final piece, THINGS WE WILL MISS.
On March 26th, I traveled with a group of students from the Devising class and the Professional Development class to see The Gob Squad‘s KITCHEN at Oz Arts Nashville. The Gob Squad is a Berlin-based theatre ensemble that creates original work; they rarely perform in the US, so we were lucky to have them not only in the US, but so close that we were able to see their work. The students were completely blown away by the inventive and collaborative nature of the show, and it is safe to say that none of them had ever seen theatre work like KITCHEN. A couple of the creators/performers were kind enough to meet with us after the performance to share insights into their process and to answer questions.
Having these elements be part of the class added so much value and perspective for the students, and I very much appreciate the Center for Teaching’s support. There are some pictures of Jess’s workshop, as well as some of the students with the Gob Squad creators. Also, here is a link to a video of the final performance of the work the class made together:
