The Collaborative Project – the processes involved

The Collaborative Project is the only task that you do in the course where you are working with others over a period of time to create a piece of original theatre. One important aspect of this project is the process itself. During the creation of your piece you do need to document the process of your work, as this is the evidence of what you did. The requirements of the task and the different processes are broken down clearly in the assessment criteria, but do be aware that you need to document the following:

1. The process that you went through to create your group. Note that if you do not have a choice of who you work with them you write about the skills and interests (personal context) of your group and how you think their skills are relevant or appropriate to you and your own context. You will also refer to how the coming together of all these skills and interests will affect the work to come.
2. The process of research of the devising company and your own creative process. Note that as you research you need to cite all your sources and be consistent with this, so choose one sourcing convention and stick with it. Make sure that your company does not work from a script and that you have access to primary and secondary sources. During your process of research you do need to be thinking about how you may apply the company’s approaches to your own creative process.
3. The process of choosing the starting point. Note that you do need to explain in your process journal how you chose the starting point, so there needs to be a range of them to choose from. During your process of choice there will be some process of elimination which is described.
4. The process of exploration of the starting point. Note that you need to explain how you, as an ensemble, explored the starting point, and then refer to what your intentions are (your message, intended impact, story, content and theme) and who your target audience is. You need to refer to all 3 of these areas in Criterion B to get the top marks.

As an ensemble up to this stage you have been working as creators of ideas and stories, now you start to take on other roles as performer, designer, performer and director. During this next stage you may take on a range of roles, but will need to document this process so you know what you will be evidencing in your video sections that are sent to the IB. These illustrate your own artistic contributions to the final piece.