Pennies falling: collaborative rewards in a state of creative emergency

ABSTRACT

In theatre, hierarchies that delineate role and function often obscure the collaborative work of conceptualising a performance. Similarly, group processes may mask hidden creative hierarchies by labelling themselves ‘collaborative’. Either way, it is widely held that it’s difficult to make things in groups.

Third Year BFA (Drama) students at the Queensland University Technology engage with creative development in building new performances to proof of concept stage.

‘Then the penny dropped’ is a colloquial English expression capturing the moment of realisation after a period of uncertainty. This is an investigation of learning experiences in which the penny is still falling.

This article surveys 3 years of this program in action, comprising 23 separate creative projects and groups. It describes the distinct characteristics of this learning environment, while developing a taxonomy of the student works, windows into processes that realised them and strategies for realising the learning opportunities offered by collaborative creativity.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaboration
• creative development
• devised theatre
• creative development
• capstone

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. ‘unfashionable, lacking grace…amusing, eccentric’ an affectionate insult for someone who is, or is perceived to be, unfashionable, lacking self-consciousness about their appearance and/or with poor social skills yet affable and amusing. Also used to describe an amusing, quirky and likeable person (as in, ‘He’s a bit of a dag’) and is non-pejorative.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Megarrity

Dr David Megarrity is a writer, composer, musician and performer creating at the intersection of music, performance and projected image. Publications include large-cast plays for young people such as Gate 38 (Australian Script Centre) and Destinations (Playlab). He’s been finalist in the Inscriptions Edward Albee Scholarship (2012) and the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award (2016)His picture book The Empty City was published by Hachette and selected by the Children’s Book Council of Australia in 2008 as a Picture Book of the Year ‘Notable Book’. In 2018 his work for young audiences and their families The Holidays was awarded the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award.A full time artist and part-time Lecturer in Drama at the Queensland University of Technology, he received the 2008 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence (Innovative and Creative Practice).

Bridget Boyle

Dr. Bridget Boyle is an Australian-based performer, writer, director, researcher and teacher in Drama, with a focus on comedy and gender. In 1998 she co-founded Debase Productions and since then her theatrical works have been performed in venues and festivals across Australia and internationally. She has performed and directed works for the Brisbane Festival, Queensland Theatre, Awesome Arts Festival, State Theatre Company of South Australia and the Out of the Box Festival. Her practice-based doctoral project - Bits and Bumps: understanding gender in contemporary physical comedy- was awarded an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis award in 2016.