Where Do You Begin? Take It From The T.O.P.

T.O.P. is a philosophy of educational theatre that is a content-driven, process-oriented approach that may do one or all of the following:

1. Use theatre arts as a means for ensemble participants to more deeply discover who they are through writing, developing, and performing original material around a particular theme.

2. Use theatre arts as a way to raise consciousness about societal issues for pre-determined audiences.

3. Use the gifts and talents of the ensemble participants in the creation and performance of the finished product. There is usually no outside casting of the finished material.

4. Use an organic, experimental approach to the development of the project.

How do you begin?

Know your purpose:  It's a process.  Know who you want to work with and what your goal is. (Teenagers? Older Adults? Children?) Remember Shakespeare said, "To Thine Own Self Be True." If you don't like working with kids then don't.  Stay with your passion. This is intense, intimate work that requires an investment of time, courage, energy, and risk. As a T.O.P. facilitator, you must have the commitment to the purpose and a passion for the work.

Know your audience:  It's a product. Know who you are creating the material for - specific population, demographic, community?

Students as Collaborators: This work is not directed by you.  This work is highly organic and requires letting go of control.  You may start with a theme but the process of developing the content is collaborative.  There is an art to facilitating the process and knowing what the boundaries are but let the students take the lead. 

Anchors: As the facilitator you are also part of the collaborative process. You may have a vision and there may be certain anchor points you want included in the finished product.  You may identify certain material, poetry, music, news stories, historic events or visual metaphors that will help shape the piece of theatre you are devising. This is not a free wheeling, completely unstructured process. Rather, there are seeds of inspiration that you plant within the ensemble. 

Theatrical Storytelling Styles:  Is the piece you are devising non-linear? Is it a collage? Will you employ a particular style? Genre? What will serve the purpose? Perhaps the piece is didactic in nature lending itself to a Brechtian approach.  Perhaps you are creating something that would best be expressed through physical movement.  Having students explore different genres, styles, practitioners and processes will ignite their imagination and invite creative exploration.

Time:  Give yourself the necessary time to experiment.  Eventually the piece needs to be solidified. However I always tell students, "You can't fake a process." If the process has integrity, the product will have integrity.

Controlled Chaos: Be comfortable with the messiness of the creative process. Remember you are starting from nothing. No script, no blocking, no roadmap. However, I recommend that the stage manager keep rehearsal reports so that there is a record of where you have left off and where you need to pick up at the next rehearsal.   

Intended Impact: Your compass is the desired impact you want to have on the audience. What do you want to be the take away from their experience? 

 Trust: Above all trust and keep going.  There will be setbacks. There will be doubts. There will be confusion.  There will be conflict. There will be breakthroughs. There will be discoveries. There will be exhilarating moments. There will be satisfaction. There will be fulfillment.

Reflect: Theatre on Purpose teaches a way of working that applies not only to theatre but to any creative endeavor.  I believe that one of the most important aspects of T.O.P. is what students learn about themselves.

At the end of the process, I always have students do a reflection on their own process of collaboration.  By holding a mirror up to themselves, they see how they work, how they deal with obstacles and how they communicate with others. 

There is comfort in coming to know one's self.  Theatre on Purpose provides a way for students to understand themselves, to recognize their gifts and contribution to the whole and to be confident in who they are. 

A Theatre on Purpose practitioner understands that the goal is not the product. It is the process.