The value of knowledge in the arts is both overwhelming and undervalued. There’s so much to learn: Technique, proportion, restraint, tension, experimentation… The journey of every chef, painter, dancer, writer - from apprentice to master - spans a lifetime. And a lot of stock is put in the implicit ability of humans to create; that artists make art out of something unknowable and instinctive - an elusive sixth sense, a communion with the spheres, a favouring of the …

The penultimate workshop of Part 1 of our 2024 Performance Program - an extended creative development of the ideas, concepts, and characters of what will inform our production of THE DREAM in October - was an opportunity to consolidate the knowledge and skills developed by our devising team over the preceding three weeks. So far, we’ve dived deep into the primary influences of THE DREAM: Greek and Japanese theatre, narration …

This week’s workshop was all about one subject: Tragedy. A cornerstone of Western theatre, the importance of tragedy - in particular, Greek tragedy - cannot be understated. Tragedy was one of the three “modes”, or genres, of performance, and dealt with the biggest philosophical themes of its era (around the 5th Century BCE): Fate, death, loss, mortality, man’s relationship to the Gods, his place in the universe, and the inescapable force of destiny …

The second devising workshop of THE DREAM focused on two pillars of classic Greek theatre: The convention of narration, and the stories of the Gods. By now, our team of devisers had settled into the groove of each workshop: The exchanging of parking woes, the inevitable poor decision to drive over taking public transport (always take public transport!), the setting up of the room as a communal round-table, and the firing up of the portable projector for The Imparting of Wisdom …

The first devising workshop in our creative development of THE DREAM focused on two key components: The theatrical style of non–naturalism, and the process of devising collaboratively. Non-naturalism is so ubiquitous in our secondary and tertiary education system (and elements of it are so evident on stages both main and minor) that it can feel strange to pause and isolate the conventions of it that we take for granted. Mime and comedy, fragmented time, transformation …

Every Scintilla show is a little bit different. If there’s one thing we love more than Hokkaido Cheese Tarts, it’s playing with different conventions, tones, and time periods. In the past, we’ve even based entire performance programs around thoroughly exploring a particular type of theatrical style or convention: Farce and site-specific theatre (The Importance of Being Earnest, 2017/2023); Poor Theatre (Peter Pan, 2018); non-naturalism and comedy (Crook’Ed, 2019).