Hello and Welcome!

Hello and welcome, everyone.

This is a blog set up for a Theatre Arts course at the University of Louisville called "Ensemble Performance and Community Based Arts." There are seven students in the class, and they are required to post their thoughts on here over the course of the semester. Anyone should feel free to comment on our work at anytime, since we're trying to have public conversations about issues of theatre and community. Below I've pasted in the course description from the syllabus to give you a better sense of what we're working on this semester.

This class asks the questions, “How can we work together as an ensemble of actors to create a theatre piece in, by and for a local community? How and why is creating work in this way similar to and different from other forms of theatre? And how might we use the skills learned in this class to create future theatre projects that are relevant to particular audiences?”

The purpose is to introduce students to the history, theory and practical skills of ensemble performance, oral history and ethnographic interviewing, and community based theatre. Over the course of the semester, we will collaborate with a specific local community to devise a script that will either be completely original work or an adaptation of a classic text based around an issue, idea or question important to the group.

We will begin by reading about and discussing the methods and goals of some theater companies who work as “ensembles,” as well as artists who consider their work “community based” to identify how our work will fit in to that history. Then, we will begin meeting with our community to gather input on what the project should achieve and begin collecting stories. We will move on to learn various techniques for weaving those stories into an original script, and gather feedback from the community as we build a performance.

As we work, we will be considering the limitations of our space and budget to learn how to create the best production possible with specific material constraints. Our script will be completed by the end of fall semester, and will be produced as part of the Theatre Arts department’s spring season.