Formatives Stages 

Analyzing  the  Stages of Creative  Form  Koepfinger’s Pedagogy

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Theatre Production Text Proposal

Date: March 27, 2011

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Title of Text: Formative Stages: Accessing the Stages of Creative Form for Production

 

Authors : Constance Koepfinger, MA - Carnegie Mellon University

Jay Breckenridge, DA. - The Pennsylvania State University

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After years of collaboration and team teaching, Dr. Breckenridge and I have designed a new methodology for structuring a course that makes stage production more accessible to students and faculty at every level of expertise. Whether the desired result is to create an original production from a real life current event, an episodic folktale, or a tried and true play script, formative stages examines the stages of creative form at three very identifiable phases of formation . By using the split, spin, spiral pedagogy, three distinct formations will emerge.

 

STAGE ONE – SPLIT FORMATION: Understanding that before embarking on any creative project, one must recognize the split from source material and preconceived ideas in order to originate fresh ideas and thus create something innovative and distinct from the source material. Sample Task : preparation for exploration into the life and times of the storyteller—Students will research the background by reading biographical info and forming a BIO – Analysis Strip before the play is even introduced.

 

STAGE TWO- SPIN FORMATION: Once the split is established, the initiator (writer / performer) must energize the new ideas by putting their own particular spin on the text to give it form so that it can be acknowledged by an outside receptor (reader/ spectator) Sample Task: Preparation for Improvisation of initial scenes. By studying key scenes in detail, students will understand the necessity of careful placement and clarity when using rhetorical strategies, helping to capture thought and sound patterns of language that will bring to life even the most abstract concept.

 

STAGE THREE- SPIRAL FORMATION: After the raw creative forms are launched to the receiver, a signal of acceptance must occur, and thus the initiator waits for recognition as the new forms spiral back. Sample Task: Preparation for Performance—The Perfection of Form. All the elements are brought together by the final production, followed by review or appreciation of the play in the form of a talk- back session with an invited audience, including the original storytellers.

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Formative Stages has been presented at two major conferences: The 2006 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Honolulu and The 8th National Symposium on Theater in Academe at Washington and Lee University. Both times, the interest factor from our academic colleagues was very high. Therefore, we have proposed to document our process of discovery in this text. We feel that this new pedagogy is a useful methodo not only for practitioners in theatrical studies but also for colleagues in other fields as well, where the stage resources maybe limited.

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Formative Stages, a new methodology to the process of staging a play, also chronicles a fresh approach to recording, reporting and revisiting creative information. As partners in education, we enter the golden gates of the new era that is bombarded with a deluge of ideas from the past, present--- and oddly enough the future. Therefore it only seems natural that new pedagogies must begin to emerge in order to keep today’s student actively engaged in the evolution of his discipline. For only then will the seeds of higher education begin to sprout and develop as new and better ideas fruit in the cultural harvests of tomorrow .