by Jason Wolff

So far, my collaborative career in music theatre has been short but vast. Starting off as a performer, collaboration has been a core value in producing a strong piece of amateur and pre-professional theatre. During my time at Sheridan College doing my degree in music theatre performance, I had many opportunities to devise original and new versions of existing work, all of which required a large group of people to make come to life. As I shifted over into the world of writing, composing, and directing along with being a performer I have found myself taking on positions of authority within collaborative spaces, delegating tasks and responsibilities to my peers that represent their skillsets. I think that my passion for many of the different pieces of live performance allow me to collaborate to the best of my ability, as I can respect and consider the needs of every person who interacts with the work.

An aspect of collaboration that I have become increasingly interested in is overseeing work in development: delegating work and responsibilities, maintaining safe work spaces by establishing a strong code of conduct, allowing time for conversation about sensitive topics, requiring safe methods of directing intimacy and weapons, and drafting paperwork or contracts that allow all participants to feel like they have a say in the things that happen in the space. I see myself as a potential strong facilitator of these areas of working on live theatre.

Since September, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with many of my colleagues both inside and outside of class time. As a writer, I find that a lot of my responsibilities fall under facilitation due to my vision for the piece being the main drive for the concept. Candy (2020) describes four distinct types of collaboration, and the pros and cons of each one. A lot of my experience as a student and a composer have fallen into Candy’s category of Complimentary Collaboration which they describe as “a pattern in which each participant’s role is different and a division of effort based on distinctive expertise” (Candy 2020: 110). I have most often worked with groups full of people with vastly different skillsets, and my writing is able to be catered towards everyone’s abilities. My groups would have me as the writer, a group of performers with different levels of ability in dance, vocals, and acting, music directors, directors, choreographers, and dramaturgs. All of us can work on separate things at the same time, and we can all turn to specific people for different sections that require specific expertise. This has allowed us to present new work that is in decent enough shape that we can feel proud of it.

New Work Lab Week 2

At the beginning of the ICP module, in small groups we were tasked to create something based on the prompt of “Tomorrow”. My group and I all had a strong connection to neurodiversity so we decided to create a piece that had to do with the topic of task paralysis. Mike, a dramaturg, and Licie, a director, took the lead on creating a specific series of events that the piece should follow including setting, characters, conflict, concept, and other aspects of the dramatic structure. The performers Beth, Seven, and Oisin all contributed their own experiences with the topic which helped Licie and Mike make the concept authentic to everyone, and also provided me with their vocal ranges and skill levels to allow me to write for them effectively. Dan music directed the piece and helped me edit some of the sheet music. My job was then to take what they had all created, and write a musical piece for it. I contributed my own experiences with being autistic into the writing, as I translated the way my mind is structured directly into the piano music. From this, I composed a piece called “The Mountain” that Beth, Oisin, Seven and I performed in the New Works Lab.

Davis Richardson describes this as “Tossed in the pool together” in their book Ensemble Devising Structures. They describe that structure as:

This is the structure more often used in classroom settings. It also happens in professional workshops when strangers are tossed together at random on an assignment and find great joy and creativity working together in brief, energetic bursts. (Richardson 2015: 97)

This structure is an effective way to practice Candy’s Complimentary Collaboration, as pushes people to create work in a short time frame, as well as encouraging people to step into areas of the creative process they may not normally be comfortable with. People who have certain expertise over a specific area may require assistance to complete their task, so other people will tend to spread their skillsets out to assist them. Something I did notice during the process is that there are some issues with intellectual property. Since everyone contributes a relatively equal amount to the creative process, it is difficult to say who in particular came up with the idea. For this New Work Labs workshop, there were some issues with crediting during the presentation, and it raised a conversation about how crediting can be done properly in the future. Richardson also describes how this process can fall apart if there are different levels of personality dominance, resulting in one or two people becoming a dictator over the project and the rest of the group being too scared or indifferent to say anything. Luckily, we did not have this issue for this project, and we were all satisfied with the process and the result.

New Work Lab Week 4

In Week 4 of ICP, we were all tasked to bring in a mini workshop that we can do in small groups. These workshops had to be in relation to our line of work, so I created a workshop based on the 12 stage story structure, or “Hero’s Journey” intellectualized by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Campbell 1949). My workshop group was about seven people, and we started off by choosing one person to tell everyone about what they did over the previous weekend. From there, we took the events they talked about and we fit it into the 12 stage story structure, embellishing details and adding enemies and allies. The point of my workshop was to show everyone that we are all story tellers, and I was successful in proving that point, as I did not contribute any major details to the story being created, but the rest of the group did. It was exciting to see collaboration on something that they decided they were not good at, and show evidence of incredible creativity and clever dramaturgy.

My job throughout the workshop was to take everyone through the twelve stages. I took the role of facilitator, and I greatly enjoyed allowing everyone to express limitless creative freedom. Some of them commented afterwards that they never realized that they do have the capacity to be a storyteller, and they should not decide that they are unable to do something until they have really given themselves a chance to try.

I think this exercise of everyone leading a workshop based on something they are an expert in gave a strong glimpse into Candy’s complimentary collaboration structure, as it allowed everyone to have a section of the process that they knew to an exceptional degree, and gave them a chance to lead the group in that area. Also, due to the nature of everyone branching into the other aspects of everyone else’s discipline, another area of collaborative structure outlined by Candy is “Interdisciplinary Collaboration”. Candy says:

This is an age when collaboration has come to be recognized as a necessary aspect of creative practice. It is also a time when the value of exchange across different disciplines has assumed a high level of importance. In architecture, design, film making, theatre performance and dance, the co-existence of different disciplines and areas of expertise is a normal and necessary part of the core business. (Candy 2020: 105)

It is interesting how collaboration can exist outside of a single project, and can occur in an environment that is strictly educational. To come together and teach each other how to be better creatives is collaborative by nature, and the only end product is learning. Collaboration can exist simply as human connection and desire to see our colleagues succeed, and not directly helping with an external project.

Performance Project – Final Act: A Musical Revue About Death

Over the past 2-3 weeks, I have been tasked to produce and facilitate the next assignment of the performance project module. This module includes interaction between the MA Company, the MA Music Directors, MA Directors, and the MA Creatives to put together a performance of an existing work with influence of original work.

From the last performance project, there were many complaints about how it was structured. There were issues with the structure and treatment, so I decided that I was going to do whatever I could to prevent that from happening for this production. I met with each program and discussed what they felt went well, what didn’t go as well, and what they hope to happen next time. I took this feedback and got to work on a full outline of what everyone can expect from this process. I am drafting a full code of conduct for everyone to reference during the rehearsal and performance process, including regulating consistent breaks based on equity standards, as well as positions of power and allowing collaboration on a creative level from the performers. The figure to the left is the first two pages of the concept and script document that I drafted for the entire group to reference. It includes a diagram of what the stage will look like, as well as costumes for each group. Many people complained about how things were unclear about where to be on stage at certain times as well as what costumes should look like, so I made a point of including these ahead of time so everyone can be prepared.

I think that this is a method of collaboration that usually is not recognized as collaboration. To gear work and efforts towards everyone being heard equitably is incredibly valuable in a creative space. If someone feels like they are being left out are ignored, it can obstruct the creative process. All of these documents are sent to tutors for approval before they are sent to the group to maintain an equal level of authority between me and the rest of the class.

This collaborative effort is a strong example of Jo Butterworth’s Didactic-Democratic Framework model, specifically the section of “Choreographer as facilitator; Dancer as creative” (Butterworth 2018: 100). As the facilitator of this project, I provide the material, the opportunities for everyone to express their needs in the space, consensual casting, and the freedom for the cast and creatives to take creative liberties on their respective show. I greatly enjoy giving people the space to create how they see fit, and I feel my role as facilitator in this project is a perfect example of the kinds of work I see myself doing in the future.

Reflections/Analysis

I can confidently say that over the past five weeks I have often taken on a role of facilitator. While this can be described as a “leadership” role, I think of it more as giving people the space and opportunity to express themselves, as opposed to telling them what to do or how to do it. I absolutely think that this is the role I would be interested in taking in a professional setting, as I have been given a great amount of critical feedback in order to execute my role as facilitator more efficiently and mindfully. Having learned about Jo Butterworth’s Didactic-Democratic Framework allowed me to reflect on my previous experiences before the Conservatoire and my work as a performer, and specifically analyze where different areas of my career place me on different areas of the framework.

In the future, I am interested in being transparent with where a creative space lies on the framework as I think it is important for everyone to know the expectations being put on them. As a performer as well, I would love to know early into the process whether or not my creative opinions will be respected and/or integrated. As a facilitator, I think full transparency is crucial in a creative space.

Conclusion

Over the next 8 months, I hope to improve upon my ability to be a facilitator. I am excited about the projects coming up over the next year and the potential facilitation opportunities they will present. As I get ready to put my original musical on at the Leeds Theatre Festival, I hope that people will continue to give me honest and constructive feedback regarding my collaborative abilities. I hope that being recognized as a good collaborator opens up opportunities for my future as both a performer and a creative.

Bibliography

Butterworth, J. (2009) ‘Too many cooks? A framework for dance making and devising’, in Contemporary Choreography. Routledge.

Campbell J., . (2008). The hero with a thousand faces. Novato (CA): New World Library.

Candy, L. (2019) The Creative Reflective Practitioner: Research Through Making and Practice. 1st edition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Lerman, L. (no date) Critical Response Process | A Method for Giving and Getting Feedback’. Available online: https://lizlerman.com/critical-response-process/ [Accessed: 10 November 2025].