In 2005, Anne Bogart and Tina Landau* proposed a method for organising and constructing a devised show around three basic components: Question, Anchor, and Structure. Below is an exploration of each individual component, with examples provided from Drama Online’s vast devised theatre resources to illustrate their application.

Question:

This component is the central theme or inquiry that your piece seeks to explore. It is the driving force behind your performance, the reason that your piece needs to be created. It should emerge from the personal interests of the devising group, and be expansive enough and interesting enough to carry your group through the entire devising process. The Question is a guide to ensure that all material generated contributes to the overall message.

In A Beginner’s Guide to Devising Theatre, Thorpe and Gore emphasise the importance of starting with questions rather than answers. The chapter “Selecting an Inquiry Question” outlines the practicalities of developing an inquiry question through a seven-step process that students may find useful as a framework. The process itself fosters a democratic and open-ended approach, through its invitation of multiple perspectives and its encouragement of dialogue between participants. Then, after selecting an inquiry question, it’s crucial to deepen the collective relationship to it. Thorpe and Gore suggest two practical exercises to explore this. The first is the ‘Signs’ exercise, where participants express their personal questions relating to the inquiry topic, and the second is the ‘Ideas Wall’: a collaborative space where thoughts, research, and connections related to the inquiry are displayed. These exercises deepen the understanding and significance of the chosen inquiry question, ensuring that the devised performance is meaningful and impactful for both the creators and the audience.

Anchor:

This component represents the fixed element that grounds your performance. Anchors can be characters, settings, or events that provide stability and coherence amidst your creative exploration. They serve as a vehicle to get to the Question. Below are two examples of devised/original work from the Drama Online platform that use contrasting types of anchors.

Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum Dreams is a one-woman semi-autobiographical play that first premiered in 2012 at The Yard Theatre in Hackney, and garnered critical acclaim for its vibrant storytelling and compelling performance. In 2015, it was developed into a TV series for Channel 4 entitled Chewing Gum. (Coel then went on to write and direct the lauded BBC series I May Destroy You, 2020).

Tracey is the central character and the anchor for Chewing Gum Dreams, through whom Coel reflects upon the complexities of teenage life for a young black woman growing up in central London. The character of Tracey grounds the narrative with distinctive wit, frankness, and a deep sense of longing for connection and understanding. Her monologues shift seamlessly between comedy and tragedy, and paint vivid pictures of her daily encounters, friendships, and dreams. The character of Tracey is not just a lens through which the audience sees the events of the performance unfold; she is the very heartbeat of the narrative. Tracey’s dreams, fears, and aspirations drive the story forward and make her the central force that holds the piece together. Her view of the world provides the framework for the piece’s exploration of identity, growth, and resilience. Chewing Gum Dreams therefore proves a great example of how a single character can provide a strong anchor for a devised piece.

In Joan Littlewood’s Oh What a Lovely War, the anchor is not a singular protagonist but rather the event of World War I. Littlewood’s musical is a landmark piece of British theatre created by Theatre Workshop, a highly influential devising company. The piece debuted in 1963 at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London, and is a satirical musical that critiques the romanticised and nationalistic narratives of World War I. The war serves as a central axis around which the narrative unfolds, and the musical’s structure is built from a collage of vignettes, songs, and satirical sketches, each representing different perspectives and experiences. As the musical progresses, these small, seemingly separate stories converge to form a holistic understanding of the war’s impact.

Having the anchor as an event allows the musical to reflect the fragmented and multifaceted nature of war itself, illustrating both the collective trauma and the individual sacrifices made by those involved. Characteristic of devised theatre, this method of storytelling allows for a more inclusive and nuanced portrayal of history, where the sum of the parts creates a richer and more complex narrative than a single viewpoint could offer. Littlewood’s musical therefore provides a strong example of how an event rather than a person can serve as a powerful anchor in storytelling.

Structure:

This component refers to the overall framework of your piece, and is a way to organise and sequence your material to create a compelling performance. The structure ensures that your audience is guided through the production in a consistent way. Below are two contrasting examples from Drama Online’s suite of devised theatre resources, the first focusing on shaping a traditional narrative arc, and the second spotlighting a company that appears to have no framework at all, and creates structure in an atypical way.

Genre: A Guide to Writing for Stage and Screen is a key starting point to understanding traditional structure. Tidmarsh’s opening chapter “The Building Blocks of Narrative” explores two core narrative formulas in storytelling: “order → chaos → reorder” and “choice → consequence → change.” These simple formulae allow for endless storytelling permutations. Tidmarsh examines how characters’ deliberate choices drive stories forward, creating an organic unfolding of events. Using both classical and contemporary references— from Ibsen to Star Wars— he provides a historical context for these narrative structures and how they have evolved for modern storytelling.

Tidmarsh then explores how these structures apply differently depending on the genre, and unpacks their conventions. Understanding these conventions allows devisers to focus on character and setting whilst using established structures to guide plot development. In its later chapters, Genre: A Guide to Writing for Stage and Screen offers deeper insights on the specifics of different genres and provides readers with a detailed understanding of the mechanics of each one. “The Building Blocks of Narrative” is a key starting point to understand how almost all narratives follow the same basic plot. Embracing these structures can help devisers find creative freedom, as collaborative creation benefits from clear yet flexible storytelling frameworks.

In Pumpkin Interactive’s educational video ‘Devising Work’, found in Drama Online’s Theatre Performance and Practice Video Library, the final segment explores the practices of the experimental theatre company Forced Entertainment. Forced Entertainment’s approach to devising a performance intentionally forgoes a traditional narrative arc. Instead, their method centres on creating an experiential event where both the audience and performers are in continuous dialogue.

During this interview, the team discusses how they go about structuring their performances. In Forced Entertainment’s productions, the experience unfolds organically, driven by a dynamic change between the audience and performers. For instance, in shows such as “Bitterness” the structure emerges from the content of confessions delivered to the audience. The variety and nature of these confessions build the framework of the performance, creating a single-minded focus on the theme of personal revelations. In contrast, other shows feature a multitude of themes and deliberately juxtapose absurd and contrasting moments. In each of the shows, the company aims to form what they refer to as “a pleasing shape”.

Forced Entertainment employ various forms to construct their shows, including monologues, lists, and direct statements to the audience. These elements help delineate the path through the performance. The company works with multiple versions of their text, circulating different iterations to explore a range of ideas to try and locate the performance edges. This iterative process ensures that each section can build upon the previous one, contributing to a cohesive yet fluid overall structure.

The company’s distinctive approach to devising performance eschews conventional narrative structures in favour of creating an engaging event. By embracing a methodology that allows for fluidity and contradiction, they craft unique performances where the structure is an ever evolving interplay of themes, forms, and audience interaction. This innovative process not only challenges traditional theatrical norms, but also offers a fresh perspective on how a performance can be constructed and experienced.

The examples used in this piece are just some of the many resources available on Drama Online that can help deepen an understanding of the viewpoint elements: Question, Anchor, and Structure. These three components are essential for assessing ideas in a devising project, and any proposed idea should align with at least one of these categories to ensure it serves an aspect of the performance. The more categories an idea aligns with, the stronger its connection to the overall aim of the piece.

Visit our Previously Featured Content page to view other topics including Interpreting Shakespeare: Discover the First Folio, The Plays of Caryl Churchill, Women in Shakespeare, Drama without Borders: Stories of migrants and refugees, The Climate Crisis in Theatre, Black British Playwrights, and LGBTQ+ Playwrights.