John Maloney ("The Island of the Dreams" director) written before the show

The art of the theatre is about people coming together to explore life and the questions of living. For theatre to happen, people must come together. First the artists come together to prepare, then the audience is invited to join and witness what has been created. Most modern theatre is written by a single author, then interpreted and performed by a group of actors and a director. Recently, particularly in the United States and other western countries, there has been a growing number of theatre artists who choose to collaboratively create theatre performances as a group. The artists begin by choosing a “theme”, or an “idea”, and then come together for a workshop to create characters and scenes that they finally develop together into a script. Most of the work is done together as a group. In the beginning there are many discussions and writing sessions – but usually, as time goes by, more and more of the work happens “on your feet”. However, there are no clear rules for how the show will develop. Everyone has to be part of the process of creation, and each person contributes in many ways: writing scenes, staging, creating characters, ideas for sound, scenery, costumes, etc. One reason for working this way is to try to bring multiple artistic perspectives into the work, so that the themes of the script are explored in a more complex manner than if a single author wrote it. Another reason is that when the characters and story are created by the actors who play the roles, they have a deeper connection with the roles and a feeling of ownership for the story. In this type of work, and actors cannot wait to be told what to do – they have to be active creators. And, the director’s job is less about telling actors what to do, but rather, more about listening to them and watching them and helping them to make stronger choices. I have worked on the development of many ensemble-created performances, and the process has never been the same. Each time, the play has developed differently and unexpectedly. It can be very frightening to begin the process, because you have no idea where you will go. There are no guarantees that the play will be great, or even good. You have to keep asking yourself, “what is this show?” It is a very risky way of working – but it is also very rewarding when it works well. Fortunately, there is always a point in the process when you start to “discover” the play: when you start to understand what it is about, and where it might be going. That is when it gets very exciting, because, once there is a clear focus for the direction of the show, the group really starts to come together and work as a strong creative ensemble. In my opinion, being part of this type of ensemble is one of the greatest things that can happen in the art of the theatre.

劇場是門有關人們聚集在一起探索人生和存活問題的藝術。為了讓劇場產生，人們必須要聚在一起。首先藝術家們聚集做準備，而後觀眾被邀請來參與和見證被創造出的成品。大部分的現代劇場是由單獨一位作者寫作，再由一個導演和一群演員演繹和演出。最近，特別是在美國和其他西方國家，有一群數量成長中的劇場藝術家選擇以團體合作的方式創作劇場表演。這些藝術家以選擇一個「主題」或者「想法」為開端，之後組成工作坊來創造角色和場景，最後共同發展出一個文本。大部分的工作以團隊的方式共同完成。在初期會有很多討論和寫作會－－但通常，隨著時間流逝，越來越多的工作會在「站起來排練」的時候產生。然而，對於表演會如何發展並沒有清楚的規定。每個人都是創作過程的一部分，同時每個人在各種方面提出貢獻：編寫場景，走位，創造角色，音效的想法，佈景，服裝等等。用這樣的方式工作的理由之一，是想把眾多藝術家的觀點帶進作品中，於是文本主題的發展方式會比起單一作者寫作來的複雜的多。另外一個理由是，由演員自己來發展角色和故事時，他們對角色和會有更深的連結，對故事也會有擁有的感覺。在這種類型的工作方式之下，演員不能等著別人告訴他怎麼做－－他們必須成為積極的創作者。同時，導演的工作較不是告訴演員該做什麼，而比較是傾聽和觀看和幫助他們做出比較有力的選擇。我已經運作過很多集體創作式表演的發展－－過程沒有一次是相同的。每一回，每齣戲都發展地非常迥異又出乎意料。過程的開始可以是非常駭人的，因為你完全不知道你會走去哪裡。沒有任何事情保證這齣戲會很棒，甚至很好。你必須一直不斷的問自己：「這齣戲是什麼？」這是一個風險性非常高的工作方式－－但是當它成功的推動時是非常有成就感的。幸好，總是在過程中的某個時刻，你會開始「發現」這齣戲：這時你開始理解這齣戲在說什麼，還有它可能的走向。那就是一切會開始變得非常令人興奮的時刻，因為，只要表演有一個清楚專一的方向，整個團體會開始凝聚並以一個有力的創造團隊運作。在我看來，身處這種團體演出的一部分是劇場藝術中所能發生的最好的事情之一。