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entional methods we had learnt over the previous weeks such as playing inside the space. In their book on devising, Frantic Assembly comment on a downside to not having a director is 'believing that you can ignore a scene or a section that feels tricky to initiate or start, hoping that the other will pick it up and run' [Graham, Hoggett, 26, 2009] and I believe this relates to motivation as in devised work it falls to individuals to motivate the group and be receptive to others. Graham and Hoggett suggest that devising is essentially a 'practice of being truly receptive to ideas and influences that occur around the rehearsal period' [Graham, Hoggett, 29, 2009] which is why it was imperative everyone's ideas were heard and valued. I feel that at first, the ideas of less confident people in our group were overlooked but as time went on, certain exercises and devising methods enable their confidence to grow and for everyone to understand the importance of discussing each idea no matter how trivial it seems.

Throughout the process of creating our final piece I learnt a lot about established ideas of drama and the differences between that and devising theatre. I believed traditional conventions of drama comprised of a cast of actors working with a script and a director who had a preconceived vision of the performance in question; the cast having minimal input with creation and design elements. I also had a very structured idea of how rehearsals should be, and thought a linear structure to staging a performance was the only feasible way. The devising process I experienced this semester drastically challenged these opinions and encouraged me to view creating theatre in an entirely new way. Devising has allowed me to consider using multiple texts and various forms of written stimuli to create a piece of theatre rather than working with a single author or a single script, in turn providing a broader background to a piece, making it more diverse and detailed. In his article on devising, Etchells comments on the singularity of authorship and reiterates that when watching performers build a piece it 'reconfirms so manya€|doubts about the singularity of authorship that many plays demand' [Etchells, 2009] My theory of a linear progression towards a performance being most effective has been completely discarded and I know think creating a scene as it happens is much more productive as it allows for freedom of thought and creativity to flow naturally as opposed to being cut-off or postponed. However I do disagree with a comment Tim Etchells makes in his book Certain Fragments about approaching devising as he remarks that it is 'a question of going into the rehearsal room and waiting for something to happen' [Etchells, 51, 1999] and as much as this non-structured attitude has its benefits for creation, I also think that devising requires at least some element of pre-thought before entering the space as it saves time and allows for the group to be focused from the offset of a rehearsal. For example, throughout the process of devising our piece this semester, we would agree on a target at the beginning of every rehearsal and use it as an aim and a directive for the session; even if it wasn't achieved, the motivation would have lead to something being formed. One aspect of the process my group struggled with was creating before discussing and I feel that this again is an area where established ideas of drama and more abstract methods of crea