Devising Performance ─ A Critical History

What is the history of devised theatre? Why have theatre-makers, since the 1950s, chosen to devise performances? What different sorts of devising practices are there? What are the myths attached to devising, and what are the realities?

First published in 2005, Devising Performance remains the only book to offer the reader a history of devising practice. Charting the development of collaboratively created performances from the 1950s to the early twenty-first century, it presents a range of case studies drawn from Britain, America and Australia. Companies discussed include The Living Theatre, Open Theatre, Australian Performing Group, People Show, Teatro Campesino, Theatre de Complicite, Legs on the Wall, Forced Entertainment, Goat Island and Graeae. Providing a history of devising practice, Deirdre Heddon and Jane Milling encourage us to look more carefully at the different modes of devising and to consider the implications of our use of these practices in the twenty-first century.

Deirdre Heddon is Professor of Contemporary Performance at the University of Glasgow, UK. She is the author of Autobiography and Performance (Palgrave, 2008), co-author of Walking, Writing and Performance: Autobiographical Texts (Intellect, 2009) and editor of a number of anthologies, including Histories and Practice of Live Art (Palgrave, 2012). She is also series co-editor for Performing Landscapes (Palgrave). Dee is currently Dean of the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities.


Jane Milling is Associate Professor of Drama at the University of Exeter, UK. She is co-author of Modern Theories of Performance (Palgrave 2001), Modern British Playwriting: The 1980s (Methuen, 2012) and co-editor of a number of volumes including Cambridge History of British Theatre (CUP, 2004). She is series editor, with Graham Ley, of Theatre and Performance Practices (Palgrave). She is currently at work on research projects around amateur drama and understanding cultural participation.