Moises Kaufman - Moment Work: Tectonic Theater Projects Process of Devising Theater

Kaufman is aiming for aradical redefinition of what theater is capable of. Richard Zoglin, Time

Tectonic Theater Project creates theater that addresses contemporary ideas in a daringly theatrical way. And in doing so, they tell the hidden stories of our country. This is an essential community of artists telling stories that need to be told, and the American theater is more alive because of them.

Rajiv Joseph, playwright and Pulitzer Prize finalist

Tectonic Theater Project continues to move audiences with its bold portrayals. President Barack Obama

Moment Work elevates the theater makers ability to precisely articulate their artistic intentions, which makes for strong devisers as well as actors, directors, designers, and playwrights. This book unpacks techniques and processes that generate clear communication and true collaboration among creators.

Rich Brown, professor of Physical Acting and Devising, Western Washington University

I have been devising theater for more than twenty years using various methodologies. Moment Work introduces a crystal-clear vocabulary for creating and analyzing devised work. It should be considered the ur method of devising as it establishes concrete building blocks for ultimately creating complex stage imagery and content.

Rachel Bowditch, head of MFA in Performance, Arizona State University, and co-editor of Physical Dramaturgy: Perspectives from the Field

If you are contemplating a life as a theater artist and wondering where to start, what questions to ask, where to find courage, technique, and a path toward meaningful engagement with a wider world, you will find it all here. If challenged to defend the greatness of American drama at this moment, I would rest my case on the contents of [Moment Work].

Craig Lucas, playwright, director, Obie Award winner, and Guggenheim Fellow

Moment Work provides theater artists with the compositional tools to create masterful theatrical works. Moment by Moment, they are transforming how contemporary theater is devised, teaching theater artists to actually think and create in a theatrical language.

Lisa S. Brenner, Department of Theatre and Dance, Drew University, and editor of Theater Topics

The theatrical potential of ordinary ideas is unleashed in this engrossing step-by-step guide to using Moment Work.Theater makers will delight in this useful and inspiring toolkit for creating high-impact plays. Publishers Weekly

This book describes the Moment Work process and how weve used it at Tectonic Theater Project to create some of our best-known plays. It is in part a manual with exercises, in part a chronicle of our process, and in part an investigation of the theory that gave birth to our work. We have written it for actors, writers, directors, designers, teachers, and anyone who is interested in creating theatrical narrativeswhether that means creating a new piece of theater from the ground up or staging a new production of a preexisting play. Its also for people seeking an understanding of the ways in which the art form is changing.

More often than not, what happens in rehearsal rooms is private and stays private. In writing this book, we have tried to open the doors of our workspace to the reader and discuss the ways in which weve put our ideas into practice.

We have divided the book into three parts. Part 1: Tectonics Antecedents, History, and Approach discusses the artists and ideas that inspired us, the history of the early years of the company, and the vision (and theory) that drives our work. Part 2: The Moment Work Process takes the reader through an exploration of Moment Work as we currently teach it, with exercises and detailed examples of the work both in the classroom and in the rehearsal studio. We also describe in detail how we used our method in the creation of specific plays. Part 3: Essays gives the reader insight into our company members application of our methods in their own artistic practices.

A few years ago, artistic director Moiss Kaufman asked company member Barbara Pitts McAdams to observe and record several of his Moment Work master classes in order to create a manual for internal use by the companys teaching artists. Barbara attended many of Moisss classes and also observed Leigh Fondakowski, Andy Paris, and Greg Pierotti as they taught around the country. Barbaras manual eventually became the basis for the Moment Work Method section of this book. The books other contributors have all honed and added to that early manual, so that the material presented here now represents a synthesis of our best practices. As is the case in writing any book, the process of setting ideas down on paper has encouraged us to articulate and define our process in more rigorous ways.