Rehearsal Notes

Stage One: Development Week

The production process for The Wasp Factory begins with a week of creative development - a key period of intellectual and imaginative investigation in which the 'creative team' can begin to address some of the key challenges with the production. The initial development concerns itself with three key questions:

What is the nature of the relationship between the book, the stage and the adapted text?

In what language of performance can the fabric of the text best be explored through theatre?

What is the nature of the world in which thse characters live and how does this relate to the world in which we live?

The creative development week begins as an investigative process inspired by and seeking answers to these questions, but - as with all creative and imaginative activity - inevitably moves beyond these questions, or redfines them, or discovers something new, challenging or unknown. Often the starting questions are resolved not through direct answers but through a more complex creative understanding of the nature of the work being created.

We'll try to provide our thoughts in answer to these questions as we make creative discoveries through our practical work...