Name
Our name, DevDoc Theatre, comes from the term Devised Documentary Theatre.
This is a method of making theatre in which the script and/or musical score documents reality. It contains non-fictional information and begins with a person’s thoughts on and experiences with a topic or event. The person’s thoughts and experiences are developed in a collaborative, improvisatory way by a group of people to create a live theatrical production.
Origin
This is the moment I discovered that theatre could be used TO BRING UNDERSTANDING TO THE MISUNDERSTOOD:
“One thing I’ll say, hurricanes… do good things, they do bad things. They do bad things only to people, and to people’s property. They do good things for the marsh itself. If you look at a saw grass marsh that hasn’t got any diversity in it, diversity is one of the things that is important and hurricanes are makers of diversity, for the marsh. The hurricane is a natural tool, and it’s an important tool.”
This is a quote from an interview I conducted in 2009 with JOHN WALTHER, RETIRED DIRECTOR OF SABINE WILDLIFE REFUGE in Calcasieu Parish, SW Louisiana.
I was gathering material for our first Devised Documentary Theatre production at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA.
When Mr. Walther said hurricanes “do good things,” my personal quest to explore how the people around us can bring understanding to the misunderstood, began.
Where We Are Now
This website, our DevDoc Theatre YouTube channel, our devdoctheatre Instagram account and our devdoctheatre Facebook page represent our NEW ENDEAVOR to bring understanding to the misunderstood by inviting everyone to SHARE THEIR TRUTH about something that is unknown or misunderstood.
YOUR WORDS, on video, by voiceover or written, WILL HELP MAKE THE UNKNOWN, KNOWN; THE MISUNDERSTOOD A LITTLE MORE UNDERSTANDABLE AND HELP EVERYONE UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT OUR WORLD AND THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN IT.
NOW LET’S BE CLEAR,
we’re not asking you to be a part of a theatre production
(unless you’re comfortable doing that).
But we are inviting all theatre artists to explore the videos, voiceovers and written words as possible SOURCE MATERIAL for their own live theatre production on the topic or event you’re talking about.