Learning to write spaces

Abstract

It is frequently suggested to new playwrights that you ‘have to know the rules in order to break them’. This suggestion relies on the idea that theatre audiences share certain expectations of how language works in the theatre. However, it can be argued that different audiences bring different expectations, and that theatre is increasingly entering into new arenas and disciplinary collaborations, where dramatic ‘rules’ are contaminated by, or superseded by other compositional principles. I will propose that site-specificity is not only a symptom of this situation, but may be a useful pedagogical tool in facilitating a writer's route into engaging with visual and spatial principles of composition.