'A Piece of Cod' by Codpiece Theatre is a project designed to explore the early stages of the devising process, and encourage student practitioners to get working from scratch on their performances. Adaptation has tended to be the focus of Codpiece over the past few years, and we would like to facilitate devising as a new and exciting method to approaching theatre. We would like to explore this through a variety of workshops, working across interdisciplinary boundries, in order to encourage new devising work to which we will give voice and exposure, through a performance showcase midway through term 1, and support tailored to meet the needs of the groups in the future.

The project will take form in several ways: through skills workshops, 'scratch' workshops, r&d support and performance showcase opportunities. We will advertise these across year and discipline boundaries, hoping to encourage as many groups as possible to create their own work. However, we would like the project to have a lasting legacy in terms of providing a loose framework for the devising process. Our team (all of whom are on the Codpiece exec) will use the outcomes of the project to develop Codpiece's 'Devising Handbook', giving those who contact Codpiece in the future an opportunity to learn about the devising process from the project.

Our main focus will be workshops, which will be devided between workshops focusing on skills required for devising and 'scratch' workshops designed to provide a space for companies to try out their ideas. Skills workshops may be run by professional practitioners, associates of Codpiece Theatre society such as former members, interdisciplinary academic staff and student volunteers. We will use these to develop devising starting points - to encourage people to begin looking at devised work as an opportunity to explore issues and unusual topics, with an interdisciplinary slant, and to give them the tools required to do so. For example, Forced Entertainment (who are at the Arts Centre in the first week of term) and Bryony Kimmings have been contacted to ask about their potential availability to run workshops. We will also be promoting workshops related to the EMERGE festival in order to give participants in the project an opportunity to see the kind of opportunities that the devising process can afford Warwick University students. 'Scratch' workshops, much more simply, will be opportunities for those with performance/exercise ideas to try them out with a willing group of participants, who will want to either work on the pieces, or learn more about the devising process in general.

Final Performances:

Wednesday 26 November 2014 - Avon Drama Studio, Westwood Campus
Thursday 27 November 2014 - Rehearsal Room, G.57 Millburn House