THE PROCESS

In January of 2019, Rani O’Brien invited a group of improvisors, actors, dramaturgs, writers, and designers to collaborate on a new devised play inspired by a Brecht classic. Employing methods of ensemble writing she used while directing at The Second City, Rani led the group to an open devising and pitch-to-improvisation process, creating a plethora of material. In March, the ensemble transformed into a writers' room and have since alternated between improvisation to script methods and collaborative writing techniques to generate the script. 

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On September 29th, 2019 Modern Chalk Circle had its first work in process reading. In addition to hearing the current draft of the script, we were able to improvise our audience interactive scenes for the first time with a full and lively audience. On the walls of the hall, E.L. Hohn and Rani put up visual impressions with colors of robins egg blue, green, and hints of burnt orange and red. Clowns, impressionistic paintings, and gender queer punk styles were pulled to illustrate the feeling of the the collaborative ensemble process.

With the feedback and information gained from the invited audience we are now able to assemble a direction for the writing of our next draft, and, for the first time, we've moved into writing lyrics. In pairing with a composer, we've decided to conduct interviews to gain the most world specific points of view for each song.

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