We’re all in the same boat – working together as an Ensemble:

“…ensemble is a long-term relationship; a day-in, day-out collaboration in shared living, thinking and creating.” (Cohen, 2011)

(Instagram, 2016)

Working as an ensemble can be challenging, long and confrontational, but sometimes that’s half the fun of it. Sometimes you will have your up’s and down’s as an ensemble but that’s usually because everyone is passionate about the work they are wanting to produce, but you work together through these ‘bumps’ because you are all part of a team; “…ensemble is simply the French word meaning ‘together'” (Cohen, 2011). Often it is when the ensemble is out of the work room that ideas flow better, for instance Duska (2013) states: “…ideas come to people sometimes, not when they are under pressure in the rehearsal room, but quite often it’s in the break that you go – ‘Well, I could try this?’ and ‘What about this?'”. Never force the work in a rehearsal room, once you are relaxed the ideas will come. We found that as soon as we did not have the stress of the space and we were conversing freely and more relaxed that our ideas became much better and more thought out, as we did not feel any pressure. This made us work much more efficiently as a team.

Cohen, R., 2011. Working Together in theatre: Collaboration and leadership. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Instagram (2016) Our first warmup (ft. our warm up) [Image]. Available from https://www.instagram.com/p/BB74i94LYOC/?taken-by=twistedivy16&hl=en [accessed 24 May 2016]

Radosavljevic, D., 2013. The Contemporary Ensemble: Interviews with Theatre-makers. Oxford: Routledge.