This working group was established to bring together researchers interested in the developing role of creative theatre work that does not fall neatly into either of the two conventionally opposed camps of ‘Devised Theatre’ or ‘Playwrights’ Theatre’. It wishes to focus on the huge creative drive that has emerged over the past thirty or so years from companies which are often headed by powerful directors, but which also maintain a strong commitment to collective work. Obvious examples from the 1970s include the Théâtre du Soleil and the Schaubühne, but since then a large number of groups, in many European countries, have followed a similar path with both local and global inflections.

The creative friction between the dictatorial tendencies of certain directors on the one hand, and the collective ideology of much contemporary innovative theatre work provides a valuable mode of examining trends, developments and motifs in European theatre practice.

The working group would hope to encourage the collaborations of those pursuing research that has any of the following aims:

• To identify, define and conceptualise the process of collective creative practice in contemporary theatre.
• To explore the emergence and continuing vitality of ‘directors’ theatre’.
• To interrogate the various methods available to the theatre scholar in analysing, understanding, documenting and disseminating knowledge about the creative processes of theatre companies.

This working group has a strong interest in assessing practices of non-English language companies and directors in Europe and the Americas.

The groups' working methods will include regular exchange of ideas via e-mail and occasional meetings, when several members of the group may wish to call a gathering around a particular topic or production or access to rehearsals, or when they are attending the same conference. But the main means of exchange will be the annual TaPRA conference in September, where members will be encouraged to bring short reports of their current research.

Co-Convenors

David Bradby	Maria Delgado	Brian Singleton
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Call for Papers 2008

We will announce our intentions for this year's themes and issues shortly.