Staying Creative in Isolation

Over the past few months, in conversation with our Idiot community of theatre makers, a common question has emerged: "How do I remain creative in these times of isolation?" Here's some tips for those of you who are in the middle of a devising process (which may have been cut short), planning a devising process, or maybe just thinking about one.

1. "If you know exactly what you are going to do, what’s the point of doing it" - Picasso    

Avoid spending your time trying to solve everything about your project on paper, stay creative by perhaps thinking about other forms. If your idea has a narrative why not write it as a short story, or draw it as a comic book. It’s not about being ‘good’ in these forms but rather being liberated by working in a different medium, and seeing what that reveals about your idea.

2. "It’s not what you know that’s important; it’s what your passion gives you the potential to discover" - Geoff Dyer

Be wary of filling your time with too much research, remember you’re not writing a dissertation. Your aim (presumably) is to create a living, breathing, spontaneous piece of theatre, and if you’re not careful, research can become a substitute for discovery.

3. "There was no book to adapt, no painting out there. This is our imaginary, and a tribute to the other imaginaries out there that don’t exist" - Céline Sciamma (on Portrait of a Lady on Fire)

In a world of restriction it feels important that at times we can lose ourselves in the world of the imagination. Search out the stuff you don’t know, look beyond theatre, and above all remain curious.

'You can argue forever about the content of a film, its aesthetic, its style, even its moral posture; but the crucial imperative is to avoid boredom at all costs'  Luis Buñuel