ABSTRACT
Practitioners including Jacques Lessard, Robert Lepage and the Commotion youth theatre team, have gravitated to the Resources, Scores, eValuative analysis/Valuaction and Performance (RSVP) cycles. The more wicked the problem, the greater the need for a process that engages with diverse creative modes – such as RSVP. RSVP cycles help by making ‘the creative process visible,’ as Libby Worth and Helen Poynor put it. As many people are aware, RSVP is an acronym for the different creative mindsets that can generate a cycle of creative energies. The Commotion experience persuaded the author that RSVP disrupts the time-forward ‘arrow’ of process-anxiety that governs a production plan at the macro level where there are sequential deadlines. Devising is like the wicked problem of renovating a body or a major train station while it continues to operate. There are so very many pressures that can fragment devising groups. Devising leads to exhaustion, and poor communication due to internal squabbles and external pressures of production.
