TSDC scripts: why & how

“I really liked when the script started to develop. That was really nice for me, because I got to see the things that we were talking about kind of be born or be created into something. It was really fascinating, the things we came up with.”

— Performer-advocate, Choose Your Destination.

As any theatre practitioner will attest, creating a script is never a linear or a formulaic process. In fact, of theatre’s many mysteries the script development process may well be its most mysterious. While we don’t have a one-size-fits-all TSDC script development formula to offer, one thing we’re certain of is, how we create scripts has an integral connection to why we do it. So, before we get to the nitty-gritty of our how, here’s a quick review of some of TSDC’s fundamental goals and intentions.

TSDC begins from the recognition that public discussions about the City’s future tend to exclude people who are socially marginalized in its present. TSDC plays are designed to:

• Offer community members (community and self-advocates who have lived experience of social marginalization) a platform and method through which to address a broader public.
• Interrupt usual patterns of public discussion by prompting an encounter between the plays’ performer-advocates and members of the audience.
• Shed light on the social expectations that shape our interactions, and the tensions and contradictions in them.