how to write a group piece - alex
Post on 04-May-2022
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How to Write a Group Piece, By Adam Gottleib
Or perhaps we should ask first: why write a group piece? The collaborative spoken word poem or "group piece" is its own unique form, with as many different approaches as are available for any other given form of poetry. Defining the form is simple: it is a performance poem that is presented by more than one person. A group piece can involve any number of poets but is usually limited to four for the purposes of poetry slams, or poetry competitions. As artists, we write group pieces because we enjoy the challenge of the form – the challenge to create music and conversation, to portray a collective experience.
There are two different ways that group pieces are born. Sometimes they start from existing poems that one team member brings to the table. These are easier to write because the text has already been produced, leaving only the group-‐centered jobs – arranging, staging, and rehearsing – to be completed. Other times they are written organically by a group, from scratch. This second kind is more difficult because actual group writing is much less efficient. Its main advantage is this: by being democratic, it avoids the potentially harmful leader-‐follower relationships that arise when one person’s work dominates the process. Choosing a "leader," "captain," or "head writer" of a group can often make things move faster, but can just as easily lead to team rankings – spoken or unspoken – which cause negative team energy. In order to create a collaborative poem in an organic and leaderless way that is equally representative of all members, these sevens steps are useful.
1. Hang out – If this has not happened already throughout the course of practices, it is imperative that the exact combination of poets in the group piece have some time outside of rehearsal to go out and eat, chill, play Ultimate Frisbee, swim the English Channel, etc. Just do something that is not related to work or – even worse – poetry. Poets working together must trust each other on stage. Spending time without doing work is perhaps the best way to build that trust.
2. Brainstorm and agree on a theme – Find someone's basement, porch, living room or other quiet and comfortable area. My former slam coach Barry McRaith would often stress the importance of having a “sacred space” when working creatively. Allow everyone to put an idea on the table. First make sure to collect all brainstorming ideas without saying no to anyone. Then open it up for discussion. Allow each member the power of veto. Voice your opinions, all of them, no matter how long it takes. Eventually you will find that a theme exists on which everyone would like to write. Hopefully it will be something a
little more complex than "Love," but anything is acceptable. In the end this theme will end up changing and evolving, perhaps to an unrecognizable state. Whatever the group decides, write it down (that makes it official!) and make sure that the vote is unanimous.
3. Do preliminary writing – Now is your time to split up and write whatever you want, using your theme from step two as a prompt. You can write one poem or twenty poems. You can arrange it for four voices or have no linear structure whatsoever. Likewise, this step can be done with fifteen minutes of quiet productive writing in the same room, or it can be done as a week's worth of homework. Allow this step to follow the time constraints of your particular project. The most important thing is that each member uses this time as a way to navigate the broad theme into something that is particularly important to him or her. Don't waste any time writing something you are not excited about writing. Make the poem your own. Become psyched about the project.
4. Make an outline – This is the most important step. It is now time to reconvene, look over the preliminary writings and discuss what the poem is really about. Combine your ideas, write a thesis statement and divide the poem into whatever different sections it demands, for example, intro, funny section, transition, serious ending. Make sure that all ideas are fully developed, explained, and introduced – this now includes defining each group member’s role or character in the piece. While your primary focus should be the writing, you should now begin to discuss performance devices such as blocking/staging ideas, pacing, volume, etc. Finally, divide the writing responsibilities. Once you have a first draft, all ownership of text disappears and each member can edit any area. For now though, assign each member a different piece of your overall outline for the poem.
5. Do real writing – This must be done by each member privately, in whatever way they are most comfortable writing. Give yourselves a good amount of time to create quality work, and stick to your deadlines. I have always found it easier to write group pieces in dialogue form with stage directions, as if it were a play. Each team does this part differently, and no one way will work for everyone.
6. Make a first draft – This should be rather easy. Start by placing everyone's work side by side and looking at the poem from beginning to end. Smooth out the inevitable transitions between writers and concentrate on producing a cohesive work with a solid arc. Read it out loud and do the same thing again. Add performance effects where necessary to make the poem interesting and ready for a trusted audience or coach.
7. Revise – This may be the last step, but it only marks the halfway point of the process. Keep performing the poem over and over again in a workshop setting until you identify as many central issues as possible. Continually write and rewrite. Experiment with different ending or opening lines. MEMORIZE!
Above all, remember that perfecting a group piece means creating something that could not have had an equal effect if performed by an individual. Push barriers. Allow your piece to take on an unexpected shape, even if it means throwing away the ideas and lines that you have been most attached to. The quality of your poem will be determined by the communication between group members. If each person's voice is an essential part of the poem's message, you will have achieved something grand indeed. Or at least you will avoid being wack.
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