Our History
We are a theatre company that started in a basement, similar to the theatre companies born in Greenwich Village in the 1960s during the Post-Modern theatre boom in the United States. We believe in making art that lives without borders, without blinders, and through a lineage of mindfulness and compassion. When we say that we make theatre on a ‘bleeding edge,’ we mean that a cutting edge wasn’t fine enough for us–we had to dig deeper into the history of who we were, dig our fingers into the depths and dirt, dive into the muck of our ancestry and wrestle with the mess of our humanity. Sometimes that looks like our privilege and sometimes that looks like our oppression depending on who is telling the story.
We started as kids, just a bunch of neighborhood kids in a fifties bubble who went from swinging on vines in the woods to mounting illegal musicals in the backyard. We’ve grown into adults who rehearse in studios, backyards, church basements, cemeteries, hallways, and bedrooms, all for the chance to come together and perform theatre that is mostly devised in spaces that are mostly found. You’ve seen us at Fringe Festivals (Cincinnati, Boulder) and in your local club (Mockbee, Woodward, Leapin’ Lizard, Southgate House Revival), and in international art festivals (Arezzo, IT). We still work with kids, we work with adults, and everyone is welcome.
What is Devised Theatre?
Devising is loosely defined as the process of collaboratively creating a new work without a pre-existing script wherein the collaborators are also the performers.
In the standard theatre model, a single playwright writes the text and then a director casts actors and selects designers to interpret that text, resulting in a theatre production. With devised theatre, however, the collective artists begin without a script. A devised piece of theatre can literally start with anything: a painting, a song, a real-life event, a novel to adapt, ANYTHING.
Multiple ways to devise exist. At InBocca, we embrace many different forms and are always open to learning new ones.
“...[InBocca’s] shows often have a ferocity that can make some audience members uncomfortable... There is something wonderfully anarchic about all these productions. And dangerous. And quite potent, as well.”
—David Lyman, Cincinnati CityBeat Review