Paperbirds

Paperbirds are an entirely female British theatre company with a social and political agenda. "We are recognised as UK leaders in devised verbatim theatre". 
When using Paperbirds as your devising practitioner there are 5 key non negotiables:

• Verbatim - They first began to utilise verbatim techniques in the production In A Thousand Pieces (2008), when they felt there was a layer missing: the opinions of real people. So they set out with a Dictaphone and recorded some real peoples' opinions on the topic of the show. Having placed these soundbites into the script, the impact the show had on audiences was one of honesty, integrity, shock and deep emotional connection. When it came to the next production, they were hooked; as a technique, collecting and using other people's words verbatim in the productions was of deep interest. 
  With each production this technique was developed, especially the method of collecting data to make it more widespread and efficient.  Some of the methods include: one on one interviews, hosting workshops, seminars, group talks, writing letters, questionnaires and even leaving a voice note. Ways of projecting this verbatim is also always being innovated eg in Thirsty (2011) verbatim material is scribbled onto the toilet walls as graffiti, and in Ask Me Anything (2020) it scrolls on an autocue screen as in a TV studio.
• Movement -  We want to tell stories in breath-taking theatricality. That's why for us, we try to use movement as a mode of conveying parts of the story to heighten or accentuate the spoken word. We have always used physicality in this way, for example in Thirsty, repetitious movement depicts the characters becoming more drunk; or in Broke (2014), the performers fast forward and rewind through scenes to depict the verbatim editing process.
•  Character and Narrative - Sometimes both the characters and narratives that feature in out productions are real – they might be people we've met throughout the research phase, or they might be stories that we've collected. In this instance, we try to play them verbatim and use a convention so that the audience know they are real. But we often need to fill in the gaps or use our artistic licence to create interesting and relevant characters that will feature in the story. This sees us play a lot at the start of a process and use improvisation.
• Exposing the method -  One element to Paperbirds is called exposing the method which enhances the action on stage by revealing some of the backstage processes. Many of these techniques hark back to Brechtian traits such as alienation effects; reminding the audience that they are here in the theatre and that the issues they see on stage are real issues currently happening in our society.
  Examples of some of these techniques they might include are; performer interruptions or disagreements; breaking the action, breaking the fourth wall, commenting on the scene staging or costume, non-acting, multi-rolling/swapping character, asides...
•  Motif - Motif is commonplace throughout all of art, and within The Paper Birds' productions, it features heavily. The motifs we incorporate can take the form of textual or language references, physical or movement, sound or musical, or symbolic or visual recurring motifs. In each production we choose a selection of motifs that suit the content and the style of the piece. In our production Broke, we incorporated several styles of motif;
  Textual – found text from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which depicted a fairy tale take on poverty.
  Sound and music – childlike music created on toy xylophone and rubber piano.
  Movement – fast forwarding and rewinding through scenes.
  Visual – imagery of 'golden tickets'.
  So for us, motif can be one of many different conventions