Creativity from Constraints in the Performing Arts

Patricia D. Stokes

This book was written to be useful. 
To be a tool for creators and performers.
One tool is for your head. You will learn many new things.
You will learn

•That creativity is a problem solving process. 
•That well-known creators and performers (in dance, improv, opera, jazz, musicals, drama, comedy, and circus) use paired constraints to solve their creativity problems. 
•That one of each constraint pair precludes something in an existing style or solution. 
•That the other provides a substitute to replace it. 
•That constraint pairs cascade – one substitution suggesting another. 
•That a series of substitutions becomes a solution path that replaces the existing and defines the new.

The other tool is for your hands.
You will learn new ways of using what you know.
You will learn

•How to make your tool box bigger. 
•How to get past your gatekeepers. 
•How to use paired constraints to start doing something new. 
•How to use paired constraints to continue doing something new.

Use your new tools.
Use them to do something new.