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In the early stages of the rehearsal process, the defining features for the piece need to be created and a number of important decisions therefore need to be made:

• aims and intentions - these need to be clear, and individual aims need to align with the group’s overall intentions
• target audience - this needs to be decided early on in the process and will impact performance and design decisions
• setting - where and when the performance is set, as well as what’s happening in that time period (social, cultural and historical context) to inform design and language use
• genre - determined by the group when devising, to communicate the intention of the piece to an audience
• style - how theatrical ideas are presented on stage; style is not a limiting decision as ideas can be fused together, blending multiple concepts
• form - the conventions or building blocks of a performance, often aligned with its genre or performance style
• structure - how scenes are placed together for effect, whether linear or episodic; the placement of scenes will impact the way in which the story is received by an audience, and may help to offer multiple perspectives