The term workshop, with its traditional meaning as a place where construction and repair work are done, including set-building workshops and the like) has also been adopted and used metaphorically in a range of other ways in theatre and performance since the 20th century.

The concept workshop used in theatre and performance

Related to the concepts of Experimental theatre and Laboratory theatre, though perhaps with less of the accent on "scientific research processes" implied by experimental and laboratory, when emplyed in theatre and performance, workshop generally refers to the theatrical process of creating a performance by experimentation and improvisation.

The basic term workshop can be used as a verb ("to workshop a play"), a noun ("a theatre workshop"), or adjectivally ("a workshopped text"; "a workshop production")

Besides experimental theatre and laboratory theatre, other related concepts include improvisation and theatremaking.

The concept of workshop theatre

The term workshop theatre specifically emphasises the notion of creating or shaping a theatre text through a workshop process, i.e. by having the actors and director create or adapt a play through a improvisation processes (hence the term workshopping) a text/scene/play, and can refer to both the process itself as well as the venue where/by which such processes are employed (i.e. a temporary or permanent venue/company/facility to facilitate such work).

The basic term can be used as a verb ("to workshop" a play, a scene or a production"), an adjective ("a workshop production or workshopped play") or a noun (e.g. to a temporary or permanent venue/company/facility workshop processes take place).

The concept as it evolved in South Africa

The broad history

The concept was introduced into the South African scene via the British and American avant garde movements of the 1960s and 1970s, but became really prominent as an alternative creative form in the 1970-1980 struggle period among writers and theatremakers in English, gradually becoming the dominant form of play creation for political work especially, for a while almost ousting the traditional playwright as dominant creative figure in the local industry. This situation continued after the politcal shift in the country in 1994, theatremakers working in all the South African languages having adopted it as a valuable creative tool.