Theatre-making is a site where, by necessity, learning takes place, attitudes are ques- tioned and values are critiqued. The state of adolescence is one of routine surprise where engaging with the unexpected is a way of being. Theatre-making matches this state perfectly, supplying the young person with a set of tools that thrives on curio- sity and that can build meaning from the surprising. Education (with the possible exception of the sciences) generally does the opposite, calming young people down and quenching curiosity with liberal dosings of routine, predicable and confining orthodoxy that replaces defiance with compliance. For many of our young people being in a youth theatre is the only space they have left at 15 or 16 years of age whe- re every question is not answered before they ask it. As a theatre-maker, I find that Page 140 Page 141 young people’s surprise generally invigorates my own tired perspectives and I relish the freshness with which we, together, explore the world. We learn in theatre mainly through a process called devising. (For more information on this see the Introduction to the section about Devising). If the capacity for a group to devise is to be developed then certain conditions need to be in place. First among these is the establishment of a learning group who are comfortable enough with each other to share what they consider to be, as Maxine Greene puts it, ‘what is supposedly fixed and finished, objectively and independently real’ (1995). In theatre-making this learning group is called an ensemble.