This research is an interdisciplinary investigation of relations between creativity and constructions of identity, experimental performance in film and theatre, collaborative discourse and social action. As autoethnographic research, these interests have emerged from personal encounters with marginalisation and through my professional role as a community filmmaker working in partnership with culturally diverse communities. Exploring practice-led studio methods and approaches used in creative community development, the exegesis is presented with an accompanying short feature film (narrative drama) titled Rain Painting as well as Kicking the Can (KTC), a half hour documentary about the making of Rain Painting. Contextualising my practice within the discipline of Performance Studies, the research describes how problem-solving strategies and internal resources that I name collectively as Adaptivism have shaped my creative methods in community art, as well as provided a theoretical base for explicating critical junctions between performance, affect and performativity.