Start your new year with a rich dose of creative nourishment in our workshop series offering a range of creative perspectives and skills from some of our favourite leading practitioners in their fields.

Book one, all, or any number in between!

Workshops are aimed at committed or professional theatre practitioners aged 16+.

PRICES
Troop members £35.50 per day (Rachel Mars £72)
Non-members £55.50 per day (Rachel Mars £112)

Monday 5^th January
10am – 4pm

Dance Dramaturgy as Creative Practice. Led by Xenia Aidonopoulou
10am – 12.30pm
Drawing on her experience of contemporary dance, dance artist and dramaturg Xenia Aidonopoulou, will open a discussion around the evolving field of dance dramaturgy. The purpose of this workshop is to examine how dance dramaturgy as a practice can become a useful tool in the creative process. Through provocations and practical exercises, the participants will be invited to explore firsthand this collaborative and inclusive practice and engage with it in a direct way.

Xenia Aidonopoulou is a dance artist with a background in dance dramaturgy and performance. She makes visually compelling dance-theatre works and collaborates with multidisciplinary artists with stories to share. She has worked extensively in dance, for the National Theatre of Greece, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Onasis Stagi and smaller art institutions.

Embedding Inclusive Practice in the Creative Process: Focusing on Neurodivergence. Led by Dr Tereza Aidonopoulou-Read
1.30pm – 4pm
Building on the themes explored in the morning session, this workshop will use the outputs of earlier creative exercises to reflect on what inclusivity in dance might look like in practice. Together, we will explore how inclusive principles can be meaningfully embedded within the creative process, rather than added on as an afterthought. Particular focus will be given to neurodivergence: what the term means, how it intersects with creative engagement, and what accessibility looks like beyond initial inclusion, towards authentic, sustained participation. The session will invite discussion on the difference between surface-level access and genuine creative agency.

Dr Tereza Aidonopoulou-Read is a Senior Lecturer in Inclusion and Disability at the University of Northampton. Her work centres on neurodivergence and inclusive practice, and she has delivered training to professionals across education, health, social care, and the arts.

Tuesday 6th January
10am – 4pm

Continuous Movement, Making Scores. Led by Sara Wookey
We will start with making movement patterns on the floor, reminding ourselves of our innate primal patterns that can translate into the vertical and be moved across the floor as a group. Taking information from this first part we will devise movement scores that highlight sharing the space and moving together with the others in the group in a nonheriarchical way, as well as being alone within a group. Expect to connect profoundly with your body and the moment, enjoy a sense of freedom of movement, and experience the joy of moving together intuitively within a group. This practice is influenced by the work of Irgmard Bartenieff, influential choreographer Yvonne Rainer, Body Weather Laboratory and spatial design.
You do not need to have dance or other movement training to enjoy this workshop – in fact it is ideal for those without!

Sara Wookey’s current work is in human movement and how physical spaces or the built environment influence a sense of belonging and connection. This could be called ‘user experience’ but is expressed as socio-spatial relationships and defined, informed and inspired by Sara’s experience, skills, beliefs and training in dance and choreography.

Wednesday 7th January
1pm -6pm

Climate Dramaturgy. Led by Zoë Svendsen
Climate dramaturgy is a holistic approach to theatre making that centres artistic practice, treating the climate crisis as a context for everything we do. In what ways can we, as theatre makers – directors, writers, designers and devisers – align our work with climate justice? How can we develop practices that centre artistic process while attending to the rapidly changing world around us, ecologically, socially and politically? What can we do to take positive climate action in our work, from the questions we ask of a play text, to the buildings we are working in? Join us to explore the principles of working with Climate Dramaturgy in theatre.

Zoë Svendsen is a theatre director and dramaturg, who makes participatory theatre performances and installations exploring ecological crisis and capitalism, as well as reimagining classic texts for the contemporary stage with theatres such as The Globe, the National Theatre, the Young Vic and the RSC. Zoë has recently written the book, Theatre & Dramaturgy.

Thursday 8th & Friday 9th January
10am-4pm

Fine Then, I’ll Do It On My Own – A solo work workshop. Led by Rachel Mars
Solo work now – the hows, whys and let’s gos of making a solo show. Are you thinking about making your first/second/seventh solo work? Over these two days we’ll look at why making solo work might be a good idea, and how to go about it through practical exercises and discussion. We’ll examine some pre-existing solo show texts to analyse how they work. We’ll experiment with exercises to create and develop our own material, think about theme, structure, form, audience relationships. We’ll work both on our own and collaboratively to explode each other’s processes. What do you get for free as a solo performer that you aren’t even aware of? And how can we teach an audience to eat our shows? In this workshop we’ll read, write, devise, share material and talk about it in a playful, supportive and judgement free space. Come with some – really early stage – ideas of areas you are interested in and we’ll get stuck in.

Rachel Mars is an award-winning writer and performer based in the London. She has been working at the cross-over of performance art and theatre for 15 years. Her solo shows The Way You Tell Them and Your Sexts Are Shit: Older Better Letters have toured the UK and Internationally. Her collaborative works Our Carnal Hearts; Forge; Roller; and Story 1/3 have been performed around in the UK, US, Europe and Australia.

Feedback from previous workshop participants:
– ‘So motivating to be given a set of tools and then put them immediately into action in such a safe, supportive space. The workshop was demanding and pulled ideas out of me that I had no idea were there. Lots of problems posed, solutions found – an inspiring couple of days’
– ‘This workshop was an inspiring space, it was brilliant to meet other people and see the ideas they were working on. Rachel Mars led an inclusive, creative and open minded space, thank you for putting on this workshop’
– ‘Rachel was a brilliant workshop leader. She kept us engaged with a combination of thought provoking debate, group exercises and solo writing tasks’

No booking fees when you become a Member