Teaching & Community Work

Workshops

1. Introduction to Playwrighting

With students from Islington Green School in the Almeida Theatre rehearsal room

This is my most popular course. A 10 week course introducing the craft, with one 1.5 hour session per week. Looks at the basic building blocks of playmaking including Character, Setting, Status & Territory, Structure, Dialogue and Re-writing, using modern exemplar texts from London ’s new writing theatres. Students will each write their own 10-15 minute script, which can be read by actors brought in for a final staged reading, if desired.

Originally run as an after-school club for Year 9s at Deptford Green School, this course can also be adapted to suit 1st and 2nd year undergraduates, or adult beginners.

A more advanced version of this course formed the basis of the Almeida Theatre's WRITE! competition workshops in 2006. I have also delivered a version of it to secondary school teachers as part of my residency at Mulberry School.

2. Group writing

Young actors from City & Islington college in The Hypochondriac: Cut Down at the Almeida Theatre

6-10 week course in which a group of up to 15 students collaborate on writing a 30-minute play, using the structure of an existing play, usually on the curriculum, as a stimulus. The resulting script can then be performed either by professional actors (at additional cost) or by GCSE Drama acting students.

First delivered at Islington Green School (Year 10s) in collaboration with the Almeida Theatre Company using David Eldridge's Festen, the course can be adapted to utilise most set texts as a starting point. Particularly useful for facilitating students' understanding of "difficult" plays through the process of updating and adaptation.

3. Mini Theatre Company

Young actors in Lost & Found at the Tower Arts Centre, Winchester

Large scale course involving other practitioners from a variety of specialisms, in which students form their own theatre company and put on a play in a month. They will be expected not only to co-write the play (with me) but also perform it, design and build the set, and design and operate the lighting and sound effects. Originally delivered via Half Moon Theatre at Mulberry Girls' School, I have also adapted this course to suit children looked after by Hampshire Social Services. Due to the involved nature of this course, a minimum of 6 months' notice is required prior to initial start date.

4. Bespoke workshops

Most recently includes a 5-week Creative Partnerships course for Islington Arts & Media School Year 11 Science students, examining Darwin 's theory of evolution by writing a play about his life. If you have a specific request for a bespoke workshop such as this please get in touch for more details

For information on course costs, please click here