Our package of workshops is the foundation of everything we do at Splendid Productions. We have accumulated a huge amount of knowledge and expertise in practical group teaching, and our aim is not only to cover the subject of the workshop vividly and accurately, but to ensure every student is engaged and challenged.

We approach all workshops as rehearsal sessions in which teaching is quickly incorporated into practical exercises. Under the direction of our outstanding workshop leaders, students can actively make sense of theory which can seem abstract on the page. We are regularly impressed by the quality and inventiveness of the work the students produce.

We work predominantly with 14 to 21 year-olds in groups to a maximum of 30 per workshop leader in sessions from 3-hours to week-long projects.

Here is our current selection of workshops. Follow the links below for price information, to download a booking form as a pdf file to send or fax us, or you can request a workshop using our online form.

"[A Splendid session] has more effect on the pupils than a term's worth of lessons."
John Sentance, Head of Drama, Repton School

“It reinforces everything I say and provides a model they can refer back to and lots of ideas for them to use in their own work… I like the mixture of honesty, praise, encouragement and criticism. You make them feel safe but also tell them the truth.”
Helen Eve, Head of Drama, Palmers Green High School

“Very flexible and well-tailored to meet our needs.”
Peter Ging, Head of Drama, The Emmbrook School

More feedback on Splendid's workshops.

Here are some quick links:

Practitioner sessions

With 10 years of practitioner workshop experience, we devise each session to fit your requirements. You are in safe hands!

The key theatrical practitioners still have a place within the changing syllabus. Take one of our sessions and combine it in any number of ways - link it with devising, relate it to a text or just experience a practical approach to complex theory. Extend and provoke your students’ idea of what theatre is and bring new influences to their own work. Value added in so many areas!

We provide a toolbox of techniques, exercises, and approaches to text and rehearsal for each practitioner. Our energetic workshops quickly get students on their feet, exploring and developing the theory for themselves.

Giving your students an unforgettable experience, the Practitioner Workshops support your teaching and enhance written and practical examination work.

We are offer full and mini sessions covering the following practitioners:

Full Sessions:
Take a luxurious 3hr or 6hr look at any one practitioner.

Mini Sessions:
2 practitioners in 3hrs (1.5hrs each)
3 practitioners in 6hrs (2hrs each)

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Physical Theatre

Splendid Productions offer a diverse physical theatre program.

You can choose the style you wish to examine, from lifts, rolls, leans and ledges, to creating a more subtle, shared physical language to facilitate the devising process. How about these angles?:

• Introduction: inspiration and essential tools for Physical Theatre beginners.
• Complicite: response-ability and the art of creative physical collaboration.
• Practitioner Focus: relating to a specificpractitioner (Grotowski, Feldenkrais or Artaud).
• Sound and Word: the role of voice and narrative within Physical Theatre.
• Devising: take a specific source and develop it using physicality, creating both literal and lateral movement to bring the text to life.

These workshops aim to expand the physical tools available to your students, helping to make devising and performance a more dynamic and creative process.

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Devising Skills

As we all know, the devising process can be the most challenging and stressful part of any group work.

As a theatre company we are very familiar with the trials and triumphs of creating our own pieces, and we have a lot of experience and insight to share! For example:

• Research techniques: How do you explore a topic? How much do you need to know?
• Developing material: You’ve gathered all your information, “what now?”
• Generating performance ideas: “We know what we want to do but aren’t sure how!”
• Teamwork: How to communicate well and work as a group.
• Structuring your piece: Too many ideas? Not enough focus? Help!

• Kick-start – we stimulate groups’ creativity, providing a starting-point for devising. We show them how to be obvious, positive and inventive.
• Repair service – we can come in during the development of the masterpiece and offer ideas and techniques to add flavour to what already exists, assisting your students’ vocal and physical technique and ensuring the devising achieves its full potential.

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Text Exploration

Making the text accessible is a big challenge, so why not give it to us? We will take any text and provide students with concrete and creative ways to get inside it.

Taken from a directorial or acting standpoint, the workshop provides an overview of the play and how the individual might communicate the themes and techniques within it.

• The Director: What rehearsal ideas might be useful for a specific scene and/or actor? Which practical exercises could we use to approach characterisation? Which themes could be highlighted and how? How can we bring the best out of a scene through staging? What off-text work could deepen the understanding of the performers?
• The Actor: What does the text require of the actor? How can we employ movement and vocality within the production? How as an actor can we control our pace, use the space and understand the language and syntax of the play?

Here is a selection of workshops we have delivered recently:

• A Doll’s House in the style of Berkoff for half the session, then Craig in the other!
• A Brechtian approach to Oh! What a Lovely War, Woyzeck and Arturo Ui.
• Hedda Gabler through the rehearsal techniques of Peter Brook.
• An intro to Antigone, Shadow of a Gunman, The Rivals and The Good Person of Szechuan.
• A physical theatre approach to Sarah Kane’s Crave, Metamorphosis and The Trial by Berkoff.

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Splendid Style... use us for your AQA or EdExcel exam

Have you considered using Splendid Productions as an influential company for your Unit 2 AQA exam? Or EdExcel (AS Unit 2, A2 Unit 3)? We’re delighted to hear that some of our lovely clients are doing just that.

We have developed a range of workshops that incorporate all of the techniques and influences that make Splendid… well… Splendid:

• Vocality: breath, diction, clarity, projection, rhythm and tonality.
• Physicality: movement, chorus, gesture, proxemics and characterisation.
• Actor and Audience: possibilities of the actor and how to use the audience within your work.
• Creating political theatre that demands to be watched.

Of course, it’s not just for AQA, we’re happy to share our style with everybody! Let us develop your students’ technical skills creatively. With our flexible content promise, we can supply you with an ‘oh my god that was exactly what I wanted!’ workshop.

See examples of how other clients have worked with their students in a Splendid Style.
License a Splendid play.
Splendid Style is explained more in our book called "Splendid Style!"

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Directorial / Verbatim with Matt Wilde

A new workshop programme with our regular director and practitioner Matt Wilde.

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Unmasked Commedia

Explore the performance style of Commedia dell'arte: ensemble, grummelot, stretching physicality and vocality, playing to an audience, clowning and creating stock characters without the use of a mask.

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What else can we do for you?

In addition to our syllabus-based workshops, we have also delivered many different services and events such as Raising Aspirations Sessions, Indoor Teambuilding, Arts Week Events and Yr 6-7 Transition Days. You can find out more about all of these and our new ‘Bespoke Adaptation’ service in the projects section.