Splendid Workshops
Our package of workshops is the foundation of everything we do at Splendid Productions.
At Splendid we know that no two workshops are the same, and we specialise in creating sessions that meet your students where they are, customising content and style to cover exactly the subject areas you need.
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.
In-School Workshops: Standard in-school workshops are 3hr or 6hr sessions, with a maximum group size of 30 students with each workshop leader. Session times can be split (for example 2 x 3hrs or 3 x 2hrs in a 6-hour session) but wherever possible we avoid individual workshops shorter than 90mins.
Online Workshops: We can also provide most of our workshop content online.
Workshops are available throughout the year, booking is a case of finding a suitable date with one of our small but mighty team of practitioners.
Scroll down for further information on our workshop programme, click the booking form button to make a workshop request.
More information: Price list
Theatre Practitioner Sessions
With nearly 20 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:
- Artaud
- Berkoff
- Boal
- Brecht
- Brook
- Craig
- Godber
- Grotowski
- Kneehigh
- Mike Alfreds
- Shared Experience
- Stanislavski
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)
See also: Practitioner Mind Maps at the Splendid Shop / Bertolt Brecht Online CPD
Physical Theatre
Splendid Productions offer a diverse physical theatre program.
You can choose the style you wish to examine: lifts, rolls, leans and ledges, or creating a more subtle, shared physical language, or facilitating the devising process. Here are some examples of what we can conver
- Introduction: inspiration and essential tools for Physical Theatre beginners.
- Complicité: response-ability and the art of creative physical collaboration.
- Practitioner Focus: relating to a specific practitioner (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.
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!
We will provide a well-structured practical session to help your students with this tricky process. And we can offer valuable input every step of the way:
- 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.
See also: Devising Mind Maps at the Splendid Shop / Devising Political Theatre Online CPD
Text Exploration
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.
Splendid Style
Use Splendid as an influential practitioner for your devised and scripted work. We are alive, we are making work right now, you can access us freely AND we are not run by white middle class men.
Splendid believe that encouraging young people to make socially engaged, anarchic, dialectical political work using techniques that are utterly theatrical can only result in well-researched, thoroughly rehearsed and expertly delivered performances.
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.
- Episodic Structure: devising using a dialectical, multi-perspective approach to the stimulus
- Developing Material: advice on research techniques and getting ideas on their feet
- Song: adding in music and song strategically into the work to keep the audience engaged and entertained.
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 also: Splendid Production Resources / license a Splendid script / Watch Kerry’s free Splendid FAQ / More about working in a Splendid Style
Clowning
Splendid are clowns and we would love to share this anti-4th wall, honest, joyous and audience-aware approach to making work. These sessions can link-in with the work of Dario Fo, Jacques Lecoq, Kneehigh, Peter Brook and anyone who is making ensemble-based, inclusive, structured-chaos, universal work. This is also a good start point workshop if you are exploring Commedia dell’Arte.
- Finding your clown
- Status
- Connecting and Playing
- Developing material – solo and ensemble-based
- Everything is the audience
- The art of being truthful without being confusing
- Learning that winning and failing on stage are both good
Clowning is a useful style of performance for young people to explore. It encourages a supportive and positive environment in the room and allows your students to find a comfort in front of an audience that does not rely on characterisation, script, costume or lighting.
You are what is interesting!
See also: Commedia dell’Arte and Peter Brook Mind Maps
Online Sessions
Since the COVID pandemic, we have found ways to adapt most of our workshop content to online sessions, whether this is a workshop leader working remotely with students who are in the same room, or all participants joining virtually.
We have found that online sessions work better in shorter bursts, so we restrict these to a maximum of 2 hours with any group. We are happy to arrange online sessions with international clients, and can adapt the schedule appropriately to your time zone.
To book, choose the ‘online session’ option on the booking form.
Bespoke workshops
In addition to our syllabus-based workshops, we have delivered a huge range of bespoke session content for all age ranges.
Examples of workshops and sessions we can provide:
- Verbatim/Documentary Theatre
- Unmasked Commedia
- Directorial Approaches
- Raising Aspirations Sessions
- Indoor Teambuilding
- Arts Week Events
- Yr 6-7 Transition Days
- Stage Combat
- Public Performance Training
If you’ve got a workshop problem and no-one else can help, call the Splendid A-Team!
We love a challenge, and we’re happy to discuss specifics by email, phone, or you can use the ‘other’ section of the booking form.
We look forward to hearing from you!