10am – 1pm: ‘1 to 1’ Coaching Sessions with Robbie Bowman. These coaching sessions are in person and each session consists of 50 minutes. They are a chance to just focus on yourself and discuss how it is going for you in non-judgemental atmosphere. Robbie has over 40 years’ experience in the profession and will bring his understanding of the acting craft, NLP, Neuroscience, Mindfulness, and elements of Think Like a Tree (Values and Natural Principles) to the session. Please note - this is not therapy but may be therapeutic and it is not a session to work on trauma related issues. Slots are: 10am, 11am and 12pm.

Cost £15

10am – 1pm: Crochet 2 with Elinor Solly - Elinor is a Theatremaker and enthusiasticcrocheter. We will be leaving our stresses at the door and coming together to cover the basics of crocheting in a low-pressure environment, over a cuppa and a giggle. Always wanted to twirl some yarn around in your hands? Let’s do it! Always wanted to make a full-blown blanket?! Let’s do it. This is a chance for us to try something new together and potentially fail spectacularly at it. What a wonderful freedom! No experience necessary, just a willingness to get down with the darn yarn! Cuppa’s and Materials provided! 

Cost £10

1.30pm – 4.30pm – Acting Gym with Robbie Bowman. Robbie will lead this session focusing on connection and awareness of oneself and others. This is a chance to keep working your acting muscles and keep investigating what helps you move towards freedom on stage. Robbie's work is influenced heavily by the Meisner Repetition Exercises which form the core of what he does, coupled with mindfulness, looking at the psycho physical aspects of the work, improvisation through Meisner and getting to know, accepting, and working with those intrusive thoughts that interrupt the actor's freedom. 

Cost £15

5.00pm – 8pm: Book Club 1 -Uta Hagen - A Challenge to the Actor. Our group of 5 has started to look at Uta Hagen’s book A Challenge to the Actor and in this session, we will be trying out exercises from the book on text. People can take part as actors in this session even if they haven’t read the book. You will learn about Uta Hagen through the doing of exercises taken from the book. These sessions are non-pressurised, done in a spirit of sharing, peer learning and investigating the work of Uta Hagen.

Cost £10

9am – 10.30am – Alexander with Florence Dobson - having found the Alexander technique to be an essential element to her actors training at RWCMD and RADA, Florence continues to deepen her practice of Alexander to liberate herself and others through a mindful practice of breath-work and sensations. Through Alexander Technique, Florence will share some fundamental exercises and insights to channel space and grounding through the body, allowing ourselves to compassionately release tension and welcome in ease and flow.

Cost £10

10.45 – 12.45 Fundamentals of Play with Elinor Solly

In childhood, we don’t sensor our imaginations and find joy in exploring the play in the world that surrounds us. In this workshop, I want to get back together and play. Through this play, I seek to offer a light-touch exploration and reflection space to actors who feel like they have lost the spark in what they do and why they do it. Drawing together my experiences in fine art, clowning and devising, my workshop gets participants making and laughing without the pressures of ‘a reason’. As creatives, making is our way of processing the world around us. I want this workshop to appeal to both people who have acted all their lives, as well as people who have never acted or have always wanted to. I want to prioritise accessibility to theatrical play and to people who may have not had a ‘traditional’ training. Elinor is an artist and actor who is currently in development of her own solo devised show. She has recently received solo artist mentorship from Liv Ello and Frankie Thompson. She is a maker, with a fine art background and is constantly in an explorative conversation with her work and how it interrogates the relationship between audience and performer. I recently discovered how my work interacts with my queerness – the stories I want to tell and how they conflict with it. I investigate image and public perception; how well we can know ourselves under the gaze of others. Queering the narrative and finding the femininity and fantasy in my storytelling is very important to me. I trained as an actor/theatremaker for three years on the BA Acting (Collaborative and Devised Theatre) course at RCSSD. Whilst there, I cultivated a love for devising and clown, constantly interrogating the relationship between my artistic practice and my acting one. I have trained with practitioners such as Catherine Alexander (Lecoq practices), Sinead Rushe (Michael Chekhov) and Robbie Bowman (NLP and Meisner) who have encouraged a continual exploration and curiosity in my work and provided me with the tools to hone authentic storytelling enriched by a sense of ease, freedom and play - all of which I wish to bring into my next solo work.

Cost £10

1.30-4.30 Active Analysis with Than Hussein Clark

Than will be looking at Active Analysis as per his MA studies at Royal Holloway with Katie Mitchell. He is the founder and Artistic Director of London Performance Studios.

Cost £15

5pm – 7pm Salon: In this session those taking part in the workshops will share some of their work be it poetry, new writing, scene work…There will be drinks and nibbles provided.

Cost £5

9am – 10.30am: Alexander with Florence Dobson - having found the Alexander technique to be an essential element to her actors training at RWCMD and RADA, Florence continues to deepen her practice of Alexander to liberate herself and others through a mindful practice of breath-work and sensations. Through Alexander Technique, Florence will share some fundamental exercises and insights to channel space and grounding through the body, allowing ourselves to compassionately release tension and welcome in ease and flow.

Cost £10

10.45 – 12.15 Physical Lab with Polly Waldron - This session will draw on the work of two very different approaches to psychophysical acting training: that of Michael Chekhov and Jacques LeCoq. We will explore what these two methods can offer us, working from the inside out, and the outside in. I am particularly interested in exploring how these techniques can pass the given circumstances from our ‘thinking’ mind into our bodies and imaginations. Polly is an actor and theatre maker working in London. Recent projects include Voice in the Thunder by Simon Lys, dir. Naomi Wirthner, and Babyshow at Unicorn Theatre, dir. Sarah Argent. Polly worked with Kirsty Housley (Misty, The Encounter) to devise War and War at The Pleasance, Islington and as assistant director to Joyce Hendersson for Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit at Theatre Peckham. She was part of the team behind Tess, an adaptation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Ondervinden, which premiered at Edinburgh Festival Fringe before touring pubs and village halls in South-West England. Polly trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, on the Collaborative and Devised Theatre strand.

Cost £10

1.30 – 3.30 Visual Art and Theatre Creation with Adrian and Lillian

We (Lillian, a visual artist, and Adrian, a theatrical artist) are interested in how the act of drawing can meet with the process of acting. What might it be like to try and make the imaginative world of a character tangible? How might the beliefs of a character become clarified once expressed as marks, colors, or images on a page? The purpose of this session is not to become proficient at drawing things which look “correct” or “realistic,” but rather to open up the possibility of drawing as playful exploration for use in character work. So many people are discouraged from drawing as they grow up due to lack of perfection. What joy could be found in aiming for impression, sensation, and inner form, rather than realism? What information about ourselves and our characters can we glean from this type of research and play? We will focus on drawing being a physical and sensory experience, a way by which to make visible the invisible parts of a character’s world. We are curious as to how these images can then be taken into the body for us to explore. This the second iteration of this workshop and is a rich and stimulating experience.

Cost £10

3.45 – 5.45 Trying it out 1 – Vivek Sharma and Top Girls.

Vivek Sharma will lead on this session, and they will be looking at Top Girls by Carol Churchill. They will be looking at using Active Analysis and Other elements that Viv is interested in exploring when working on the text. This is the second iteration of this session. Vivek (they/them) is an emerging theatre maker who trained as an actor on the Collaborative and Devised Theatre Course at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. As well as being an actor, Viv has also started down a Directing path assisting on productions including Othello (Riverside Studios, 2023) directed by Sinead Rushe and as the Jerwood Trainee Assistant Director for Sundown Kiki: Reloaded (Young Vic, 2023). Vivek is part of the Living Pictures Directors Bursary Programme, the Young Vic’s Fresh Direction Programme (2023-2024) and the Soho Theatre Writers lab (2023-2024). Vivek is interested in themes of identity (particularly the intersections of race andLGBT+ identities) and is currently in the early stages of writing their first play on these themes.

Cost £10

3.45 – 5.45 Trying it out 2 – With Omer Coltu

In this session Omer Coltu will focus on creating a piece of work from a well-known Turkish Comic Strip. Omer will be looking at some of what he has written, using Meisner to devise some dialogue, looking into the back stories of the characters and exploring what it is like to act as ‘comic strip’ characters. How does that work and what might that look like?

Cost £10

6.00 – 8pm Book Club 2 – The Artist’s Way led by Vivek Sharma

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron provides a twelve-week course that guides you through the process of recovering your creative self. It aims to dispel the 'I'm not talented enough' conditioning that holds many people back and helps you to unleash your own inner artist. Its step-by-step approach enables you to transform your life, overcome any artistic blocks you may suffer from, including limiting beliefs, fear, sabotage, jealousy and guilt, and replace them with self-confidence and productivity. The Artist's Way will demystify the creative process by making it a part of your daily life.

Cost £5