Devised Theatre Workshops
At The Paper Birds we pride ourselves on inspiring young people through theatre and enabling them to thrive through participation.
We have a reputation as leaders in the delivery of devised and verbatim theatre workshops throughout the UK. Working in hundreds of schools each year, we have a Participation programme that can be adapted to fit the needs of your students. Whether as a launch to a devising unit, or as a refresher session to kickstart a process mid-way; The Paper Birds can visit your school or arrange an online workshop at any time throughout the academic year.
Workshop Programme
We deliver workshop in schools across the globe. If you would like a visit from one of our highly skilled practitioners to explore The Paper Birds devising methodology, you can book a visit now! All of our live workshops can be delivered as a 2 hour session or a 5 hour (full day) session.
Maximum of 30 participants per workshop session. If you have a larger group than 30 people, we recommend booking our full day workshop and dividing the day up into two sessions.
Devising Theatre Workshop
Explore common devising practices utilised by The Paper Birds enabling participants to collate exercises to use throughout their own devising processes. Focusing on turning research into performance; direct address, and choreographing movement. Suitable for use with all GCSE and A Level specifications.
Devising in the Style of The Paper Birds
This session gives participants a deeper dive into the 5 Key Ingredients of The Paper Birds’ methodology; Verbatim, Movement, Character and Narrative, Exposing the Method, and Motif. Suitable for groups specifically using The Paper Birds as their exam Prescribed Practitioner.
Intro to Devising – Key Stage 3 Workshop
Designed as a broad introduction to The Paper Birds’ unique devising style, this session includes a playful approach to generating thought provoking theatre. Using stimulus to spark imagination, this session includes a range of techniques including approaches to verbatim and choreography.
Fees
2 Hour Workshop: £300 + VAT
Full Day Workshop: £525 + VAT
Theatre Creativity Card Workshop
This dedicated session introduces participants to our popular Theatre Creativity Cards. Designed to get you thinking in new and unexpected ways, this workshop offers a new and highly effective approach to devising. If you have a set of our Cards already, this session can serve as refresher on how to use them best!
Find out more about our Theatre Creativity Cards here
DIGITAL & REMOTE
LEARNING PROGRAMME
Digital Workshop
2 hours – £200 + VAT
All of our workshops can also be delivered online: through the power of video-call, distance is no object! We can beam directly into your drama studio, delivering tried and tested exercises that translate well over Teams or Zoom!
Digital Workshop Series
£395 + VAT for access for 1 Year
As an alternative to booking in a ‘live’ visit from one of our practitioners to deliver a full day workshop, this package gives you access to 4x 1 hour workshops, delivered over pre-recorded video by our Co-Artistic Directors, Kylie and Jemma.
This programme allows participants to explore in depth the key ingredients of how to make a performance in the style of The Paper Birds. Utilising our trademarks of devised verbatim, choreography and political/social content, this series of videos is pitched at KS4 & 5. Upon purchasing the programme you will have access to the material for 1 year. In this time you can use the videos to deliver practical workshops with multiple classes. The programme comes complete with a PDF Resource Pack detailing all of the exercises to enable you to work in tandem with the video and pause and play at the right times.
All the exercises included in these sessions are broad enough to work with any stimulus, whilst ensuring that participants gain a detailed understanding of the techniques and processes that we use in the making of our original devised theatre.
We suggest that participants have a stimulus or ‘umbrella’ theme already in place that they are
going to use for their devising process. They also need to have conducted some research including
an interview to use in the sessions.
There are 4x 1 hour workshops spanning the key ingredients of our work:
- Verbatim
- Movement & Motif
- Character & Narrative
- Exposing the Method
WORKSHOP 1:
VERBATIM
Intro to verbatim and how we use it.
Exercise 1:
‘SOCK PUPPETS’ & video clip from ‘Broke’.
Exercise 2:
‘BUILD THE CHARACTER’ & video clip from ‘Others’.
Exercise 3:
‘LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION’ & video clip from ‘Broke’.
WORKSHOP 2:
MOVEMENT & MOTIF
Intro to movement & motif and how we use it.
Exercise 1:
‘WHATSAPP CHAT’ & video clip from ‘On the One Hand’.
Exercise 2:
‘SILENT SCENE’ & video clip from ’40 Feathered Winks’.
Exercise 3:
‘SCALE IT UP’ & video clip from ‘Thirsty’.
WORKSHOP 3:
CHARACTER & NARRATIVE
Intro to character and narrative and how we use it.
Exercise 1:
‘THE LONG-LIST’ & video clip from ‘Goldfish Bowl’ with Caleb Femi and Lex Amor.
Exercise 2:
‘SPLIT STAGE’ & video clip from ‘Broke’.
Exercise 3:
‘SCRIPTING SUB-TEXT’ & video clip from ‘On the One Hand’.
WORKSHOP 4:
EXPOSING THE METHOD
Intro to what we mean by ‘Exposing the Method’. Video clip montage of excerpts from ‘Thirsty’, ‘Ask Me Anything’ and ‘On the One Hand’.
Exercise 1:
‘MOULD THE CHARACTER’
Exercise 2:
‘PLAYING THE SAME CHARACTER’ & video clip from ‘In a Thousand Pieces’.
Exercise 3:
‘BREAK THE ACTION’
