Student webinar – The Fun Of Making Theatre Seriously – a deconstruction from a leading Verbatim Theatre playwright

DATES:
Tuesday 27 April 2021 – 4pm 

Code: 8468

ABOUT THIS WEBINAR: Student webinar – The Fun Of Making Theatre Seriously – a deconstruction from a leading Verbatim Theatre playwright

  • How verbatim theatre can become the most successful way forward for you.
  • To explore, with examples, the stages (ethics, research, transcribing and drafting) in developing a verbatim/documentary play
  • Staging narrative plays and being willing to be creatively inspired by the seeming impossible scenes real life dramas often throw up
  • Some take away exercises to apply to your work
  • To explore the entirely natural application of these plays as socially distanced/Zoom performances
  • Developing Verbatim can be used as a perfect way of scaffolding your writing if you feel less confident as a writer.

BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

  • Equip you with strategies for students if you have to social distance or work from home
  • Take away approaches that excite you and cultivate a deeper understanding of the form and raise grades in your exams
  • Effective ideas to ensure you can apply this approach to your own devised work.
  • Knowledge of the background to this way of working to ensure you are able to talk about this approach with confidence
  • Insights into how you can develop your own verbatim/documentary plays

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

  • Drama students

PROGRAMME

4.00 – 4.05pm Welcome and Introduction

Session 1: What is Verbatim Theatre:

  • Verbatim Theatre a definition!
  • Key challenges students face when dealing with Verbatim plays:
    Ethics and permissions (Eg Missing Dan Nolan)
    Page to stage issues/opportunities regarding narrative theatre and animating long speeches (Hard To Swallow/I Love You Mum, I Promise I Won’t Die)
    Staging seemingly “impossible” scenes  (Race To Be Seen)
    Involvement of the real people in the development/rehearsal and performance process  (Chequered Flags to Chequered Futures)
  • Developing Verbatim can be used as a perfect way of scaffolding your writing if you feel less confident as a writer.
  • To explore, with examples, the stages (ethics, research, transcribing and drafting) in developing a verbatim/documentary play (I Love You Mum, I Promise I Won’t Die)

Session 2: Staging Verbatim Plays practical advice to maximise learning

  • Staging narrative plays and being willing to be creatively inspired by the seeming impossible scenes real life dramas often throw up (Too Much Punch For Judy)
  • Some take away exercises to apply to your work (Hard to Swallow)
  • To explore the entirely natural application of these plays as socially distanced/Zoom performances (Game Over)

4.50 -5.00pm: Session 3: Q and A with Mark Wheeller

Mark Wheeller

Mark is one of the most-performed living playwrights. Too Much Punch For Judy over 6,000 times and Chicken! nearly 6,000.  His 2019 verbatim play Game Over, (grooming/murder of Breck Bednar) is published by Salamander Street and proves ideal as a socially distanced/Zoom play. Mark has written about his classroom/theatre work in Drama Schemes, The Story Behind TMPFJ & Hard to Swallow – Easy to Digest. His new book Verbatim – The Fun Of Making Theatre Seriously is due out early in 2021. Mark’s most popular plays are now available on DVD. He runs practical workshops across the world.