DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS
A series of free masterclasses for early-career artists, exploring creative practice and offering practical skills for navigating artistic careers.
Masterclasses are open for registration roughly four weeks in advance, through sign-up forms available below. To be notified when future masterclasses are open for registration, please sign up to our Artist Development mailing list here.
All our masterclasses are free to access. You will be notified by email if we are able to offer you a place. Our events have a limited capacity, and we want to ensure that as many people as possible can benefit from them, so please only register if you plan to attend.
Producing with Griselda Yorke
Wed 16 Sep, 2–4pm
Clore Learning Centre, The Old Vic
Join The Old Vic’s Producer Griselda Yorke for an introduction to some of the basics of producing theatre including rights, royalties, budgets and contracts. Ranging from commissioning and producing one-person shows through to mounting large scale musicals, this is your chance to ask anything you ever wanted to know about producing and theatre.
About Griselda Yorke
Griselda Yorke is Producer at The Old Vic as well as Executive Producer for the RSC on My Neighbour Totoro. Previously she was Executive Producer for the RSC on Matilda the Musical and many other productions including the international tour of King and Country and the musical The Boy in the Dress. Before joining the RSC, Griselda was Executive Producer for the pioneering immersive theatre company Punchdrunk, prior to that she was Executive Director at Cheek by Jowl, producing and touring productions in three languages in the UK and around the world. Previously she was a Producer at the Barbican Theatre where projects included: Robert Wilson and Tom Waits’ The Black Rider and Merce Cunningham’s Events. She has worked in New York with Pomegranate Arts. Griselda is on the Board of the Society of London Theatre.
Demystifying theatre agents
Tue 22 Sep, 2–4pm
Clore Learning Centre, The Old Vic
Join Kirsten Foster, agent at Casarotto Ramsay & Associates, for an introduction to working with a theatrical agent. In this session, Kirsten will explore the working relationship between client and agent, with plenty of time to answer your questions. This session will be useful for anyone wishing to learn more about working with an agent, whether as a playwright, director or designer.
About Kirsten Foster
Kirsten Foster is a literary agent at Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Ltd., representing some of the UK’s top writers, directors and designers. She has been an agent there for ten years. Prior to Casarotto, Kirsten worked at Curtis Brown and The Agency. Her first ever job was in an ice-cream parlour aged 16.
Develop your playwriting toolkit
Wed 21 Oct, 2–5pm
Clore Learning Centre, The Old Vic
Led by Dipo Baruwa-Etti, this three-hour masterclass will explore the process of playwriting from start to finish, with practical tips and insights which will help you to craft your identity as a writer. After exploring a playwright’s toolkit, the second half of the session will allow you to put what you have learned into practice. Attendees will be asked to bring an excerpt of their writing with them to work on with some input and guidance from Dipo. Aimed at early career theatre professionals who have some experience in playwriting. This could be from university, as a private practice in tandem with other creative work, or could be a career pivot. This is not suitable for writers who have written plays that have been staged or fully developed, or for those who have never tackled writing at all. You should have completed a first draft of a play, or a substantial proportion of a play. This masterclass will help you move beyond your first draft, covering theory and practice, equipping you with exercises and skills to unlock the next phase of your work.
About Dipo Baruwa-Etti
Dipo Baruwa-Etti is a playwright, screenwriter, dramaturg and director. As writer-director, his short films include the award-winning The Last Days (BFI Network/BBC/Tannahill Productions). As a playwright, his work includes The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars (Theatre Royal Stratford East), An unfinished man (The Yard Theatre), Half-Empty Glasses (Paines Plough) and The Clinic (Almeida Theatre), all published by Faber. He has been shortlisted for Evening Standard, George Devine, JMK and Alfred Fagon Awards, and been Writer-on-attachment at Almeida Theatre and Writer-in-Residence at the National Theatre. He currently sits on the board of Shakespeare’s Globe and is New Work Associate at The Yard Theatre.
Registrations will open in Sep.
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