DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS
A place for mid-career artists to develop their craft and hone the skills needed to sustain a career in the theatre industry, with insight and skill sharing from established artists.
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.
Incorporating sustainability into the design process
Mon 19 Oct, 2–4pm
Greene Studio, The Old Vic
Discuss the opportunities and challenges of embedding sustainability into a design process. Led by production manager and designer Jenn Taillefer, hear insights of how you can embed sustainability into the creative process when making design decisions and working with the demands of delivery. This session will draw on sector-specific tools (such as Julie’s Bicycle and Theatre Green Book) and offer both practical and personal reflections on the impact of the climate emergency when making work at mid to large scale. This masterclass is aimed at mid-career designers and directors, including associates, who are moving from studio scale to working with larger organisations/partners.
About Jenn Taillefer
Jenn is a freelance theatre maker and designer, and also works as a sustainability consultant and trainer for the performing arts across the UK and mainland Europe. Jenn won the ABTT Award for Environmental Sustainability for 2023, and is a certified SEA with the International Society of Sustainability Professionals. When not working on shows, Jenn develops and facilitates a performing arts-specific training offer through Unitar and CIFAL, helping theatres, ballets and opera companies at all scales embed sustainable thinking across their productions, operations and facilities. An early contributor to and adopter of the Theatre Green Book, Jenn now sits on the TGB Productions Committee and aims to integrate the guidance into her professional and personal artistic practices.
Establishing a theatre company with The Wardrobe Ensemble
Thu 22 Oct, 2–4pm
Clore Learning Centre, The Old Vic
Join Hannah Smith, Executive Producer at The Wardrobe Ensemble, to understand the practical steps to starting and running a theatre company. This session will cover the practical steps of registering your company, statutory obligations (including yearly company accounts). It will also share Hannah’s reflections on the opportunities (such as funding streams) and challenges that running a company may bring. This masterclass aims to demystify the process of setting up and running a theatre company; supporting freelancers to make an informed decision about whether establishing a company is the right next step in their career. The session will culminate in a Q&A.
About The Wardrobe Ensemble
Formed in 2011, The Wardrobe Ensemble are an independent theatre company. They are a group of theatre artists working together to make new plays that dissect the twenty-first century experience. They consist of nine core members, one producer and a growing community of associate artists. The company are associate artists of Complicité and have co-produced work with The Old Vic, Bristol Old Vic, The Wardrobe Theatre, Royal and Derngate, The Lowry and Shoreditch Town Hall. They deliver training in devising and theatre making for schools, teachers and undergraduates.
In addition to her role with The Wardrobe Ensemble, Hannah is also Company Producer at FlawBored and has previously worked with Cardboard Citizens, Fifth Word and Wayward Productions.
Big plays for big stages with Mike Bartlett
Thu 5 Nov, 2–4pm
Clore Learning Centre
Mike Bartlett is a multi-award-winning writer for both stage and screen. In this two-hour masterclass, he will offer an insight into his writing process and share ways of approaching writing new plays for larger spaces and audiences, without compromising urgent conversations or the desire to tackle provoking themes.
The masterclass will culminate in a Q&A where Mike will answer questions. This masterclass is best suited to mid-career playwrights who are confidently working at studio/mid-scale and looking to scale up.
About Mike Bartlett
Having begun his career in theatre, Mike has picked up numerous awards for his plays, including Olivier Awards for King Charles III (best new play, 2015), Bull (Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, 2015) and Cock (Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, 2010). In 2022, he joined the pantheon of writers to have had three plays running simultaneously in London, with a West End revival of Cock starring Taron Egerton and Jonathan Bailey at the Ambassadors Theatre, his Shakespearian take on the 2024 US presidential election, The 47th premiering at The Old Vic and restoration comedy Scandaltown, which premiered at the Lyric Hammersmith. Mike’s most recent play, Unicorn, premiered at the Garrick Theatre in 2025, starring Erin Doherty, Nicola Walker and Stephen Mangan. On screen, he is known for his smash hit mini-series Doctor Foster. The first series was BAFTA nominated for Best Mini-Series and Best Writer in 2015 and won Best New Drama at the 2016 National Television Awards, Best Drama Series at the 2016 Broadcast Awards and Outstanding Newcomer for British Television.
Demystifying estates with literary agent Alan Brodie
Mon 23 Nov, 6.30–8.30pm
Clore Learning Centre, The Old Vic
Join established stage and literary agent Alan Brodie, whose clients include the estates of writers including Bertolt Brecht, Noël Coward, Terence Rattigan, Patrick Hamilton and Thornton Wilder, to demystify the world of theatrical estates and rights.
Aimed at mid-career directors, the session will explore how you might approach an estate, theatre or licensor, what makes an artistic proposal compelling, how decisions around rights are made and where the boundaries of artistic freedom lie. The session will discuss the relationship between protecting a writer’s legacy and giving the next generation of artists the freedom to make classic work their own.
This session will culminate in a Q&A.
About Alan Brodie
Alan Brodie graduated from Edinburgh University with a combined Arts and Law degree and spent a brief time apprenticing as a lawyer before joining Michael Imison Playwrights as an assistant. In 1997 he launched his own agency Alan Brodie Representation, which works with many contemporary playwrights such as Emma Rice, Tim Firth, David Edgar and John Godber, as well as with authors’ trusts and estates of some of the greatest names in 20th century drama, including Noël Coward, Terence Rattigan, Thornton Wilder, Bertolt Brecht, Emlyn Williams, Patrick Hamilton, Peter Nichols, C.P. Taylor and George Kaufman. Alan is Chairman of The Noël Coward Foundation, and serves as a Trustee of The Emma Rice Company and Denville Hall (a residential home for members of the creative industries). He is also an Ambassador for Acting For Others.
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