Workshops

The Fundamentals are a series of workshop sessions to train performance makers and students in creating interactive, immersive and playable performance. We recognise that as these forms grow and evolve, that there is a lack of time, space and training for those who want to develop key skills and test their work in a supportive environment, which encourages risk and experimentation.
The Lab Collective are specialists in creating critically acclaimed performance, and have been making interactive, immersive and game based performance since 2007. Our performance typically sits within non theatre spaces, event or festival settings, and more recently in a studio environment. Our unique perspective and established practice, aims to create a shared language amongst theatre makers, and a strong process to work from.
All of the workshops are based in our new home, The FlyPit, at Stanley Halls in Norwood Junction – but can also come to you! Click on the icons for more info!
Devising Skills
Creating new performance can be an amazing experience, but we also understand the challenges of translating ideas into performance. Devising is at the heart of what we do and the work we make, and we have loads of experience of the ups and downs of a devising process. We can provide the tools to help students generate captivating material through an in depth, investigative process involving elements of the following:
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Working as a Collective: Using team building and collaboration exercises, we emphasise the importance of working together, and identifying individuals strengths to define roles within a group – making sure that everything runs smoothly.
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Research and Stimulus: Figuring out what you’re interested in, and what you need to know about it, is a key step in developing ideas, narrative and performance style.
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Performance Development: We focus on using improvisation and text development techniques to generate and develop performance material.
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Structure: Structure is the backbone to creating well developed and complex devised performance. We provide tried and tested tools to help understand using structure, and develop a practical knowledge of it’s application.
This workshop can be tailored closely with the drama department to work towards a piece, using a combination of stimulus material, improvisation and simple generation techniques; we can facilitate the movement of ideas from the mind to the stage. Workshops can also take place at specific points in their process:
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Fire it up! We can come in early on to help fuel student’s imaginations at the beginning of a process, providing them with tried, tested and accessible methods to set them up for the journey ahead.
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Rescue Remedy: Hit a bump in the road? We can come in during your process to help open out ideas you’ve developed, fine tune performance techniques and help your performance shine.
These sessions can be delivered as a full or half day, or extended to a week long intensive residency to fully support the devising process.
Exploring Immersive Performance
Looking for something different to inspire your students? Immersive theatre has exploded into popular culture and we are proud to present a new series of workshops, which explore this exciting form in a variety of ways, with the relationship between performer, audience and space at it’s heart.
Our practitioners are hugely experienced in creating immersive performance in a variety of different settings and forms. You can pick from the following options:
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One to One performance: In this session we explore One to One performance (ie. One actor, performing for one audience member). We apply practical exercises to develop a performance framework, together with exploring the theatrical relationship between audience and performer, in this intimate and nerve tingling form.
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Site Responsive Performance: Using a site within your school, or basing the workshop in our residency at Theatre Delicatessen, this session uses space itself – it’s history and atmosphere – as a stimulus to generate immersive performance ideas and content.
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Design led performance installation: Bringing the design to you – this session explores how working in an alternative space with a strong design focus can create an inspiring, intimate and immersive experience for both performer and spectator
This is an enormously fresh and rewarding method of exploring experimental form, and offers a unique and memorable theatre making experience for students. We can deliver one of the above workshops in a three hour session, as part of a day long experience, or as part of a weeklong residency.
Making Political Theatre
Over the last seven years The Lab Collective have developed key methodologies to understanding and creating political theatre; embedded into our devising practice, our performance is driven by burning issues which translate into exciting and provocative performance material. We have created a workshop which allows student’s to use elements of our practice to explore political This workshop explores the following:
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Research and stimulus: Figuring out what you’re interested in, and what you need to know about it is a key step in developing ideas, narrative and performance style.
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The heart of the issue: Through improvisation and debate we can help get student’s get to the heart of the topic the group is exploring, helping access core questions the performance seeks to address and the underlying message of the performance.
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Perspectives: Understanding perspective is important to creating a balanced and considered content, and we have developed a series of exercises to enable student’s to engage with different viewpoints, helping to create material of complexity and depth.
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Performance Development: We focus on using our signature structure led process, and text development techniques to generate and develop performance material
Particularly suitable for A Level and degree students, our workshops are great for exploring applied Marxist or Feminist perspectives. Tailored to your needs, this workshop can be applied to a devising process, a key text students are studying, or a theme of your choice.