SHOWS for the COMMUNITY
The Camden Acting Workshop is building links with community groups in Camden and beyond interested in using Dramatic Improvisation.
Dramatic Improvisation is a set of skills and practices that can be used by individuals and groups to make and share stories, to explore local and national issues, to give voice to opinions, to dramatise conflict, to see things from different viewpoints and to develop collaborative working.
Groups who use Dramatic Improvisation can make stories about anything: their hopes and fears, their dreams, their histories and backgrounds, their beliefs and mythologies and all the everyday stuff that is important.
Over time it can have an important role to play in building and sustaining communities.
Camden is a borough divided by wealth and poverty but with a culturally rich and diverse community.
The Camden Acting Workshop is a space to bring people together to learn new skills, to make and share stories and to be creative and playful.
We can bring performances and workshops to you and work in practically any space. As a not for profit we aim to keep costs as low as possible (sometimes free to you) and we are developing our fundraising skills so that we can develop funded projects together.
Get in touch with us to discuss working together
camdenactingworkshop@gmail.com
COMUNITY
PERFORMANCES
A Dramatic Improvisation performance is a different vision of theatre and its possibilities. Three (or six) actors and a drum on a bare stage. Nothing is pre-decided. All there is are the skills of the actors and the hunger of the audience. Dramatic Improvisation needs a hungry audience. The audience needs to want something from the show.
But a show can uncover an audience's hunger that no one knew was there!
So it starts with a drum. The beat of a drum prepares everything. Then words: The actors talk to the audience. What is important to you? What's it like round here? The audience responds. The show is built on the suggestions. But very different from the suggestions of comedy improvisation. The audience have to give us something. Something of themselves. It's a kind of trade.
The actors begin, creating character and situation. Sometimes the audience is silent. Sometimes they want to be involved. Sometimes the actors/characters need help, advice or information. Sometimes the audience decides that is not how it is and wants to change the story. So we do. Or sometimes we don't. Sometimes an audience member comes on the stage and takes part. Sometimes they take over! The show builds. The drum plays. It's all a negotiation in the imaginary world.
Characters struggle with each other and with the world they live in. The show builds and builds to a dramatic climax. Decisions are made, consequences have to be faced. Things change, people change, the world changes.
The audience is involved all the time, sharing in the drama.
And it can be funny! Just because it's dramatic does not mean it's not funny. Dramatic improvisation is comic and dramatic. But the comedy is comedy of situation and character. The comedy is in the drama. The best shows are comic and dramatic.
Here’s a recent review of a performance in the Camden New Journal
WORKSHOPS
A workshop is like a show but this time it's the audience who do most of the acting.
We warm up together, stretching our bodies and imaginations. We move in the space, exploring different ways of walking, standing and breathing. We set up an acting space and “cook it up” with a drum. It's a special space, a “not everyday space”. In this space anything can happen, anyone can be anything. But it's not a place to hide. This is a place to seek.
Workshop participants enter the space. They feel what it's like to be looked at, the power and the possibilities of other people's attention. Together we create characters. We develop a situation. We make a drama. We build outwards; what comes before? What comes after? What's happening next door? What's happening in the world around us? In the local council?, the Government? What's happening on the other side of the world? What about the past? What is the history behind this story? Where will it end?
The only limit is our imaginations and we know the imagination has no limit. Stretch and move and breathe and dream.
Dramatic Improvisation is a skill that can be used by anyone. A workshop is a place for people to come together to learn these skills. It's a place to make and share stories. It's a place to be creative. Over time Dramatic Improvisation can bring people together to make and share stories and in sharing stories build community.
TESTIMONIALS
"The performance was fantastic and I can't believe that you all don't work with volunteers who need extra support as I would employ you any day."
Corinne McCrum, Epping Forest CVS
"The company appeared to have infinite talent for adapting their performance to suit their audience and somehow managed to engage both the children and elderly alike. My lasting impression was of their genuine commitment to taking theatre into non-traditional venues in the community. I put this down to their willingness to demystify theatre to new audiences and the power of their performance to engage imaginations and make people care about the outcome of the story."
Rohan Sharp, Arts Officer – L.B. Redbridge
"The company exhibited a great deal of flexibility, both in the delivery of the story and through their use of a non-traditional performance space. They demonstrate a high degree of professionalism in the delivery of the artistic product and their partnership working with the voluntary sector in the Borough and make a valuable contribution to the provision of high quality arts activities for audiences who are often excluded."
Sarah Wickens, Arts & Community Development Support Officer LBGU