Fail Better’s residency April 2008- April 2009 included:

Ø An ensemble of Warwick students performed  the world premiere of a new translation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Play Without a Title (now published by Oberon Books) at The CAPITAL Centre and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry (now featured on itunes-U)

Ø Interdiscipinary practical workshops for over 600 students exploring a wide range of texts (from Beckett to Shakespeare, from Gogol to Ovid, from Soren Kierkegaard to Sarah Kane)

Ø The development of a new work for the stage, The Persephone Project to be performed as part of the forthcoming New Work Festival with students as collaborators

Student reflections:

Ø In recent surveys, 100% of European Theatre students and 90% of Literature in the Modern World students rated their experience of a Fail Better workshop ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’ (in most cases the former).

Ø Members of the student ensemble reflected, after the Lorca project: ‘an incredible experience and journey of discovery’; ‘I have enjoyed every minute of this process and have felt so lucky to be part of it’; ‘it’s been amazing to work with a professional company – thank you CAPITAL – I learnt an enormous amount’; and:

Ø ‘The ensemble nature of the company also permitted a fantastic degree of collaborative work, allowing the possibility for the cast to sculpt a significant amount of the action around the script ourselves. The flexibility and interpersonal dexterity of the director facilitated this and was fantastic. In short, an eye-opening experience; one which has inspired me and which I hope to repeat.’