• October-December 2009 BeckettLab: A workshop series based on a theatre laboratory, that explored the theatre of Samuel Beckett in relation to devising process and actor training.
• January-March 2010 Performance Interventions: Three lectures in the Faculty of Arts were reinvented through performed extracts and practice-based research into set texts. During this period, the ensemble were rehearsing for the New Work Festival.
• April – May 2010 New Work Festival: A work-in-progress festival, presenting student performance projects alongside the work of professional theatre artists. Visiting companies included the Oxford Youth Theatre and associates of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
• May-June 2010 Networking: A training event for graduate students and early career academics, simulating an academic environment in which participants had to ‘network’, followed by a developmental workshop process.
• September-December 2010 Discords (after Shakespeare): A rehearsal process in which the student ensemble devised the final version of the production and trained in the methods of the choreographer Laban.
• January 2011 Fail Better Double-bill: A professional production in which the ensemble engaged with the real world experience of the touring theatre company; performances were attended by OSL project teams and participants from Psychiatry, Philosophy, English and Theatre Studies.
• February 2011 Ensemble Training Day: A full day training the ensemble for applied theatre events across the university.
• March 2011 Maths and Drama: Members of the student ensemble performed extracts from plays exploring mathematical knowledge leading into an enactive workshop.
• March 2011 Clinical Skills Laboratory: A field trip observing the use of role play and simulation in medical education, as the first stage of our innovative project with Psychiatry.
• May 2011 Workshop Facilitation: A training day for early career academics and higher educators, in which the ensemble performed a group of learners within a simulated classroom.
• June 2011 Psychiatry and Performance: A series of readings for medical students and a creative exchange between two practice-based student groups, reconnecting the humanities with medicine.
• July 2011 Teaching and Learning Showcase: A panel of five finalists, having experienced three years of ensemble praxis, reflect upon this experience at the end of their degrees. You can watch this presentation here.

 

For more information about the ensemble, please email Jonathan.Heron@warwick.ac.uk