Tag Archives: our work

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Creative Training

CREATIVE TRAINING

Acting Now draws on its expertise in applied theatre and physical theatre to offer unique training experiences for individuals and organisations.

Through Acting Now’s Physical Theatre School, we offer regular acting courses in Cambridge for both beginners and actors to try out and develop their skills in physical theatre following Lecoq’s theatre principles.

Alongside theatre courses, Acting Now also offers role play services and bespoke training programmes.  

These are tailored to help people and organisations to explore a wide range of issues, as well as assessing, practising and enhancing key competencies – bedside manners, ability to engage with service users, customer service, customer care, communication, conflict resolution and team building.   

We also specialise in delivering Theatre of the Oppressed workshops which bring together theatre practitioners, educators, community-organisers, charity representatives social workers, youth workers, activists and many others who are interested in using theatre as a tool for communication, debate and social change within their communities.

We have a team of professional and experienced facilitators from within the company and role-play actors for assessment, training and events. We work with councils, charities, schools, universities and cultural centres, in the UK and abroad.

Click on the training opportunity you’re interested in to find out more, or contact us at: training@actingnow.co.uk

 

 

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Schools and Young People

SCHOOLS AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Aimed at schools, Changemakers is a programme of performance and theatrical workshops intended to help students make more informed choices. 

We offer a range of workshops with a choice of any four topics: 

  • Bullying and Cyber-bullying
  • Internet Safety and Social Networks
  • Smoking, Drugs and Alcohol
  • Sexual Health and Teenage Pregnancy

By using drama and Forum Theatre techniques, we offer fun and effective tools that encourage young people to explore day-to-day issues, tackle social preconceptions, develop new ideas  and foster positive change.

Our programme of performance and theatrical workshops connect with the PSHE Curriculum at various stages so they represent a useful tool for teachers to reinforce or introduce into the classroom new content that will acquire a real status through theatre.

Download the full Changemakers programme here

Changemakers offers the following four options to schools with a choice of any of the above topics:

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Inclusive Theatre Projects

INCLUSIVE THEATRE PROJECTS

At Acting Now we believe theatre is a catalyst for social change and should be for anyone and everyone, not limited by physical ability, condition, language or background. Our projects use the language of theatre with disadvantaged groups of varying abilities to enable them to find their voices in a safe and encouraging environment.  

Throughout the workshops, we also build social and emotional skills, self-expression and self-esteem and address the stigma attached to certain conditions. The projects culminate in original theatre performances based on the stories that emerge from the group. 

Volunteers and actors often join our groups as enablers and work alongside our participants, helping them to participate fully in the activities. To scale our impact, we work alongside community organisations, charities and local authorities to empower their service users to take action and transform their lives.

Performances

PERFORMANCES

Our theatrical workshops involving disadvantaged groups aim to take a step further and develop productions of exceptional high-quality. Acting Now´s Artistic Director Marina Pallares-Elias works with the groups to enable participants to tell their stories through the use of physical theatre language and provocative collaborative scripts.

For our participants, performances are an effective platform to decrease social isolation and break stereotypes and stigmas associated to them.

As for our audience, our aim is to establish a dialogue between them and the stage. Through active reflection, the audience is invited to critically analyse the situations and question the impact of particular behaviours that happen in the performance.

Through Q&As, drama activities and games surrounding the events, we enhance the element of communal experience in theatre and open up discussion.

Audience members have reacted passionately to our plays and have praised the performance skills and stage presence of both the actors and non-professional actors involved.

 

Check out our Methodology section to find out more about the range of techniques we use.