Why art organisations fails and what to do about it

Financial controllers learning circus skills. Quality managers learning to juggle. Sales agents sculpting their personal blockages. Project team leaders ridding themselves or hidden anger by reciting Shakespeare. You might think I am making it all up. You might believe I am joking when I tell you that the emerging industry of arts based training and…

Using Art and Theatre in Training

Recently I designed and led some arts-based training workshops, which made particular use of drama. These workshops focused on the issues of communication and customer care. The design philosophy centred around “exploration”, drawing on the often long experience of staff. The workshops made use of theatre performance to help participants do two things: 1. reflect…

Responsiveness – re-acting and pro-acting

How do actors respond on stage? Is it important for that response to be fresh each time, even with a scripted piece, or should the response be the same across many performances, choreographed down to the last detail? Unless we are conscious of them, are some of our on-stage responses conditioned from our past, and…

The Fool

This is an extract of a monologue I am tinkering with. Lights up on Michael, dressed as a Fool) Michael: It interests me, this fantasy you have fashioned to justify your horrific deeds. You’ve created a myth that lays firm foundation to your repeated cruelty towards others, dressed up as kindness. I truly do believe…

The Importance of Distraction

Notes from a recent theatre workshop We worked with the theme of distraction, on stage and in life. Each actor chose a short monologue, which they performed in front of the group who sat in a traditional audience seating. At the end of the performance the actor reflected on any distractions that had helped or…

The Arts in Business FAQ

Please let me know of any broken links to this attempt I made at a FAQ for arts in business

Critical Incidents in Acting

The idea for the using the term “Critical Incident” came to me during a performance of Re-Inventing the Cheese, our sketch show based on the world of work. I was working on a monologue with one of our actors, Augustine Flint-Hartle. The monologue was all about a well-intentioned but misguided manager who tries to get…

Recycled Dreams

Premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe 2008, at Roman Eagle Lodge and Legal and General Offices, produced by Skye Crawrod, starred Jenny Rowe, Ross Forder and Doug Devaney, funded by Legal and General.

http:/www.recycleddreams.net

Bunk

Premiered in 2000 at the Pavilion Theatre Brighton UK , as part of Theatre and Beyond’s showcase of new writing, the play starred Peter Ellis from TV’s “The Bill” and Martin Sadler from the film “The Tall Guy”, this is a play that explores the relationship between art and industry