Three days of workshops at the Theatre Royal’s TR2 space in Plymouth, February 14th – 16th 2008. Thirty members of the company were given an extensive series of workshops from a wide range of professional practitioners. Artistic Director John Frankland commented that all the participants worked extremely hard. We all had a great three days with lots of challenging work that was tackled with great concentration and humour from all concerned” .

The range of subjects included a look at the Vocal work that an actor needs to undertake which was taken by Clare Owen, a freelance practitioner from Cornwall, who also contributed to the workshops that were offered as part of the audition process. This was complemented by Natasha Buckley a freelance practitioner who worked on aspects of physicality and “doing it big” which reflected the fact that the Company’s first production will be staged outside in supermarket car parks across Cornwall.

One of the other highlights was freelance director Martin Constantine’s Movement and Text Workshop in which he demonstrated the importance of an actor being aware of his whole body and the surroundings in which he performs. Martin has worked extensively as a director both in theatre and opera perhaps most notably as the assistant director on the spectacular National Theatre’s production of “His Dark Materials”.

The whole three days culminated in an intriguing workshop on “Horror in the Theatre” conducted by Simon Evans Artistic Director of the London based Black and White Rainbow Theatre in which members were challenged to scare each other with their own devised scenes following exercises exploring the techniques of misdirection, sound and touch.