‘Beyond One Imagination’: An Introduction To Collaborative Devising

Bridgetower Room, Trinity Hall

Saturday 1st February, 18:30-21:00

Free for Cambridge students;

£10 for members of the public.

This is a practical workshop from Split Hairs' Artistic Director Rob McCloskey that asks, how can we devise collaboratively, how do we work without a clear leader - and how can a company navigate a creative process without a clear path of where we're heading?

You can expect games, exercises and frameworks for generating strong images. and different ways of organising material. We'll explore how we can make devising easy and how a well-tuned ensemble can go beyond a single imagination.

The workshop is best suited to actors, directors and writers with a desire to explore how we make work when not starting from a script, however the games and principles can be adapted and used in any work whether starting from a script or not.

• An exploration of frameworks for devising and principles for different stages of a devising process.
• Considering the role of provocation in making devising easy.
• What makes a strong image and how do we generate them?
• Games for freeing actors to generate dialogue and text.
• Moving between Simplification and Specification of material.
• Exploring the role of facilitating (not directing) in collaborative devising.
• Principles for developing the complicity of a company to play.

Robert McCloskey is a theatre maker and performer. He has trained internationally in physical and devised theatre at the Ecole Philippe Gaulier, Grotowski Institute, and in workshops with specialist theatre directors such as David Glass, Stephen Harper and Tanushka Marah in various disciplines including Clown, Bouffon, Mask, Devising, Movement, and Ensemble Theatre.

He is a regular performer and devisor with the Thirdspace Theatre in the Brighton Festival. He has performed with Bim Mason's Bigheads which regularly garner national attention, performed puppetry at the Kew Gardens with Longnose Puppets, and devised physical comedy work with the clowr expert Stephen Harper.

As a teacher Robert has taught workshops in devising, mask, clown and performance at Northbrook College on their degree course as well as workshops in Split Hairs, and giving workshops to young people at the Thirdspace Theatre. Robert directed and performed in the Clown and Bouffon performance of SQUELCH! which debuted in the Brighton Fringe 2023 and recieved 5-star reviews.

Host or Publisher Hesperides Literary & Arts Society