Directing Tomorrow's Theatre Silent Approach Workshop with Separate Doors National Ensemble

Opportunity for Creative Industry Professionals to observe Ness Brooks leading a workshop with professional actors using The Silent Approach 

George Webster of CBeebies fame, National Theatre and RSC actor Nicky Priest, Dark Horse's Rebekah Hill, fresh from the national touring production of Oliver, and a wealth of learning-disabled and non-learning-disabled talent is coming to the Lawrence Batley Theatre on Mon 21 November 2022 for our Directing Tomorrow's Theatre Silent Approach Workshop day.

At Separate Doors our mission is to increase the representation of people with learning disabilities in theatre, film and TV. We do this by training non-disabled theatre professionals in our non-verbal method, the Silent Approach. We take out all the unnecessary words from the theatre making process so that talented actors who struggle to process language can work with equality. Without the white noise of confusing sentences we become a room of actors and creatives just 'being'. The Silent Approach allows us total focus on the only words that really matter when rehearsing text-based plays; the words in the script.

Separate Doors became a company in 2020 and we recruited our National Ensemble of actors with and without learning disabilities during the lockdowns. We were able to make a virtue of necessity; self-tapes and Zoom auditions meant we could recruit outstanding neurodivergent talent from across the UK (in the midst of the pandemic). Our first major project, Writing Tomorrow's Theatre was developed entirely online. Commissioning four writers and developing four short plays using the Silent Approach we brought the National Ensemble together for the first time at Chichester Festival Theatre. We rehearsed and performed the 70-minute-long piece in the space of three days (the Silent Approach means work happens very quickly!) and then revived the work again at Derby Theatre.

I was Artistic Director of Lawrence Batley Theatre resident company Dark Horse from 2008 to 2015 and it was there that the Silent Approach was born. I had an ambition to tour new plays with lead roles for learning-disabled actors and had to shape a method that made the process creatively accessible to artists with no speech and/or limited reading skills. Some of the actors who engaged with that initial training at Dark Horse will join us at Lawrence Batley Theatre and that's an absolutely thrilling proposition.

Our company of 20+ performers, our Separate Doors National Ensemble and the Dark Horse company combined, will be joined by our full creative team and our three newly recruited guest directors. I'll start the day with a Silent Approach warm up before we move onto character work, voice, improvisation and an early exploration of new play Hope Valley Hotel (&Spa). Observers will have an opportunity to watch the Silent Approach in action as we move through the work and I'll also lead a Q and A session at the end of the day. I'm thrilled to be coming back to a theatre and town that I love. I know it will be an incredible day with an extraordinary – and super large! – company.

Free observer places available to creative industry professionals.

Trigger warnings: Loud music and sound effects, swearing, falling from height, simulated violence, peril and depictions of moments of emotional impact.

This event has now passed.