Title
Something From Nothing: Creative Approaches of The Wardrobe Ensemble

Workshop description
Ben Vardy, a founding member of the collaborative, devising theatre company The Wardrobe Ensemble, will share with you a variety of exercises that his company have used to create new work over the past 10 years. The sessions will lead participants through the process of generating the initial ideas, devising strategies and then putting everything together into a show. Straightforward, unpretentious, enjoyable and varied, these exercises will give you and your students multiple ways into the devising process, and help you to make challenging, eclectic, and thought-provoking devised work.

Learning outcomes

Participants will:

• learn a whole host of devising exercises to create new devised work
• generate initial ideas, and learn how to find “the heat” in a specific topic
• acquire tools to quickly create ideas for characters and stories
• use long-form improvisations as a basis for devising
• learn how a group of young people aged 18-21 formed a devising theatre company together that is still producing new work 10 years later

Target audience
All teachers of theatre and drama, especially those that would like to gain more confidence in guiding their students through the devising process, as well as more experienced teachers that would like a deeper insight into a current working theatre company’s devising techniques.

Level : Introductory

Benefits for curriculum development and delivery
This workshop will provide teachers with a wide and varied toolbox of devising approaches and exercises that will help them to guide their students through any scheme of work that includes devised theatre, in a way that students will find enjoyable, challenging and creatively stimulating.

Session #1
An introduction to The Wardrobe Ensemble: Who are they? What is their story? What kind of theatre do they make?

Saturday 19th February 2022 (1 hour)
Region 1 – Asia & Europe: 16:00 -17:00 SST (Singapore Standard Time)

Session #2
Generating initial ideas: When, Where, Why, and finding “the heat”

Saturday 19th February 2022 (1 hour)
Region 1 – Asia & Europe: 17:00 -18:00 SST (Singapore Standard Time)

Session #3
The Devisers Toolbox Part 1: Characters and Story

Saturday 19th February 2022 (1 hour)
Region 1 – Asia & Europe: 18:00 -19:00 SST (Singapore Standard Time)

Session #4
The Devisers Toolbox Part 2: Bending Space and Time

Sunday 20th February 2022 (1 hour)
Region 1 – Asia & Europe: 16:00 -17:00 SST (Singapore Standard Time)

Session #5
Putting it all together: Creating a show

Sunday 20th February 2022 (1 hour)
Region 1 – Asia & Europe: 17:00 -18:00 SST (Singapore Standard Time)

Session #6
Taking creative initiative: How students can form their own collaborative theatre companies

Sunday 20th February 2022 (1 hour)
Region 1 – Asia & Europe: 18:00 -19:00 SST (Singapore Standard Time)
Total course time:
6 hours

Ben Vardy

I am a founding member of The Wardrobe Ensemble, a collaborative, devising theatre company based in Bristol, in the UK. We have been writing, performing and touring our work together since 2011.

As a theatre maker, I am driven to create performances that feel alive, accessible and exciting – that ignite the audience’s imaginations and make them laugh, think and cry (though not necessarily in that order).

The Wardrobe Ensemble are a company at the forefront of the UK devised theatre scene. They formed as part of a youth theatre program in Bristol in 2011, when they were aged 18-21. A decade later, the company have produced over 20 shows that have toured main houses across the UK, internationally and to the West End in London.

Flashy, rough, silly and serious, The Wardrobe Ensemble explore the big ideas of our time through intimate human stories. They are usually energetic, often irreverent and dedicated to finding the place where the intellectual and the emotional collide.

Event Coordinator
Helen Abbott

Workshop timings

Region 1: Asia & Europe
19th & 20th February, 2022. (same time both days)
8:00 am – 11:00 am Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
9:00 am – 12:00 am Central European Time (CET)
4:00 pm – 7:00 pm Singapore Standard Time (SST)

Please note: Workshop for Americas & Europe region has been re-scheduled for 12th & 13th March 2022.  See booking page here: Book here

The studio will take place on Zoom.
Joining instructions will be emailed to participants 24 hours before the event.
Some familiarity with Google Drive, Google Docs etc. would be helpful, but is not a required.
Places are limited to 25 participants.

The cost of this studio is GBP £150 per person for ISTA members and GBP £200 per person for non members.

Please note that once booked and invoiced the registration fees are non-refundable and non-transferable as per our event terms and conditions.

Any materials shared with you prior to the studio, such as the workbook. A notebook and pencil are always useful.

Space requirements
If possible, please try to have a small amount of space near to you for any practical work.