Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse: Making Theatre With and For a Community

Traverse Theatre

Live workshop Sat 20 Feb

Choose dates & Book

About

This workshop is aimed at early career theatre-makers interested in making socially engaged work.

Led by Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse, co-founders of Wonder Fools (Positive Stories for Negative Times, 549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War, The Coolidge Effect), this workshop will explore various ways of creating socially engaged theatre.

Robbie and Jack will share the approaches and techniques they have found useful when working with real people and real stories in communities. The workshop will equip participants with a series of exercises they can use to shape and inform their own work. At the end of the session, there will be an open discussion about community theatre's role in the sector moving forwards in a post-pandemic world.

Robbie and Jack are currently under commission with the Traverse, creating a new audio work about lived experience with dementia. Robbie is also jointly producing Class Act, the Traverse's creative writing project for young people, and together they wrote Ozymandias for the Wonder Fools and Traverse project Positive Stories for Negative Times.

This interactive workshop will take place on Zoom. We can facilitate a maximum of 20 participants who will be able to be heard and seen throughout.

This event is part of our First Stages Festival - a celebration of storytelling and playwriting.

The Traverse Theatre is funded by Creative Scotland and The City of Edinburgh Council, with additional support from The Scottish Government Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund.

Image: everyonelovescake.com


Meet the facilitators

Robbie Gordon

Robbie is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and co-founder of Wonder Fools.

His work is socially engaged, embedded in communities and always strives to start a conversation. He currently works as the Creative Engagement Director at the Gaiety Theatre, the Creative Development Producer for Class Act at the Traverse Theatre and the director of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Young Company.

Jack Nurse

Jack is a director and theatre-maker from Dumfries and Galloway. He co-founded Wonder Fools in 2014. Jack is currently Creative Engagement Director at the Ayr Gaiety Theatre and an Origins Artist with Headlong Theatre.


We ask that all participants in interactive live events, including Q&As and workshops, follow our Terms of Conduct to ensure a positive and inclusive experience for everyone involved.


Choose Dates and Book

Immediately after booking you'll receive an email from us confirming your place on the workshop. Then, an hour before the workshop, you'll receive an email from us containing your Zoom link to join the session.

Please see the FAQs below if you have additional questions.


    FAQs

    How many places are available on this workshop?

    There are 20 places available on this workshop.

    Where will this event take place?

    This event will take place on Zoom. You will need to have the most recent version of the Zoom app downloaded on your device to join the event.

    When will I get the event link?

    We’ll send the event link to the email address you used to make your booking one hour before the event begins. If you can’t find this email, please check your Junk folder then email boxoffice@traverse.co.uk

    Do I need any special equipment to take part in the workshop?

    You will need a smartphone, tablet or a computer with Zoom installed to join the event. During the event itself, you might find it useful to take notes, so have a notepad and pen on standby!

    Will I be visible or audible during the event?

    Yes, this workshop encourages active participation.

    Will the event be captioned?

    The event will be captioned using Zoom’s live captioning feature.

    I have a question which that answered here.

    Please email our team at boxoffice@traverse.co.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as we’re able – please note that this may take up to 2 working days, but we’ll try to prioritise anything urgent.