West End Workshops & Masterclasses
for schools
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West End Workshops help students learn about the show they're going to see through techniques used on stage, all led by experienced, professional practitioners.
We will create your bespoke programme for you. Contact us to discuss the best option for your group today, so see some sample options below:
West End Workshops
See details of past and present official West End programmes deveoped by Theatre Workout here.
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Bespoke masterclasses can be tailored to your group on the following areas:
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Bespoke Masterclasses
Practitioner workshops
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Learn about our specialist EFL workshops, helping students learn or improve their English through drama
Bespoke, performance based workshops
Our most popular workshops and masterclasses cover all aspects of theatre and performance technique, including Acting, Shakespeare, Musical Theatre and much more...
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Tailor your workshops to the show(s) of your choice, or select one of our official West End Workshops developed in collaboration with leading West End plays and musicals.
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For something more unique, take a look at our specialist programmes.
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Prices can be found here.
Drama for Key Stages 1-2
Specifically designed around the context of play and storytelling, this programme for children in early years and primary education can include one-off workshops or ongoing classes designed to engage young minds and creative imaginations.
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Children are encouraged to play, create and perform with techniques specifically selected for their age, and can be rooted in projects and themes being studied elsewhere in the curriculum.
Storytelling
Storytelling workshops are ideal for all student groups as they get to the heart of all theatre and performance - story!
These workshops employ exercises designed to inspire creativity and imagination, prevent self-censorship and allow students to invent imaginative stories of their own.
Public Speaking
Public speaking is an essential part of professional life, especially when working in Sales, Marketing, in any Self-Employed profession or Business Management, not to mention teaching!
Inspired by professional acting techniques, this fun and entertaining workshop discusses our fears and anxieties over speaking in public, supported by practical exercises to build confidence.
Workshops may include:
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Breathing, voice and speech techniques to improve the quality of the voice
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Body language and presentation skills
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Creative use of language and delivery style
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Networking and pitching skills
Key Stage 3 Drama
Drama for Key Stage 3 students explores a range of skills with a focus on communication and self-expression, building confidence and resiliance.
Students are encouraged to explore collaborative devising, physicality, and various styles of performance as they explore characters, themes and stories in productions of their choice.
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Participation in Drama at Key Stage 3 is essential for increasing takeup of Drama at GCSE level.
Acting For Film
Delivered by a professional film crew, Acting for Film workshops explore acting techniques required when working with the camera.
This workshop features exercises and techniques explored through scene studies, including direction and rehearsals. Scenes are recorded to be viewed and critiqued during the workshop with copies available on request.
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Due to additional equipment required, a surcharge applies of £150 per workshop.
Devising & Physical Theatre
Devising and physical theatre masterclasses explore contemporary performance techniques and creative exercises which are ideal for creating original pieces of performance.
Inspired by techniques employed by the National Theatre, Frantic Assembly, Complicite, Grotowski, Artaud, Derevo, Jacques Lecoq and more, these workshops explore the use of the body in performance with reference to dance, clowning, mime, mask and other non-verbal forms of theatre performance.
Additional teacher resources are available.
Musical Theatre
Musical Theatre masterclasses cover all the bases with a focus on acting through song and dance, yet can focus on any of the following disciplines on request.
A typical two-hour workshop may include:
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Physical and vocal warm up
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Singing technique, including scales, harmonies, group and solo singing, featuring songs from the show of your choice
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Dance technique and choreography, with relevance to the specific show of your choice
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Acting exercises to engage with characters and emotional journeys within source material
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Performance of songs and routines in groups
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Material from any musical or music artist
Shakespeare
Working from the actor's perspective, these workshops explore performance techniques and can be tailored to any Shakespeare play.
Workshops may include:
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Voice and speech techniques
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Characterisation
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Gesture, movement and physicality
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How to read Shakespeare's direction to the actor through the text
Stage Combat
Led by professional Fight Directors and combat specialists, Theatre Workout's Stage Combat workshops will guide you through simple techniques used in stage, television and film.
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Your workshop may include:
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Health and safety rules
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Unarmed Combat: including punches, slaps, kicks and shove
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Reverse Control: including hair pulls, ear pulls, nose grabs, chokes and strangle
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Armed Combat: including rapier and dagger (advaced groups by arrangement)
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Combination routines and choreography
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Armed stage combat workshops are available with a surcharge of £5 per student
Click here to watch our video!
Audition Masterclass
Originally developed in partnership with A Chorus Line at the London Palladium, this workshop plunges students into a professional workshop audition scenario - they must be prepared to learn fast and perform with everything they have!
Students will be taught choreography in real time, given a chance to perform solo and in groups, and may be given a chance to sing 6-8 bars of a song of thier choosing. Unlike a real audition, positive and constructive criticism will be offered!
**This workshop is only available to students planning higher or further education Drama or Performing Arts courses, with a view of working professionally in the industry.
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**An acting option is also available.
Clowning & Improvisation
Being 'in the moment' is an essential part of being a successful actor.
Inspired by the worlds of clowning and improvisation, this workshop will help you stop acting, instead learning to react instinctively, truthfully, and open you up to the creation of open, honest characters through improvisation and play.
Workshops for Foreign-Language Students (EFL)
Students can sit in a classroom to learn English anywhere in the world. Only in London can they access the wealth of art, culture and history which makes British education unique!
Theatre Workout has developed a programme of workshops specifically designed to help foreign students gain confidence and learn to speak English in a more creative way.
Workshop options are available for beginner, intermediate and advanced English speakers, in which students play, create and perform in English, gaining confidence and advancing their communication skills.
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Acting For Theatre
Acting is at the heart of all theatre and performance techniques, so Theatre Workout Education offers a range of acting masterclasses to cover all the main philosophies and styles of acting technique.
Our standard masterclass explores contrasting techniques used in classical theatre, drawing inspiration from the main 20th century practitioners including Stanislavsky, Brecht, Meisner, Artaud, Grotowski and many more...
Acting workshops can be tailored to any production of your choice to relate techniques to the characters, themes and genre of that production.
GCSE & A-Level Drama
Bespoke workshops and programmes are available to expand student's theatre experiences, and enhance curriculum studies by exploring key practitioners and performance techniques.
Working in partnership with teachers we develop programmes tailored to students learning objectives. In partnership with students we deliver those programmes in response to their needs to maximise their experience.
Performance Art
Inspired by the work of the performance artist Marina Abramovic, this workshop is ideal for A-level or Btec Drama and Performing Arts students.
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This workshop draws on multiple performance techniques to create original performance through metaphor, imagery, storytelling, movement, voice, inspired by life, our passions, thoughts and emotions, and the world around us.
Antonin Artaud
Known for his Theatre Of Cruelty, Antonin Artaud was a visionary theatre practitioner from the early 1900s.
Heavily inspired by Balinese Dance, Surrealism, and dance, Artaud believed that physicality and voice were more expressive than words, and actively sought to challenge his performers, and his audience as active participants rather than passive spectators.
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This workshop is highly physical, emotionally expressive, and a challenge for drama students studying GCSE or higher qualifications.
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet during the early 1900s. An exile during the Nazi period, Brecht became a leading theoretician of epic theatre.
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This workshop explores some of Brecht's key theatrical conventions, exploring the use of gesture, physicality and language in the making of theatre and the performance of actors.
Jerzy Grotowski
Jerzy Grotowski was an innovative Polish theatre director and theorist whose approaches to acting, training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. Grotowski was highly previlent and influential from the 1960s through to the mid-1990s, working in Europe and America.
Inspired by Grotowski's seminal work, Towards a Poor Theatre (1968), this workshop focuses on the very root of the act of theatre: actors co-creating the event of theatre with its spectators, combining physicality, improvisation, voice and emotionally engaged performance.
Jacques Lecoq
A French actor and coach, Jacques Lecoq was best known for his teaching methods in physical theatre, movement, and mime which he taught at the school he founded in Paris known as École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq. He taught there from 1956 until his death in 1999. Jacques Lecoq was known as the only noteworthy movement instructor and theatre pedagogue with a professional background in sports and sports rehabilitation.
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Combining physical theatre, movement, mask and clowning, this workshop explores some of his key practices which have been used by multiple companies and theatre productions, not least in Disney's The Lion King,
Konstantin Stanislavski
Konstantin Stanislavski, a Russian character actor and director active in the late 1800s and early 1900s, had a reputation as one of the leading theatre directors of his generation, and his 'system' of actor training, preparation, and rehearsal technique is still widely taught and practiced today.
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This workshop explores some of his core techniques designed to root the actor in physical intentions, actions and emotional engagement in the art of stage acting.
Set Design Workshops
Theatre Workout's resident Set Designer, Christine Osborne, will take your students through the design and development process of creating the world in which your productions live.
You'll discuss creative design roles, types of productions and performance venues, budgets and processes, look at a range of set design concepts and designs, before creating your own designs inspired by classic stories we all know.
Stage Makeup
Delivered by professional make-up artists, this demonstration workshop covers all the basics of stage make-up design and application with professional industry tips, and can take place in London's West End.
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90 minute demonstration covers:
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The design process including style, genre and recording techniques
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Application technique for stage and film
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Demonstrations of different 'looks' on students inspired by current productions
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Extended 2.5 hour workshop options include special effects, such as cuts and scars, wigs, hair and prosthetics.
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Due to additional equipment required, a surcharge applies of £150 per workshop.
The Business of Theatre
This is a perfect seminar for Business, Hospitality and Leisure and Tourism students, or drama students looking at theatre from a production viewpoint. It discusses the commercial West End theatre industry, how it operates and how its links with other associated industries, such as the travel, tourism and business communities.
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Contrast and compare commercial theatre to other business models, exploring the process of creating a show from concept to opening night
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Discuss West End theatre's influence on other industries, including Leisure and Tourism, Group Travel, Ticketing and Hospitality
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Discuss funding models, investments and financial planning
Producing Your Own Productions
If you want to stage your own productions, this seminar discussion explores all aspects of producing a play or musical in either the subisdised and commercial sector.
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Planning ahead for the show you want to make, licensing, legality and rights
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Raising money from grants, charities, crowdfunding, sponsorship or commercial investment
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The creative process from concept to opening night
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Selling your show and moving forward
Working Freelance In The Arts
It's not only actors and performers who work freelance, but in the creative industries 70% of people are. Since the 2008 recession things have changed, but with the Covid-19 pandemic freelancers are facing profound challenges, making the need to prepare paramount.
Working Freelance can look at any industry or sector and students need guidance, advice and help to ask the questions and find answers to protect and prepare them for their future career.
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Discuss the highs and lows, benefits and pit-falls
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Tax and accounting
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Marketing, self-management and business planning