As part of Sparkfest 2021, the David Glass Ensemble will be presenting a scratch performance of our new piece "Silence" as well as a workshop "The Authentic Voice"
‘Boredom’ was Hell. ‘Mortgage’ was Purgatory. But ‘Silence’ is Paradise. David Glass presents a scratch of his Devine Comedy Trilogy.
Directors are either arseholes or pains in the arse and Wilson Speculum is both. He’s also the most talented, brilliant and successful Avant Garde Theatre Director to have ever graced the planet but now Speculum’s days are numbered.
As he gets to the end of the longest technical rehearsal ever, three years of his greatest epic, the 48 hour long Silence (a co-production with every major theatre and festival in the world), Speculum’s life is in grave danger.
To celebrate his return to the stage after 16 years, David Glass presents his solo Paradiso section of his Devine Comedy Trilogy. Developed during lockdown in conversation with directors Mike Alfreds, Tom Morris and Julian Crouch.
“A physical language of his own that is so fluent it can make words seem cumbersome. Genuis.”The Independent
There will be a Q&A with David Glass after the performance.
Funded by Arts Council England and supported by London International Mime Festival.
The Authentic voice focuses on two areas, firstly, the distinctive qualities and talents of the individual participants. The workshop helps unlock and reveal the particular ideas, concerns, feelings, images and narratives that are the bedrock of their creativity and potential. The second part of the workshop looks at how we engage these creative fragments with the world around us. How do we affect other people with who we are and what we want? Through a system of games, exercises and reflection, participants will gain greater confidence and awareness of their authentic voice and how to make this voice heard.
The David Glass Ensemble are delighted to receive an award from the Cultural Recovery Grant that will help us build our capacity to work with key theatre & arts organisations in Bristol, Bath, Exeter, Eastleigh & Hastings through our Lost Child Project.
We are one of 2,700 recipients to receive a grant from the Government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund to help the organisation recover and reopen.
More than £300 million has been awarded to thousands of cultural organisations across the country, including the David Glass Ensemble in the latest round of support from the Culture Recovery Fund. After months of closures and cancellations to contain the virus and save lives, this funding will be a much-needed helping hand for organisations transitioning back to normal in the months ahead.
“David Glass’s Creative Practice is a unique and courageous exploration of the archetypal experience of being human.”
-Peter Brook, International Theatre Director
The Lost Child project began in 1997 when David Glass and his ensemble traveled across South America and Southeast Asia working with street children. Its aim is to use theatre and creative participation to give a voice to marginalised and vulnerable children and young people. The creative methodology focuses on supporting and expressing young people's imagination through group activity in a secure environment. The project has now been revived for this generation, actively operating in Hong Kong and the UK to empower young people through the power of the arts and the imagination.
During the year of the pandemic, the Ensemble has continued to strengthen our work in creating vibrant, relevant and powerful theatre for a world stage.
We launched the Elan Lost Child Project Festival in Hong Kong, which brought together 300+ participants through 11 hybrid online/on-site events.
With the National Theatre of Serbia, we presented “The Return”—the culmination of the AB Project about the killing of 77 young people in Utoya Island in 2001.
With the M.A. Theatre Laboratory at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, we created Margot Monroe’s Nibelungenlied, a comedy that deconstructs the Hollywood Dream Machine.
We have continued to conduct 8 creative practice and physical theatre workshops across Europe, both live and online.
“David Glass remains one of the pioneers and key figures of British and International Theatre.”
-John McGrath, Artistic Director of Manchester International Festival
This year, the Ensemble is strengthening the foundation for the Galapagos project, which aims to educate and empower children about the ongoing climate crisis through a visceral piece of theatre. For Galapagos, we are joined by partners across 13 countries including London International Mime Festival (LIMF) and the Point Eastleigh.
David Glass is currently devising his first solo in sixteen years called Silence, in conversation with Julian Crouch, Tom Morris and Mike Alfreds.
The Ensemble continues to build relationships and community to strengthen through this crisis.
“David Glass Ensemble is a creative powerhouse with innovation at its heart.”
—David Pearl, Founder, Pearl Group
“They have an exceptional talent for developing talent, and liberating young peoples’ energy and innovation.”
—Michael Maynard, Maynard Leigh Associates
Audience: ages 7-13
Workshop Time: Saturdays at 4.30pm (UK) starting April 24, 2021
Workshop Cost: £15/workshop, £80 for all 6 sessions
Workshop Facilitators: Simon Gleave, Elisabeth Gunawan
TO SIGN UP EMAIL LEARNING@DAVIDGLASSENSEMBLE.CO.UK
Creativity and creative thinking is increasingly on the agendas of all schools and universities. In order to enable students to think differently and creatively, we empower them to inhabit their whole person and to discover their own unique creative processes. We do not focus on imparting specific technical creative skills, but to teach the students how to be creative and how to apply it to any area of their lives.
This six-session program of learning gives students clear tools, skills and a well tested framework from which to explore their own creativity, collaborate with others and learn practical tools and skills. We will engage your children to create and explore through the expressive forms of storytelling, devised theatre, art, photography, music and film. Our courses will help them develop greater creative literacy, emotional intelligence, empathy and confidence.
We will cover and experience in-depth the Five Stages of the Creative Process:
The students will use the practice to make simple projects in an expressive artistic medium of their choice, which might include creative writing, film and photography, story and scriptwriting, devised theatremaking, music and sound design and many more. We will guide the students in exploring their process through keeping artist’s notebooks using a combination of analogue methods and digital apps. This program will communicate in a presentation and sharing of the students’ work to their colleagues, friends and families.
Simon Gleave is a teacher and tutor of creative education, namely drama and creative writing. He also works professionally as a performer, director and writer with international theatre companies. He teaches regularly at Holland Park Tutors.
"...Simon opened a door for us and we only had a glimpse of what that could be if we could have more time to do this. Watching the two other groups was so wonderful and so touching." (Wan Li, Creative Drama Workshop, Chengdu)
"When he was teaching us, he was not just working from the head he was working from his heart. ... He had this energy, making us be able to find our best, the best of ourselves." (Yan Tao, Creative Play Workshop, Chengdu)
Elisabeth Gunawan is a performer, theatremaker and teacher based in London. She has trained at New York University (B.A.) and RADA (M.A.) Before building her career in the creative industry, Elisabeth has five years experience working in Business and Marketing in Google Singapore. She is passionate about exploring creative skills that are applied both in the arts and business.
OUR FACILITATORS HAVE WORKED WITH
“David Glass Ensemble is a creative powerhouse with innovation at its heart.”
—David Pearl, Founder, Pearl Group
“They have an exceptional talent for developing talent, and liberating young peoples’ energy and innovation.”
—Michael Maynard, Maynard Leigh Associates
Audience: ages 7-13
Workshop Time: Friday at 6.30pm GMT +8
Workshop Cost: £90 for 6 sessions
Workshop Facilitators: Simon Gleave, Elisabeth Gunawan
Creativity and creative thinking is increasingly on the agendas of all schools and universities. In order to enable students to think differently and creatively, we empower them to inhabit their whole person and to discover their own unique creative processes. We do not focus on imparting specific technical creative skills, but to teach the students how to be creative and how to apply it to any area of their lives.
This six-session program of learning gives students clear tools, skills and a well tested framework from which to explore their own creativity, collaborate with others and learn practical tools and skills. We will engage your children to create and explore through the expressive forms of storytelling, devised theatre, art, photography, music and film. Our courses will help them develop greater creative literacy, emotional intelligence, empathy and confidence.
We will cover and experience in-depth the Five Stages of the Creative Process:
The students will use the practice to make simple projects in an expressive artistic medium of their choice, which might include creative writing, film and photography, story and scriptwriting, devised theatremaking, music and sound design and many more. We will guide the students in exploring their process through keeping artist’s notebooks using a combination of analogue methods and digital apps. This program will communicate in a presentation and sharing of the students’ work to their colleagues, friends and families.
Simon Gleave is a teacher and tutor of creative education, namely drama and creative writing. He also works professionally as a performer, director and writer with international theatre companies. He teaches regularly at Holland Park Tutors.
"...Simon opened a door for us and we only had a glimpse of what that could be if we could have more time to do this. Watching the two other groups was so wonderful and so touching." (Wan Li, Creative Drama Workshop, Chengdu)
"When he was teaching us, he was not just working from the head he was working from his heart. ... He had this energy, making us be able to find our best, the best of ourselves." (Yan Tao, Creative Play Workshop, Chengdu)
Elisabeth Gunawan is a performer, theatremaker and teacher based in London. She has trained at New York University (B.A.) and RADA (M.A.) Before building her career in the creative industry, Elisabeth has five years experience working in Business and Marketing in Google Singapore. She is passionate about exploring creative skills that are applied both in the arts and business.
OUR FACILITATORS HAVE WORKED WITH
Dates: April 8-11, 2021
Time: 9.30am - 2.30pm UK / 17.30 - 22.30pm HK (with breaks)
Cost: £200 / £180 Concession (with a valid student ID)
Participation will be capped at 20 students.
To sign up, email your confirmation to learning@davidglassensemble.co.uk and we will give you the payment details
“David Glass’s Creative Practice is a unique and courageous exploration of the archetypal experience of being human.”
-Peter Brook, International Theatre Director
“He has a unique imagination and a truly political provocation. David makes theatre about things that matter.”
–Paule Constable, Olivier and Tony Award Winning Lighting Designer
David Glass, one of the global pioneers of devised theatre, will lead the students on a five-day course giving the rudiments, history and methodology of this approach to give them clear skills, tools and provocations for making their own theatre work. As well as this, the students will learn about Creativity broadly—its modes, qualities and phases–with applications beyond Theatre and in the wider world of leadership.
Creativity sits at the heart of how organisations work, how communities achieve wellbeing and how people and communities reach their full potential. The workshop will take the participants through the Five Stages of the Creative Process that is used in all forms of creative activity, from project development to arts projects and teaching:
Among others, we will explore what it means to lower judgment and create secure environments that allow creativity to thrive. We will go into experiential and creative journeys that reflect on our lives and the world around us. David’s approach is fun, practical and rooted in real world skills. All of his training uses Games, Exercises and Forum Integrative learning to give a wide range of participants a direct experience and intellectual underpinning of this training. Students will come away with tools and skills and a framework that they can apply immediately to their work.
All of David Glass Ensemble’s teaching is practical and drawn from our 40 years of work devising theatre, the teaching is experienced through:
These workshops explore creative and innovative practices and how we can adapt these to creating artistic work, but also in the world of politics, education, social development, learning and technology. Our Creative Learning is rooted in The Creative Practice Handbook, written by David Glass—a practical guide on using Creativity to enhance the impact of social, developmental, arts and educational communities worldwide through learning, training and practice.
“David is one of the great teachers and artists of our time who has never been afraid to examine truth in all its manifestations; both beautiful and ugly, and has touched thousands of souls in a lifelong quest to connect and build meaningful relationships. He has the rare gift of marrying the deep intellect and knowledge of a scholar with the playful inquisitiveness of a child.”
-Amit Lahav, Artistic Director – Gecko
David Glass
Artistic Director of the David Glass Ensemble
David Glass is an award winning solo performer, theatre director, writer, designer, lighting designer, filmmaker, teacher and creative thinker. He is one of the UK’s most prominent Theatre Directors and one of the principal founders of the Physical/Visual, Devised, Ensemble and Applied Theatre movements.
28th June - 7th August 2021
Athens, Greece
David Glass Ensemble Learning and JEUDi present Alchemy of the Extraordinary, a 6-week intensive training in Creative Practice and Devised Theatre.
“David Glass’s Creative Practice is a unique and courageous exploration of the archetypal experience of being human.”
-Peter Brook, International Theatre Director
“He has a unique imagination and a truly political provocation. David makes theatre about things that matter.”
-Paule Constable, Olivier and Tony Award Winning Lighting Designer
Led by modern master David Glass, Alchemy of the Extraordinary is an intensive training course in devised theatre making and creative practice. The six week experience will comprise David Glass’s five-stage creative practice, his research into the Authentic Voice, The Child, The Adolescent, the Elder, Story and Ensemble Theatre making. David’s work has influenced and been employed by theatre companies and educational, social development and corporate organisations around the world (UN, Save the Children, Gecko, 111 Program and many more).
David Glass’s workshops are noted for their rigour, playfulness and impact. Over a 6-week period, 5 days per week and 8 hours per day participants will have a transformative skill-based experience of David Glass’ creative framework. They will come away with the tools to integrate and strengthen what they already do in their own practice, broadening and deepening their ability to devise theatre and develop creative projects from an authentic and provocative place be it in the arts, education, social development or corporate environments. We will also conduct some of the work in the historic space of the Poreia Theatre in Athens, thus rooting the whole course in the creation and performing of theatre.
Places for the intensive course will be limited to 16 students. Please submit your application to take part in this form by March 31, 2021.
We are also doing an information session, which will be held online on February 22, 2021. In this session, you’ll get a chance to hear from our teachers and to ask any questions.
Alchemy Extraordinary Information Session - February 22, 2021
Session 1: 10am UK / 6pm HK [Join via Zoom]
Session 2: 5pm UK / 12noon NY / 9am LA [Join via Zoom]
“David Glass remains one of the pioneers and key figures of British and International Theatre.”
-John McGrath, Artistic Director of Manchester International Festival
“David is one of the great teachers and artists of our time who has never been afraid to examine truth in all its manifestations; both beautiful and ugly, and has touched thousands of souls in a lifelong quest to connect and build meaningful relationships. He has the rare gift of marrying the deep intellect and knowledge of a scholar with the playful inquisitiveness of a child.”
-Amit Lahav, Artistic Director - Gecko
Life is at its heart creative and the narratives and emotions that surround us are the stuff that build our practice. The course will be primarily experiential, exploring the creative reservoirs of the Child, Adolescent and Elder that is present in our lives before supplying the Creative Practice framework to shape these experiences.
The Creative Practice constitutes Five Stages, all of which must occur to create rich, authentic and original work: Preparation, Origination, Organisation, Realisation and Reflection. We will explore each of these stages through games, exercises and forum work.
David will also apply his Modes of Creativity, found in nature and revealed in each participant: Adaptors, Translators, Replicators, Integrators, Transformers. We will work individually with each participant, strengthening their capacities to lead, collaborate on and realise projects, growing from their distinctive qualities, attitudes and behaviour.
Fees and Accommodation
The fee for the 6-week course is EUR 2,100, with a concession price of EUR 1,800 for students. We will request a deposit of EUR 450 to secure your place.
You may also already be thinking about the logistics of taking part in the course. We suggest people looking for accommodation near the Dance Studio (where we are spending most of our time) should look around the areas below: Lycovrissi, Pefki, Maroussi, N. Irakleio, N. Ionia, Kato Kifissia, Metamorphosi. We can connect participants to Airbnb and guest-room options whereby they can rent a single room or shared accommodation well located for the workshop. Participants are welcome to find their own accommodation while in Athens!
“I am inspired by [David Glass’] thinking and experience and community in the theatre… his objective is vital and true.”
-Mark Rylance, Actor
“David Glass Ensemble is a creative powerhouse with innovation at its heart. David’s thinking has been woven through the UK’s Art in Business movement, inspiring my work with organisations around the world, and that of countless others.”
-David Pearl, Founder Pearl Group
About Our Partners
JEUDi is an arts organisation led by Korina Kokkali and Simon Gleave that combines a performance company with a school for dance, performance and creativity. JEUDi aims to become a platform for discovery in new social and artistic pathways, for individual and collective interrogation into the permanences of creativity and connectivity.
Poreia Theatre is a modern theatre in the heart of Athens offering an eclectic repertoire, the theatre has staged a wide variety of plays, new or previously unproduced in Greece. Under the artistic direction of director, actor and translator Dimitri Tarlow, this beautiful laboratory space will be the perfect setting for the beginning and end of the 6-week transformative experience.
Thank you for your interest in bringing Requiem for Change to your school.
This vital production has been developed internationally by young performers whose lives will be affected by the choices and actions we are taking—or failing to take—now.