Through The Door

It’s time to see what happens when we step through the door…

Presented by ClerkinWorks, Improbable and Shakespeare’s Globe.

THROUGH THE DOOR IS BACK!

Eight improvisation workshops exploring improvisation in theatre, comedy, storytelling, devising and movement led by Creative Facilitator Angela Clerkin. Angela says “we experiment with being heroes and villains, untold and unlikely tales, and putting our own stories centre stage. Oh, and practice being confident and generous as we fuck up. It’s time to find out what happens when we step through the door...”.

TTD is for women, non-binary and trans people who are actors, improvisors and theatre-makers. The beginner’s level will be a fun and innovative introduction to Impro techniques and working with autobiographical material. The experienced course is more suited if you have previously attended TTD and/or Improbable workshops, or already have improvisation experience and want to play and expand your skill set. Sign up for the one that best fits you. Whichever one you come to, it’s best to be prepared to be surprised. 

The workshops are on Sundays 11am-1pm (beginners) & 2-4pm (experienced), beginning on 17 November 2024 and running into 2025. All sessions are held at Shakespeare’s Globe. It is a course so you sign up for the whole series rather than individual workshops. Prices have been kept as low as possible to make these workshops accessible.

Applications are now closed.

Dates

Sunday 17 November 2024

Sunday 24 November 2024

Sunday 1 December 2024

Sunday 8 December 2024

Sunday 15 December 2024

Sunday 5 Janaury 2025

Sunday 12 Janurary 2025

Sunday 19 January 2025

THE FULL INVITATION FROM ANGELA CLERKIN

In 2018 my company, ClerkinWorks with support from Improbable, launched Through The Door. We started at Theatre Deli, moved to Shakespeare’s Globe and then online. Now we are delighted to be back at Shakespeare's Globe for a new season of Through The Door! The participants in previous years have been a mixture of actors, dancers, drag kings, writers, directors, cabaret performers and designers. I’m excited to discover who will come through the door this time. 

TTD’s aims are to learn skills, practise taking space and enjoying mistakes, having fun, being ridiculous, generosity of spirit, creating a community, and experiencing agency through improvisation. I am aware of what effect lack of opportunities can have on the spirit, and how tough and isolating it can often be in the arts. Our aim to change things up, supporting those of us who have been marginalised in various ways to take centre stage and hang out there. Together. And also keeping the doors open for others to come through. I have found this approach to be transformative, benefitting everyone, challenging, enriching and changing us - and the stories we improvise. 

I am a Creative Facilitator and a qualified Therapist. I started out as a cabaret performer with the Hairy Marys and have worked as a theatre maker, actor, improvisor, writer and director for many years. I am an Improbable Associate Artist and I have worked with them as a performer, co-director, co-writer, associate director, Open Space facilitator, World Cafe Host and Impro workshop facilitator. 

I lead most of the workshops, Improbable produces, and we are delighted to have some guest facilitators during the course. The guest facilitators are always amazing highly skilled practitioners. Previously they have included improvisor/novelist/theatre maker Stella Duffy, choreographers Pauline Mayers and Jeanifer-Jean Charles, actor Cathy Tyson, Drag Kings Wesley Dykes (Adedmola Bajamo) & Sigi Moonlight (Jacqui Bardelang) and theatre maker/TV writer Emma Frankland. 

Sign up! It’s time to find out what happens when you dare to step through the door…

THE TEAM

Angela Clerkin

Angela Clerkin began performing comedy & cabaret shows with The Hairy Marys. She has worked as an actor at the Barbican, National Theatre, Young Vic, Old Vic, Almeida, lots of UK Rep theatres, New York and Sydney Opera House. TV: Coronation Street, Dr Who, Humans, Holby City, EastEnders, Dalziel & Pascoe, My Family, Sugar Rush, The Office. Recent directing credits include Moll and the Future Kings, a candle-lit Drag King cabaret at the Globe/Sam Wanamaker, and Associate Director on An Improbable Musical. Angela’s company ClerkinWorks produced 4* shows The Bear and The Secret Keeper which she wrote and co-directed and toured the UK. Her play Be Mine toured Brazil and Portugal for 3+ years. Angela was recently a Creative Engagement Fellow at the University of Leicester, and curated the Festival of Radical Care at the Albany Theatre. She leads creative writing course for lgbtq+ people at Triangle and Albany. She recently collaborated with Box Office Bears project running Drama and Creative Writing workshops in London and Nottingham. Angela now works as an Integrative Therapist, MBACP, & Creative Facilitator.

Adedamola Bajomo

Adedamola has always been a dancer and a writer. That developed further when they discovered Drag King performance as a medium in 2012, then came Music & most recently Creative Audio Description.  They have been working with The Cocoa Butter Club since 2018, performing in 3 sold out Underbelly shows as well as facilitating writing & performance workshops. They have also facilitated performance workshops for queer disabled arts organisation Quiplash since 2019; as well as creating and performing accessible acts for Quiplash's Pop-Up cabaret Unsightly Drag! Since then they have gone on to work with Above Your Nerve theatre company and Soho theatre, both in a facilitation capacity, and were supported in creating their 1st few short films Dear Body, FLUX & Black Boi Band by Wahala Fund, Quiplash and Raze Collective respectively. In 2020 they released their 1st musical project 'Wastewomxn' alongside their band of the same name, and in 2021 were nominated for the Turner Prize as a part of their Soundsystem collective BOSS.

Stella Duffy

Stella Duffy is an award-winning writer of seventeen novels, over seventy short stories, and fourteen plays. The co-founder and for eight years the co-director of Fun Palaces, working with community co-creation across the UK, Stella has been active in equalities work in the arts and LGBTQ+ communities for many decades. In 2016 she was awarded the OBE for Services to the Arts.

From 1988 she was a member of Spontaneous Combustion, improvising long-form/narrative theatre, and from 1998 she was a member of Improbable’s Lifegame company in over 250 shows across the UK, Brisbane, San Diego and off-Broadway. 

Stella is a psychotherapist working in private practice, having also worked in cancer support in the NHS and a hospice bereavement team. Her doctoral research was in the embodied experience of postmenopause and she is currently writing a new book about developing a creative postmenopause.

She is also a yoga teacher and runs yoga-for-writing workshops.

Her website is: www.stelladuffy.blog

Monica Gaga

Monica Gaga is a British-born black African queer improviser, facilitator, host and scripted actor and performer. She has been improvising for 24 years, teaching professionally for 16 years and performing professionally for 11 years.

 Trained at East 15 Acting School, Monica has worked professionally across England, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada and beyond.

 When she is not performing, hosting or teaching, Monica is championing diversity, inclusion and equity in improv and trying to get as many people, particularly BIPOC, involved as possible. 

​Monica is based in London, UK and plays/teaches internationally

www.monicagaga.com

THE DETAILS

  • Through The Door takes place on Sundays November 2024 - January 2025. You must be available to attend all of the sessions.

    Beginners Group at 11:00 - 13:00 | Intermediate Group 14:00 - 16:00

    Sunday 17 & 24 November 2024

    Sunday 1, 8 & 15 December 2024

    Sunday 5, 12 & 19 January 2025

  • Sessions will be held at Shakespeare's Globe on the Southbank, London.

  • Full Price £160 (£20 per workshop).

    No/Low wage £40 (£5 per workshop)

    The No/Low wage price point is intended for someone in receipt of income-related benefits and/or who otherwise wouldn't be able to attend due to financial barriers. Please only select this price point if this applies to you.

    You will be able to select which price point applies to you as part of your application.

  • There will be a section on the application form for you to let us know what you need to work best. If you would like to discuss your access requirements, or have any questions about the site or the week before you apply then please get in touch with us on kathryn@improbable.co.uk.  

    The space is wheelchair accessible.

  • Applications are now closed.