FREE Storyteller Director/Dramaturg Networking Sessions

Following up our sold out speed dating session in 2021, we are hosting 3 x free online networking sessions for storytellers, directors and dramaturgs, to speed the horizon forward towards Easter…

Bursary - these sessions include the offer for up to 4 pairings of storytellers and directors/dramaturgs to receive a bursary of £500 per pairing (£250 each participant) to 'give collaboration a go' and share what you learn.

You can attend one, two or all three free sessions, held on Zoom – we recommend you come for all three for the best experience!

Tue 8 February, Tue 1 March, Tue 29 March, 7 – 8.30pm

Register for your free places on Eventbrite.

Through the sessions you will:• widen your networks and meet more storytellers and directors

• explore the differences between ‘direction’, ‘dramaturgy’ and ‘coaching/feedback’

• explore what needs to be understood on each side of the relationship at the beginning of working together

• grow confidence to ‘give collaboration a go’ with up to 8 bursaries available for 4 x pairs of storytellers and directors to work together on a project of your own choice (in your own time/space) on a short project you can pitch to the Bursary Tombola*

• learn together, and support each other, as bursary recipients reflect on their experience of working together

• help shape a plan for a longer term development programme on this theme

At each session you’ll have time to meet other participants in breakout rooms, to share your own experiences or any areas you’d like to learn more about.

Session 1: Tue 8 February, 7 – 8.30pm

After a short ‘getting to know you’ session, we’ll hear stories of storytellers’ experiences of direction/coaching and vice versa, including times we felt stuck and wondered how directorial support might help. We will reflect on what would help us to be proactive in seeking storytelling direction or in offering it. We’ll hear from directors about their working process and those who are up for supporting the process of a pitch for a bursary, so you have time to prepare and potentially pitch together at our next session in March.

Session 2: Tue 1 March, 7 – 8.30pm

We will deepen our understanding of the difference between direction, dramaturgy and coaching/feedback, and the different stages of a storytelling project they can support. We will hear from people who are pitching for a bursary what it is they want to work on, and how they hope direction or dramaturgy might help. We will select the winning pitches by Tombola* (random selection), and announce the successful pitches in the session, which will also include more breakouts and time to network, meet and chat.

Session 3: Tue 29 March, 7 – 8.30pm

In our final session, we’ll hear back from the pairings, who will have completed their work together deep diving into the questions they’ve explored. We might even see some of what they worked on! We’ll invite reflections and have time to scope together the shape of useful follow ups, such as a longer face-to-face or online programme which would develop these ideas further.

Register for your free places on Eventbrite.

*Bursary Tombola Process

• We are offering up to 4 x Storytellers the chance to work with a Director/Dramaturg on a project of their choice with a bursary available to the storyteller (£250) and director (£250) paired together in this process – the funds are for your time working together

• We recommend you use this for a day of work together (this could be 2 x half days) on the project you’ve pitched. This could take place online, or, subject to Covid restrictions and safety, face to face at a place of your choosing

• Following Session 1, we’ll share everyone’s contacts (who wants to go into the Tombola) so you can approach each other with ideas of a project you want to progress

• If you’re approached, please accept on a ‘first-come-first-served’ basis – each person can submit only one pitch to the Tombola

• If you don’t know who to approach for your pitch, email your idea to Adverse Camber and we will match you with a director

• Scope up the details of your pitch – what you want to work on and why you think direction can help, and what you want to achieve in the sessions - so that you can introduce this at the second session (up to 5 mins per pair)

• You can work at times of your own choosing, but please make sure you’ve completed your work by Tues 22 March

• We will meet with you on Tues 22 March to discuss what happened in your sessions, and what reflections you’d like to share at the final session (you don’t have to share everything!)

• You need to be available and willing to share aspects of what you learned through the process with other members of the group in the third session on 29 March

This series of workshops has been made possible thanks to Arts Council England's Cultural Recovery Fund.