Helen Tennison Theatre

CREATING COMPLEX CHARACTERS

'Such a great mentor! The best I know!' - Hui Chen, performer & trans-disciplinary artist.

Practical techniques to create captivating psychological & physical characterisation.

Sun 22nd Feb
10am -6pm
Bold Studios, London

For actors, directors, theatre-makers & curious creatives:)

Register Today

Fill out the form below to sign up for this workshop and I'll be in touch soon!

'Helen, created an encouraging environment that gently challenged us.'

-Sally Souraya, artist and clown.

Any questions? Email me, hello@helentennison.com

I'm happy to reply :)

A bit about me...

I'm an Edinburgh Fringe First Award winning theatre director and former Artistic Director of Drama Studio London where I also ran the Two Year Acting Course.

My experience includes work for the Old Vic, Shakespeare's Globe, Soho Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, The Pleasance, Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud, Winchester Theatre Royal, theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and international festivals such as Midsummer Scene (Croatia) Bermuda International Festival, STOFF Stockholm, Oslo Fringe Festival and mulitple projects in Denmark. I was artist in residence at the University of South Florida, Associate Artist at Greenwich University and visiting Artist at Manchester Metroplitan University.

Recent work includes Adaptation and Direction of an immersive site-response Mrs Dalloway produced by London Library, Creation Theatre and The Royal Society of Literature and writing and directing Navigating Margaret, a play about living with dementia for community touring. I lecture at London Metropolitan University and create solo shows for international touring.

What will we do?

This is a practical workshop offering clear actionable techniques to build a believable, fully rounded, captivating character for performance.

In my work as a director I've noticed that being deeply immersed in the character is key to liberating the actors performance. There's often a disconnect between the way character psychology and character physicality are taught in drama schools and so I've drawn together my extensive experience in teaching both to create this comprehensive weekend deep dive into creating a complex, fully embodied, totally believable, captivating character performance.

This workshop draws on techniques from Uta Hagen, Katie Mitchell, Mike Alfreds, John Wright, Jacque Lecoque, Laban and Viewpoints all synthasised over many years into my own embodied, psychological approach.

As always, my workshops are a supportive, positive place where I encourage you to be bold with your ideas and aim to facilitate your unique creative voice. You'll leave with tools, confidence and a dash of theatrical inspiration.

You can bring a character to focus on, or develop characters from stimuli provided in the workshop.

Questions? Email me at hello@helentennison.com I'll be very happy to answer :)

What will you learn?

A total toolbox for transformation
Techniques to apply in the rehearsal room
Integration of physical and psychological character techniques
Building an effective backstory
Playing unconscious drives
Working with and against cliché
Embodied memory
Gesture as signifier
Somatic character experience
Character in relation to space and props.
Support as you build your skills
Individual & specific feedback

CREATING COMPLEX CHARACTERS

EARLY BIRD FEE

PAY BEFORE FEB 12th

£75

FULL FEE

£85

'It's delightful to share creative space with Helen. She's highly encouraging and supportive and comes into the space with a wonderfully diverse and useful breadth of experience and knowledge; paired beautifully with the capacity to actually communicate it to you in a simple and engaging way.'

- Paul Sockett, actor