Category: Drama

Fair Access Fair Access Expo: Community and Applied Arts Practice

Posted on by Yvonne McLellan

 Fair Access Expo: 

 Community and Applied Arts Practice 

Friday 7 June, 10-3:30pm at The Boardwalk, Glasgow G1 1TF

Are you aged 16 – 25 and want to use your creativity to ask questions, share stories and make change? Do you think the arts can change people’s minds, opinions and lives? Are you interested in building leadership and facilitation skills? If the answer is yes, come along to find out more about Community and Applied Arts Practice at our Fair Access Expo.

At this exciting all-day event, we’re inviting you to join practical sessions with experienced community artists to:

  • Make Theatre
  • Get Moving
  • Make Music
  • Tell a Story

They’ll share their skills and show you how they work creatively with a range of communities. Come and learn about the stories that matter.

What is Community Arts Practice? 

It’s a springboard to careers in teaching, directing, performance making, youth work, community music, arts in health and wellbeing, community education, play work, arts funding, creative learning in arts and cultural organisations and so much more.

How to register

To register, please visit the Eventbrite event page where you can sign up as a young person to attend, or as a teacher to book for a group of pupils.

Ticket like button for registering

Who can attend

Fair Access prioritise places for young people aged 16 – 25 who are facing barriers in accessing the arts and who meet one or more of the following criteria:

Get in touch if you have any questions or need us to check a postcode for you.

If you are a young person living very rurally (e.g. on an island) you may also be eligible. Please get in touch with us and we will let you know if you can apply.

Note to teachers

If you are a teacher, we encourage you to attend this opportunity with your pupils. If you cannot attend, we ask that either an alternative member of staff accompanies the group, or that the students are passed on the booking link in order to book themselves a place. This will enable us to collect the details we require from the young people attending to be able to run the event effectively.

Contact WACI for More Information

You can contact the team at waci@rcs.ac.uk

Get Into: Performing and Production Arts

Posted on by Yvonne McLellan

 Get Into: Performing and Production Arts 

Musical Theatre, Filmmaking, Production, Singing or Guitar

For ages 15+ Starting Autumn 2023

Young woman making stage props and words 'Get Into Performing and Production Arts'

Would you like to Get Into: Musical Theatre, Filmmaking, Guitar, Singing or Production Arts & Technology? Not sure where to begin? Our free ‘Get Into’ courses could be the perfect answer. 

We’re running five separate programmes in these artforms starting Autumn 2023.

These free weekly sessions will be a great opportunity to:

  • Build your confidence
  • Develop your skills in your chosen artform
  • Meet others who love the same thing as you

Bring your energy, enthusiasm and commitment! 

Ticket like button for registering

Please note: Fair Access will prioritise those facing barriers to accessing the arts such as those:

Get in touch and we can check your postcode for you. 

 Get In Touch 

If you have any questions or queries, email: fairaccesshello@rcs.ac.uk

Recharge Your Theatre Practice, Season Two!

Posted on by Yvonne McLellan

 Recharge Your Theatre Practice 

Career Long Professional Learning for

N5, Higher and Advanced Higher Teachers

A woman on stage in costume, reading from an old blotted bit of paper

Build your skills in Directing Monologues for Auditions and Practical Lighting. Join us at RCS and All Saints Secondary School Glasgow for workshops to refresh your creative practice and share new ways of working!

Directing Monologues and Audition Techniques

Practical Lighting Skills
When: Wednesday 10 May, 4 – 6pm
Where: RCS, Wallace Studios		 When: Thursday 18 May, 4 – 6pm
Where: All Saints Secondary School
Led by: Liz Carruthers, Director

Find out what a typical drama school audition process looks like from Liz Carruthers, who sits regularly on audition panels for the RCS, both in Scotland and internationally. Discover how you can best prepare your pupils or students, including choosing and working on suitable monologues, responding well to re-direction in the audition and being best prepared for the interview.  Liz will also discuss managing auditionee expectations and having a good plan B if not successful the first time, which is very common! 

 Led by: Christoph Wagner, Lecturer in Lighting RCS 

Explore what makes an effective lighting design and how to achieve this with equipment typically found in a secondary school drama studio. This hands-on session will also look at how to use lights and equipment correctly. Using short scenes as stimulus, we’ll consider how to light key moments and document this with plans, notes and cue sheets. With lots of opportunities for questions, to troubleshoot challenges with teaching lighting in school, and sharing solutions.

‘Super helpful and I have lots of ideas to take back to school! Thank you’ 

‘Really inspiring and enjoyable – I wish we had more opportunities like this’

 Contact Us 

If you have any questions or queries, get in touch with the team on: fairaccesshello@rcs.ac.uk

Self Tape Sessions

Posted on by Yvonne McLellan

 Self Tape Sessions 

Year of Application Students

Young woman standing in front of a camera recording an interview session.

Throughout January, we had a wide selection of Transitions students come into RCS to have audition tapes filmed for their college, university, and conservatoire applications. Students ranging in disciplines from acting, musical theatre to music teaching, were accompanied by an engineer to record their self-tapes.

Working in partnership with RCS Admissions it was great to see how prepared they all were.

The feedback has been extremely positive with applicants loving their tapes and appreciating the atmosphere in the studio. It helped students feel more confident so we hope that this is something we can offer in the future again.

48 Hour Visual Storytelling Challenge (Greenock)

Posted on by Yvonne McLellan

 48 Hour Visual Storytelling Challenge 

Saturday 28 Jan & Sunday 29 Jan, 10 – 4pm

Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock

People wearing Samhain style costumes with dark mysterious lighting

Join award-winning physical theatre and scenography company, Megahertz, for a fun and energetic crash course. It will cover DIY costume, character creation, physical storytelling, lighting, projection and site-specific devising.

Bring to life your very own Sci-Fi creature in response to the different spaces at the Beacon Arts Centre. You can also take part in a photoshoot to document your creations

“I love the alien in people, I love the wilderness… the lightning of the Other mind” – Alice Bradley Sheldon aka James Tiptree Jr, Author

If you love this quote, you’ll love this opportunity, so join us

Where: Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock
When: Sat 28 Jan & Sun 29 Jan, 10am – 4pm
Who: For those aged 16-30
Cost: Free, you just need to book your place

Click here to visit the booking form to reserve your place

 Get In Touch 

If you have any questions or queries, email: fairaccesshello@rcs.ac.uk

Get Into: Musical Theatre, End of Term

Posted on by Yvonne McLellan

 GET INTO: MUSICAL THEATRE 

End of Term Update

A group of young adults, holding their ears with ukes on the floor.

Last weekend we celebrated the end of our first term of ‘Get Into Musical Theatre’. Our ten incredible students shared their new skills in front of a full audience of friends, family and Fair Access staff.

Get into Musical Theatre is one of our new activities this year. It runs weekly over three terms and is designed to support Fair Access students develop skills in acting, singing dancing and musicianship – all the skills needed for a Musical Theatre pathway. The course is taught by 3 outstanding professionals including Transitions Musical Theatre Alumni Caitlin Forbes.

We are so proud of our Get Into Musical Theatre group and can’t wait to carry on building skills and having fun next term.

 Our Transitions Programme is open for applications. If you or someone you know is interested in studying musical theatre, why not check out our pages to find out if you are eligible?

Fair Access Go North!

Posted on by Yvonne McLellan

 Fair Access Go North! 

Spooky Castles, Amazing Photographers,

Visual Performance and Production Arts

Person wearing a horned mask sitting on a castle wall.

A few weeks ago, some of our Fair Access team travelled by train to Aberdeenshire for a spooky Halloween visit to Slains Castle, said to be the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. We met with The Care Group from the Gordon Schools in Huntley on a windswept and wild photography, film and sound adventure. We’ve been partnering with Wildbird and The Care Group on a 3-month project and we’re heading back up to see their amazing exhibition later this month. Can’t wait!

While we were up North, we paid a visit to the Creative Team at Eden Court in Inverness. We’ve got plans afoot to work with Eden Court to support Deaf learners at the theatre and beyond.  We’re heading up the road with a team from our BA Performance crew who will deliver Visual Performance sessions in British Sign Language and English at Dingwall Academy and also at Eden Court where they deliver a whole host of performing arts SQA Drama programmes.  We’ll be at Dingwall Academy on 2 December and Eden Court 3 December.

We are also working in partnership with Eden Court to develop and deliver hands-on activity for young people and their teachers interested in exploring the Production Arts. You can find out more about RCS Production Arts degree programmes on the RCS website. 

A mighty thank you to Aberdeenshire, Highland and Ross-shire for being so welcoming! Watch this space to find out more about our Northerly activity over the coming year.

 Visit the Fair Access Website 

If you would like to know more about the work Fair Access do, head over to our website at: rcs.ac.uk/fair-access

Recharge Your Theatre Practice

Posted on by Yvonne McLellan

 Recharge Your Theatre Practice 

Career Long Professional Development for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher Drama Teachers. Re-energise your Practice in Directing Actors and Devising Theatre

Group of people sitting in a theatre studio having a discussion

Join us at the RCS or CentreStage Kilmarnock for workshops led by professional theatre makers which will leave you upskilled, inspired and reconnected to your artform.

 Click Here to Book Your Session 

 Devising Theatre 
Led by: Theatre Maker Phillipa Clark
*Choose from either Glasgow or Kilmarnock

Wednesday 2 November
4 – 6pm
RCS, Glasgow		 Wednesday 9 November
4:30 – 6:30pm
CentreStage, Kilmarnock

This session will be practical, purposeful and playful.  Explore strategies for creating devised drama from a stimulus. Refresh your skills and develop your toolkit of theatre-making techniques in a collaborative environment.  Philippa’s influences as a theatre maker include Frantic Assembly, Pina Bausch, Quarantine, Mammalian Diving Reflex and Candoco. 

 Directing Actors 
Led by: Theatre Director Guy Hollands
*Choose from either Glasgow or Kilmarnock

Wednesday 10 November
4 – 6pm
RCS, Glasgow		 Wednesday 16 November
4:30 – 6:30pm
CentreStage, Kilmarnock

Gain insight into Guy’s approach to directing, with an emphasis on the director’s relationship with actors in rehearsal. The session will include some practical work on text and a Q&A and hopes to build your own confidence with directing.  Guy has worked with companies including the Citizens Theatre, Edinburgh Lyceum, RCS, Visible Fictions and 7:84 

 Click Here to Book Your Session 

‘Absolutely loved this session!
Great delivery, content, pacing…every CLPD should be like this!’
– Drama Teacher, CLPD May 2022 

In partnership with:

 Get In Touch 

If you require any further information or have any questions, email: fairaccesshello@rcs.ac.uk

Do you want to be a performance maker?

Posted on by Yvonne McLellan

 Transitions Contemporary Performance Practice Programme 

Apply now for 2022/23

Do you want to be a performance maker? Passionate about making your own work or being a performance artist, but not sure where to begin?

Our Transitions Contemporary Performance Practice programme might be just what you are looking for.

Aimed at those who are aged 16+  – we are looking for people who want to experiment with performance making. Our programme is exciting. You will experiment with:

  • Performance writing
  • Outdoor Arts
  • Devising performance and making new work
  • Movement practice
  • Experimental performance
  • Making performance for/with communities
  • Experimenting with design
  • And much more….

We’ll take you on performance trips, offer you masterclasses, creative conversations and short courses. We’ll also help you to prepare your application for our RCS undergraduate programmes and give you access to a personal life coach.

If you want to collaborate with like-minded people, people who want to make a difference to the world through performance making, then why not apply? You might want to be a writer, a dancer, a performer, a community practitioner, a teaching artist, a director, an outdoor arts expert…

We are looking for an exciting group of people who are open and want to experiment with new forms of performance. 

You don’t need to be an expert – you just need to have some performance making experience to apply. 

Head over to our ‘Apply’ page now!

Deadline: 20 August.

 Get In Touch 

Get in touch if you have any questions by emailing: transitions@rcs.ac.uk

Alumni TV Success: Yana Harris

Posted on by Yvonne McLellan

 TRANSITIONS ALUMNI TV SUCCESS 

Yana Harris | Channel 4’s Comedy Blap ‘Unfair’

Group of people standing in front of a fairground.
Yana Harris, 3rd from the left.

Yana has been cast in a 15-minute comedy pilot that is available online on All4 and YouTube. The show is called Unfair and is set in a Showman’s yard in the East End of Glasgow.

This is what Yana had to say about her the experience:

‘ The show tells the story of a sheltered young woman being kicked out if her mums house and moving in with her boyfriend and his family. Her boyfriend however happens to be a Showman and it’s quite the culture shock.

This show is particularly close to me heart as I am ethnically a Showperson and my community is more often than not misrepresented. The show was written by Emma Lennox, who is married to a showman and has been living on a yard for years. I believe it’s based on her experience.

I play Missouri, the intimidating little sister. I also worked alongside Fair Scotland as an advisor helping the production team with accuracy.’

Press:
The National, Channel 4’s Unfair