20th/21st April Ed Gaughan
Ed Gaughan Weekend Workshop
A 2 day workshop led by comedian, writer, actor, voice actor, director, musician, composer and idiot Ed Gaughan.
Ed began his career whist at school with the Orchard youth theatre in Barnstaple in the 1980s, before going on to be a founder member of the Riverside Arts collective in Tavistock. After graduating from Middlesex University (where he studied Jazz music and drama) Ed developed work through the groundbreaking BAC scratch program, before going on to be a BAC associate Artist. He was also an associate artist of the Lyric Hammersmith for many years.
Ed has 30 years’ experience as a workshop leader and facilitator. As well as working with theatre, film, TV and comedy professionals at all stages of career development, he has taught theatre, film making, music, comedy and clown to people with a learning disability, young people excluded from mainstream education, offenders, people with mental health conditions and neuro divergent participants. He has worked for many charities and trusts including Wolf and Water Arts, Kandu, MyLife, BAC, Greenwich Music Service, Lyric Hammersmith and Rideout. He has a long-standing relationship and collaboration with Get Changed theatre company, a theatre company for adults with a learning disability and is the lead director for their work.
See Ed’s full bio here.
Looking at comedy in all its forms, stand-up, sketch, clown, music and comedy as an integral part of theatre and storytelling, we will spend the weekend chatting, playing games, improvising, telling stories, watching, listening and exploring what makes us laugh and why. We will look at ways to generate comic material. The focus of the weekend will be on comedy but the tools and techniques we’ll be using for creating and developing material are completely transferable to straight-up drama; and participants can experiment with introducing comic elements to the most serious pieces.
Participants will be encouraged to bring ideas to the table, this could be in the form of text, or a joke, a piece of music or just an idea (‘A comedy about…”) Ed ‘s workshop style is very gentle and supportive and at no point will there be pressure to “BE FUNNY NOW!!” Quite the opposite in fact, part of the purpose of the workshop is to demystify comedy as an art form and look at how much ‘invisible work’ goes into making it look easy!
By the end of the weekend participants will have had the opportunity to develop their ideas in a supportive environment; learning and using techniques to generate and refine material. This is very much an experiential learning workshop.
This workshop is aimed at professional, developing and emerging artists in Northern Devon. No comedy experience is required, just a willingness to have a go!
Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st April 10:00am – 4:00pm
Landmark Theatre Ilfracombe