Kerry Frampton

Overview

Kerry Frampton is the Artistic Director of Splendid Productions, which she founded in 2003. Splendid Productions tour creative adaptations of classic texts to schools, colleges and theatres across the UK, and have performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the National Theatre’s ‘Watch This Space’ Festival, and are programmed at numerous theatres including MAC in Birmingham, The Pleasance London and The Lowry in Salford.

Kerry is the company’s senior workshop practitioner and has over seventeen years’ experience of devising and delivering high-quality, practical, theory-based drama workshops across the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Dubai, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur. Kerry specialises in work that is physical, theatrical, devised, anti-fourth wall, audience-centric, political, joy-filled, heart breaking and ensemble-based, and has also developed practical theory-based workshops for many theatre practitioners. She is also a professional clown, practitioner, director, writer, designer, movement director and musician.

Outside of her work with Splendid, Kerry has toured with English Touring Theatre, developing four brand new workshops (Caryl Churchill, Boal, Berkoff and Meyerhold) for ETT’s renowned Practitioners Unplugged scheme. In 2002 she devised and delivered the nationwide education tours for ETT’s productions of Ibsen’s Ghosts and highly acclaimed national tour of King Lear starring Timothy West. She has also has worked with director Matthew Wilde as a movement director on his productions of Cymbeline (2012) and Macbeth (2013) at Rose Bruford.

Workshops

Workshop 1  – Splendid Style

Total Time: 2 x 75 minutes

We have developed a range of workshops that incorporate all of the techniques and influences that make Splendid… well… Splendid:

 

Vocality: breath, diction, clarity, projection, rhythm and tonality.

Physicality: movement, chorus, gesture, proxemics and characterisation.

Actor and Audience: possibilities of the actor and how to use the audience within your work.

Creating a political theatre that demands to be watched.

We’re happy to share our style with everybody! Let us develop your students’ technical skills creatively. With our flexible content promise, we can supply you with an ‘oh my god that was exactly what I wanted!’ workshop.

 

Workshop 2  – Physical Theatre

Total Time: 2 x 75 minutes

From lifts, rolls, leans and ledges, to creating a more subtle, shared physical language to facilitate the devising process.

 

Introduction: inspiration and essential tools for Physical Theatre beginners.

Complicite: response-ability and the art of creative physical collaboration.

Practitioner Focus: relating to a specific practitioner (Grotowski, Feldenkrais or Artaud).

Sound and Word: the role of voice and narrative within Physical Theatre.

Devising: take a specific source and develop it using physicality, creating both literal and lateral movement to bring the text to life.

These workshops aim to expand the physical tools available, helping to make devising and performance a more dynamic and creative process.

 

Workshop 3  – Practitioner Focus: Berkoff

Total Time: 2 x 75 minutes

Nita Dewse

About

I grew up in Melbourne, but have spent most of my adult life abroad teaching Drama in England, Mexico, Singapore, and now in Thailand at Bangkok Patana School. In 1999 I completed my MA at the Central School of Speech and Drama, specialising in the use of drama therapy in anger management programmes with violent offenders in prisons and probation.  Now, as a teacher preparing students to enter a world where the greatest gift they can have is the power of creativity, I am driven to help students understand the power of play – playing games, playing with ideas, playing with their own limits. In my spare time I work for ISTA as an Artistic Director and Ensemble Leader as well as an examiner for the IB assessing the Research Presentation and the Extended Essay in Theatre.  I also teach a bit of TOK on the side.….just for fun!

Workshops

Workshop 1 – Put Some Effort Into It.

Total Time: 75 minutes

This workshop will introduce students to the art of creating characters based on Rudolph Laban’s 8 efforts of movement: punch, slash, float, glide, flick, dab, wring and press. This workshop will give you a quick and easy way to create an ‘onstage’ body and can be used either for a stylised or naturalistic approach to acting.

Workshop 3 – Devising from a stimulus using Berkovian techniques  

Total Time: 2 x 75 minutes

Using stylised gesture, chorus and body props, students will develop an introduction to a performance in the style of Steven Berkoff.

Workshop 4 – Unleash your inner clown

Total Time: 75 minutes x 2

What would happen if you could live your life loving to get in trouble? The red nose clown can be found inside all of us – it just needs an invitation to come out and play. Learn about the clowning commandments and how to unleash your inhibitions to become a wise fool.

Workshop 5 – The Gods of Anima.  

Total Time: 75 minutes

All objects have a life of their own if you know how to be a puppet whisperer. This life in puppetry is called anima. Learn how to bring a coat, a shoe or any object to life using precision, breath, weight and focus. We might even create a puppet obstacle course or a puppet ballet.