LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

No escape from Lifes questions. Rough Fiction push the

boundaries of text and performance The Scotsman
Jump in with us and experience a modern
story, classically well told whilst using
contemporary physical theatre and
musicality to bring the story alive. Blending
these three key dramatic forms is at the
heart of Rough Fictions practice, a practice
were passionate about sharing with both
students and professionals, up and down the
country and abroad. Workshops either based
around The Last of The Lake, our latest
touring production, or based around where
your group are at right now are available
now.

In This Pack
1. Our Approach
2. Year-round Workshops
3. The Last of The Lake Uncovered
4. Creative Residencies and productions
5. Bronze, Silver & Gold! - Arts Awards with
Rough Fiction
6. About Rough Fiction
7. What Next? - Contacting Us

Find additional production resource

packs, scripts, videos and more at
www.roughfiction.com/learnandtrain/
resources. In fact our script for Hospitals
and Other Buildings That Catch Fire was
even produced by The Brit School in 2009.

Our Approach

We work on physical theatre, devised

theatre, actor training and text-based
performance and have facilitated workshops
for professional artists, schools, colleges,
universities and independent drama groups
since 2003. Our work complements the main
UK exam boards and has provided students
with an excellent springboard in practical
text work and has formed the foundation of
exam board assessed devised pieces.
We want all students to achieve and we work
hard to tailor our workshops to provide
specific, targeted experiences that lead into
your exam boards.
Working professionally as directors,
movement directors, actors and playwrights,
our practitioners offer participants up-todate knowledge of contemporary theatremaking. Alongside professional directing
Simon Pittman has also worked for Frantic
Assembly as a Learn Practitioner since 2008
and as a visiting lecturer in contemporary
theatre-making at Royal Holloway University
of London and Portsmouth University. Phil
King also currently teaches the Edexcel
specification to KS4 and KS5 students in a
high-performing school in the South and
Rough Fiction have provided high-impact
learning and training to participants of all
abilities.

LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

Year-round Workshops

Five set workshops to start you thinking...

Our workshop was
inspiring and thoughtprovoking and
something I would
recommend to anyone
and everyone! The
improvised tasks were
unlike anything I had
experienced and I will
definitely be using
them in the future
Piers Jeffries, Student,
Farnborough Sixth Form
College

Workshops are delivered at the following rates

however these are negotiable where
circumstances or indeed additional
requirements need to be considered.
2 Hours: 170 +Travel / Accommodation
3 Hours: 240 + Travel / Accommodation
4 Hours: 320 + Travel / Accommodation
6 Hours: 430 + Travel / Accommodation

1. Physical and Devised Theatre

Throw some shapes. Having trained and
worked with the likes of, Song of The Goat,
Frantic Assembly and The National Theatre of
Scotland, Rough Fictions practitioners have
extensive experience in enabling professional
and non-professional participants to develop
new ways of creating physical material, offering
exciting approaches to devising from stimuli
and promoting confidence in movement skills.
These workshops will help unlock your groups
creative imaginations.

teaching these skills explicitly is vitally

important to get the students to achieve their
best grades and this work ties in perfectly with
exploring texts and themes in the coursework
Units for example.

2. Staging The Text

Page to stage. Be it professionally, at GCSE, ALevel or higher, we all have to stage texts. This
workshop focuses specifically on the processes
we can utilise to discover the dramatic
functions, structure and life of an existing playtext. In other words get the most out of the
script and allow your group to achieve. We will
explore concrete and practical methods of how
to read, mine and breakdown a script in order
to make the jump from page to stage.

Participants might undertake a number of

exercises acting as both directors and
performers and discover just how much we can
glean from the page and unearth the hidden
world of a play. This understanding can really
unlock those higher grades whether its being
Excellent for groups working on devised or
cross-disciplinary projects we explore open and able to talk about form and structure to score
highly at GCSE or speak clearly and cogently
closed scores, processes of creating material
quickly and efficiently and effective methods of about drama at A2 in a supporting written
evidence document. Beyond this and for very
refining devised performance. We can also
high achievers we ask what really is an event?
suggest reading material, reference useful
practitioners in workshops, and provide a range How do we understand subtext through
games? And why punctuation can transform
of supporting resources for those studying. At
your theatre-making.
the higher end these workshops can focus on
process work for developing new material,
Due to requests we can now work with you on
dramaturgy, composition, montage and finding your current set-text. This will of course require
alternative visual and physical performance
some additional preparation so rates will vary
language using tasks, scores and accessible
but what better than having someone kick-start
movement technique.
or polish your top-class GCSE and A-Level
pieces before the examiner comes in? Recent
For educational institutions we understand
pieces weve worked on in exam settings
that developing work around stimuli or texts is
include work by Sarah Kane, Moises Kaufman,
essential for students at A2 and GCSE, and
Timberlake Wertenbaker and Sarah Woods.

LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

Rough Fiction Theatre Company both inspired and challenged our students
through the positive encouragement and high standards that they
implemented Head of Drama, Boswells School, Essex

3. Ensemble Skills Through

Movement

approaches to narrative interpretation or

incorporating musical content into devised
theatre.

Movement is music and music is movement.

Working on group physicality and ensemble
skills, these highly practical workshops look at
ways of developing a groups own unique
performance language. Areas of focus include:

This workshop can stand alone or is offered in

conjunction with Ensemble Skills Through
Movement exploring multi-disciplinary
approaches.

- musicality and rhythm and how this can

breathe new life into your theatre-making
and control the momentum of your
performances.
- ways of indexing and creating a common
language by working together physically
using tension and contact.
- collectively building material as an ensemble
through scores and rules.
- preparing and training for physical
performance and how to champion liveness
in your work.
All sounds too technical? our workshops are
all delivered at the level of the students. All
sounds too simple? we are always keen to
push those Gifted and Talented members of
your group.

4. Ensemble Skills Through Music

The whole is only the sum of its parts. Ideal for
groups working in musical theatre, devised
theatre, or in actor training, this workshop will
unlock group confidence and broaden the
groups understanding of ensemble work and
its application in performance. Using an
accessible approach to ensemble singing and
rhythm participants will discover simple and
effective techniques for incorporating
musicality into their theatre-making process.
We can focus the work towards technique and
performance skills, or concentrate on creative
Something
from
nothing:
Participants
develop
movement &
music
material
together from
simple tasks
& scores

Specialising in voice and percussion our music

practitioner Aime Leonard has over 20-years
experience touring the world as a professional
musician and working as a workshop facilitator
in both music and theatre. She has often
worked as musical director on theatre projects
with various companies including The National
Theatre of Scotland and Rough Fiction.

5. The Actor, The Text & The Voice

Its all in the text. This workshop will help
performers find ways to understand and unlock
the power of words, and the voice in
performance.
Using active, on-your-feet exercises to reveal
how alive and exciting words can be, the
workshop culminates in a master-class style
exploration of some short scenes. A great
session for students who need to understand
the dramatic and performative nature of both
classical and contemporary playwriting.
Inspired by Simons training with renowned
voice-coach Patsy Rodenburg and the work of
Declan Donnellan, the session covers rigorous
unpicking and analysis of text, and fundamental
acting skills for working with Shakespearian
text, or contemporary plays, and can form an
excellent way into Shakespeare be it in drama
or English classrooms.
This workshop requires a 4-hour session.

LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

The Last of The Lake: Uncovered

Discover the physical & devising processes used to create our latest touring production

Defies categorisation ... so

visually strong the experience is
comparable to reading a graphic
novel. This dreamy, trippy
theatrical experience is one that
stays with you long after the
curtain call
The Good Review 2012
In distant desert villages where water
is sparse young girls can either accept
what fate has given them or fight
against it. She turned into a mermaid.

This unique workshop sits alongside our main workshop program and offers participants the opportunity
to learn about some of the devices and techniques used to create our 2012 touring production, The Last of
The Lake. Working with members of the company, participants will explore physical and devising processes
that inspired by the piece including ensemble movement, physical choreography and devising from
production stimuli.
Supporting Materials
Supporting materials for the production are available from the company website from 2013 including a
downloadable script, production resource pack including exercises and interviews, an archive recording of
the show, and a document of early stimuli used for research and development.
The Production
The very last of the life-giving lake is about to run out. The village just hope their saviours dont run out on
them. This new play from Rough Fiction brings the technicolour and extravagant world of magical realism to
life as two girls twinned by birth and by prophesy, engage in an epic, healing and emotionally-testing journey
to the sea. This fantastic genre, most readily exemplified by works such as Garca Mrquezs One Hundred
Years of Solitude or Rushdies Midnights Children, is blended on stage with moments of bold physicality
and an immersive audio-visual design allowing a rich and heady world of birds, mermaids and ritual to burst
into life. Co-commissioned by Brighton Dome in association with Newbury Corn Exchange, The Point
Eastleigh and supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Creating Our
Performances

Devising Together
Workshop Sessions at the Brighton
Corn Exchange, 2010

however happy to feed in

more theoretical and
Phil and Simon have been
academic grounding and
researching and developing
study-based material into
The Last of The Lake for
your session for those who
about a year now, devising
require it. Tips and hints on
and perfecting elements on
devising for examined work
paper and in rehearsal rooms. and writing up that work can
First and foremost this work
be an excellent
is based in practice rather
accompaniment to an A2
than academic theory and to supporting written evidence
this end our workshops are
document for example. We
practically focused as a
love being in rehearsal rooms
result. Thats what youre
and want your students to
getting us in for. We are
love the experience too.

LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

I am delighted that Rough Fiction and the

Actors Centre are embarking on this exciting
project together. This is the perfect context in
which the ideal of an Ensemble can be nurtured
and Rough Fictions commitment to skills
development alongside artistic exploration is in
perfect accord with our vision of the actor as a
creator as well as an interpreter of new work.
These sessions will add something exciting to
our programme of workshops and Ive no doubt
the work that emerges from the Laboratory will
be original and unique.
Matthew Lloyd, Artistic Director, the Actors Centre

We really enjoyed the residency and I was really

moved by the theatre the students presented.
Thank you for a real drama highlight. We have
already booked for next year.
Richard Norman, Head of Drama,
Bishops Stortford College

Creative Residencies & Professional Development

3-6 day intensive residencies modeled on Rough Fictions London Ensemble Laboratory
What is a Residency?
Rough Fictions Creative Residencies offer a
sustained creative experience, through a series
of physical and devised theatre workshops
culminating in a performance on the final day.
Based on our ongoing professional training
work, our residencies offer an unique
opportunities to work intensively with members
of the company and discover Rough Fictions
approach to contemporary theatre-making and
ensemble training. Typically projects run for a
3-6 day period but we have run for longer where
special funding or partnerships are involved. Two
practitioners work with up to 20 participants to
create work with a balance between text,
movement and musicality.
Our residencies encourage students to look
beyond self-perceived limitations in an intensive,
imaginative and challenging environment in
which to gain a deeper understanding of
professional theatre-making practice.
There are two key models: the first focusing on
original movement and text, the second focusing
on blending this work with ensemble singing and
the creation of original music (See Ensemble
Skills Workshops).

View some of the work

You can watch a professional recording of Girls
& Boys & A Nice Pair of Heels, the resulting
production of a 6-day residency with lower 5th
students at Bishops Stortford College via this
link: www.roughfiction.com/learnandtrain/
residencies

There is also a mini documentary about our

development process and training work here:
www.roughfiction.com/ensemble-lab
What next?
If youd like to discuss a potential booking and
get a quote the best thing to do is pick up the
phone and chat with us. You can contact Simon
Pittman on 07946 553 668.

The Ensemble Laboratory at the

Actors Centre, Covent Garden
Since July 2010 the Ensemble Lab has provided
time and space every weekend for over 40
members of the ensemble to train, experiment
and develop skills together as an ensemble at
the Actors Centre and in Pimlico and at an
intensive model in Brighton. We believe that a
commitment to training and ongoing dialogue
between performers is essential to creating truly
great ensemble theatre.
The Lab company last presented a low-tech,
pop-up production of The Love of The
Nightingale by Timberlake Wertenbaker. The
production has appeared in mainstream theatres
and alternative venues since August 2011. Due
to the pop-up nature of the production you can
even book it at your venue - We just need a
months notice...
Find out where to catch forthcoming Lab
productions at www.roughfiction.com

LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

Arts Awards
The Gold Award, a nationally recognised
qualification, equal to 35 UCAS points, allows
students to have their work in performing arts
recognised. The award needs to come from
the students, be about the students and be
organised by the students but needs a
dedicated and trained facilitator. Phil, our CoArtistic Director, has been trained to facilitate
and oversee these qualifications endorsed by
Trinity Guildhall.
The Gold award is amazing but needs time
and tends to be for those exceptional A-Level
students. Lower down the school KS3 and
KS4 students have the chance to gain their
Bronze and Silver Arts Awards. Again
something that rewards talent and shows
these students to be both well-rounded and
highly capable individuals.

It's a great pleasure to offer these awards and

see students thrive when they take control.
Workshops can be tailored to assist students
in gaining their Silver and a complete package
fulfilling all the requirements of Bronze can
feasibly be done in a week.
The ideal way for us to offer this qualification is
as part of a Creative Residency but the best
thing to do is contact us to discuss your ideas
and requirements.
Lets talk further: To discuss Rough Fiction
facilitating an Arts Award at your institution or
receive a quote please contact Phil King on
07843 007 621.

Bronze, Silver & Gold:

Gain an Arts Awards with Rough Fiction

Highly recommended the

deconstructive flair of The Wooster
Group playing Pirandello.
Metro on Hospitals and Other Buildings That
Catch Fire, 2005 (below)

LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

Company Biography
Phil King and Simon Pittman founded Rough Fiction
in 2005. They co-direct the company alongside other
outside commitments including directing, writing,
movement directing, lecturing and teaching.
Rough Fiction was an Associate Company at The
Point Eastleigh 2010-2011 where we developed our
current show The Last of The Lake which toured 2012
and is co-commissioned by Brighton Dome. We have
produced two previous productions; Killing Alan
(South Hill Park / The Underbelly, Edinburgh Festival,
2009) and Hospitals and Other Buildings That Catch
Fire (The Underbelly, Edinburgh Festival 2005 /
National Student Drama Festival 2006). Both
productions garnered wide-spread critical acclaim
and 4-star reviews and Hospitals was shortlisted for
a Fringe First Award. Our Ensemble Laboratory has
been running since 2010 hosted by The Actors
Centre London and People at Play providing time and
space every weekend for members of the ensemble
to train and develop work together. The Ensemble
Lab will tour a pop-up production of The Love of
The Nightingale by Timberlake Wertenbaker to
venues around the UK this Autumn.
Phil King - Co-Director
Phil has been awarded a First in International Theatre
from Royal Holloway University and received the
scholarship to the David Edgar-founded playwriting
Masters at the University of Birmingham. He recently
submitted the winning adult play for the The National
Theatre New Views playwriting Competition and his
play House Martin was commissioned at the West
Yorkshire Playhouse as part of the Northern Exposure
season. For Rough Fiction Phil has written The Last
of The Lake (The Point Eastleigh), Killing Alan
(Underbelly, Edinburgh Festival 2009), Hospitals and
Other Buildings That Catch Fire (Underbelly,
Edinburgh Festival 2005 / National Student Drama
Festival 2006) which was also revived by The Brit
School in 2009. Other plays include What's Their Life
Got? and Listening Out for The Bitesize Festival at
Theatre 503 (2006), The Big Half, the small ha'f
(Pleasance Theatre Islington, 2004), and After the
Garden (Theatro Technis, Camden, 2005).
Images from The
Last of The
Lake, 2012 and
The Love of The
Nightingale popup production,
2011
Photography: Ben
Ward and James
Marshall
This document is
Simon Pittman
and Phil King
2013

With backgrounds in new-writing and physical

theatre, company members have trained and
worked with renowned theatre-makers
including Frantic Assembly, Paines Plough,
The National Theatre of Scotland, Told by An
Idiot and Song of The Goat.
Phil also writes a blog called Fighting out of the
Fringes for The Independent.
Simon Pittman - Co-Director
Simon trained onthe MFA in Theatre Directing from
Birkbeck University of London and attended the
National Theatre Studio Directors Course. He was
Resident Director at the Library Theatre Manchester
from 2006 - 2007. He now work as a freelance
director and was recently Associate Director on TheGo-Between (West Yorkshire Playhouse / Derby Live /
Royal and Derngate Northampton), Floyd Collins
(Southwark Playhouse) and movement director for
The Kingdom (Soho Theatre).
Directing credits include; Not A Game For Boysby
Simon Block (Library Theatre Manchester)
nominated for Best Production and the cast for Best
Actor at the Manchester Evening News Awards, The
Love of The Nightingale by Timberlake Wertenbaker
(Pop-up Tour), Killing Alan and Hospitals and Other
Buildings That Catch Fire (Rough Fiction / Edinburgh
Festival), The Interview (Arcola), Siblings: Gate Ink
(The Gate Theatre, London), Peer Gynt (Bournemouth
Arts Institute - Acting BA).
He is a Learn Practitioner for Frantic Assembly for
whom he has directed several productions with
young people. He has worked with The National
Theatre of Scotland as movement director and as
assistant director on productions including 365
(Edinburgh International Festival / Lyric
Hammersmith), 99...100 (Fife), and Mixter Maxter (St
Magnus Festival Orkney); one of the finest pieces of
youth project artwork Scotland has ever
produced (The Scotsman). He has also assistant
directed for Paines Plough and the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama. He has been a visiting lecturer
at Royal Holloway, University of London and
Portsmouth University.

LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

Practitioner Biographies
Images: Aime
Leonard in
rehearsals and
Helen Millar in
performance
with members of
the Ensemble
Laboratory (The
Love of The
Nightingale
2011)
Photography: Alex
Brenner and
James Marshall.

Helen Millar - Learn & Train Associate

Helen Millar trained as an actress at the Drama
Centre. After graduating she was award the Alan
Bates Award for most outstanding newcomer by
Juliet Stevenson. Helens theatre work includes:
Pygmalion (The Garrick), Lady Macbeth in Macbeth
(The Broadway), Madam Bovary in Breakfast With
Emma, shortlisted for Best Actress in The Off West
End Awards (Tour), The 24 Hour Plays, Symposium,
Straight Out Of Line, The Spies in Room 502 (The Old
Vic), Arcadia, Heartbreak House, She Stoops To
Conquer (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Dying (The Gate/
ATC), The Consultant, The Mixer (Theatre 503), The
Story Project (The Arcola) Galileo, The Bards of
Bangkok (Edinburgh Festival). Television includes:
EastEnders, Holby City, Doctors and City Lights. Film
includes: Chemical Wedding, The Brink, Dark Rage,
The Evening Was Long, Flash, Opaque.
Helen is a founding Member of Straight Out Of Line,
a company which focuses on new writing in site
specific venues, recently collaborating in Theatre
Delicatessen. She works frequently with Tmesis
Theatre, a european physical theatre company and
The Factory, bringing fresh life into classical works,
currently rehearsing The Odyssey. She is also artistic
director of Sweet Adversity, recently directing and
producing the film The Boss(es).Helen was
employed as artist in residence at Westminster
School where she taught devising and the work of
the practitioner Le Coque. Helen is a core member of
Rough Fiction and has worked closely with Simon as
an actress and director since 2010, recently touring in
their production of The Love Of The Nightingale and
co-directing Boys And Girls And A Nice Pair Of
Heelsfor Learn & Train.

All of our Learn & Train practitioners work

professionally as actors, performers,
directors and within education and many are
regular practicing members of Rough
Fictions Ensemble Company.

Aime Leonard - Associate Practitioner

Specialising in voice and percussion our music
practitioner Aime Leonard has over 20-years
experience touring the world as a professional
musician and working as a workshop facilitator in
both music and theatre. She has often worked as
musical director on theatre projects with various
companies including The National Theatre of
Scotland and Rough Fiction. Aime Left Orkney in
1988 to study a degree in Community Theatre and
music at Rose Bruford College in London. Following
this she worked as an actor musician for various
theatre companies before becoming heavily involved
in the London folk/music scene and has since
enjoyed a wide ranging career in both music and
theatre. This includes joining the Celtic band Anam in
1994 and moving to Ireland to continue her
professional music career. Aime played in the band
that won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1996 and
recorded three CDs with Anam when signed to the
Japanese JVC label, touring the world playing at
festivals including Lorient Interceltic Festival (France),
Port Fairy (Australia), Christchurch Festival (New
Zealand), Atlan Festival (Japan), New York Albany
Festival and the Memphis Folk Festival (USA),
Glastonbury and Cambridge.
She has tutored for Glasgows Celtic Connections
schools outreach programmes, founded the Song
Shops womens choir and ran a popular childrens
choir. She worked as project leader for The Big
Orkney Song Project. She has also taught master
classes at WAC in London to 3rd Year Musical
Theatre students and recently a Narrative Song
course to 1st year students. She had provided vocal
coaching, individual singing technique classes for all
genres including preparation of songs for
performance or music exams.

LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

Further Engagement:
Public Workshops
Keep an eye out for forthcoming
training workshops and weekend
intensives available to book in the near
future at www.roughfiction.com/
learnandtrain
Workshop intensives will focus on
devising and physicality as well and
voice and rhythm.
Partnerships
The company often works in
partnership with other
organisations to engage in longer
term or more ambitious projects
in creative learning. In the past we
have worked with companies
such as The Lyric Hammersmith
delivering a physical theatre
course called N:Gage for the Lyric
Young Company. Rough Fiction
was recently engaged with
Creative Partnerships as Theatre
Practitioners for a production
project with Burnham Grammar
School.
People At Play
Rough Fiction have recently made a
new association with People at Play, a
collective of artists and companies
linked together in order to share spaces
and ideas.
Our Ensemble run weekly laboratory
sessions at the venue every weekend
and the company has also presented
performance work and helped to
facilitate community events throughout
the year.

Rough Fictions
commitment and
genuine interest in
both the students
and the method/
acting/ techniques
were inspiring. They
generated a positive
working
environment, the
program had a good
progression and the
content was well
adapted to the
group.
Head of Performance
Studies,
Dramavedeling Drama
School, Norway

What Next?
To discuss any of the workshops in this pack, or a
tailored project, please contact Simon Pittman at
[email protected] / + 44 7946 553 668 or
Helen Millar at [email protected] /
+44 7984 649362
Company Contacts
Artistic Directors:



Creative Producer:

Phil King and

Simon Pittman
Tracky Crombie

Current Learn & Train

Associates:

Aime Leonard
Helen Millar

Email:


Website:

[email protected]

Mail:

Rough Fiction
C/O 122a Tufnell Park Road
London N7 0DU

Twitter:

@roughfiction

Facebook:

facebook.com/roughfiction

www.roughfiction.com

LEARN & TRAIN PROGRAM 2013

Our workshop was inspiring and thought-provoking and something

I would recommend to anyone and everyone! The improvised tasks
were unlike anything I had experienced and I will definitely be using
them in the future Piers Jeffries, Student, Farnborough Sixth Form
College

Rough Fictions commitment and genuine interest in both the

students and the method/ acting/ techniques were inspiring. They
generated a positive working environment, the program had a good
progression and the content was well adapted to the group Head of
Performance Studies, Dramavedeling Drama School, Norway

"The best thing was how fun it was with Simon and Helen even
thought we learnt LOADS" Henry - Bishop's Stortford College

We really enjoyed the residency and I was really moved by the

theatre the students presented. Thank you for a real drama highlight.
We have already booked for next year Richard Norman, Head of
Drama, Bishop's Stortford College

Rough Fiction Theatre Company both inspired and challenged our

students through the positive encouragement and high standards that
they implemented Head of Drama, Boswells School, Essex

"I thought the fitness was the worst element but I am relieved we did
it now as I can see how it was useful. I wasn't expecting this much of
an open experience where we make the show from ideas we gave. I
LOVED IT" Residency Participant, Anon
"It will definitely help me make theatre in the future. One thing I
learnt was the ability to react to peoples' offers and build on them. I
would love to do it again, it has really helped me look at different
ways to perform drama. Workshop Participant, Anon.

www.roughfiction.com
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