Date: June 14th
Location: ND2, 1 Triton Square, Regent's Place, London, NW1 3DX
Time: 10.00 - 17.00

We are delighted to welcome director Ellen Mcdougall (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Manchester Royal Exchange, Orange Tree, West Yorkshire Playhouse). Ellen's next production will be Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe. Ellen is also the Artistic Director of The Gate Theatre.

This workshop will look at the skills and techniques required to build a truly collaborative ensemble. You will explore responses to non traditional texts including experimental plays and a short story.

Participants will work practically with a range of texts, with a particular focus on a short story by Jose Saramago which Ellen will be developing for a production at the Gate Theatre.

This workshop is suitable for actors interested in devising and developing a concept for a production as well as performing in it. It would suit actors who are interested in breaking the fourth wall and working outside the boundaries of naturalistic character work.

Ellen Mcdougall

Recent directing credits include; Othello (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); The Remains of Maisie Duggan (The Abbey Theatre); The Rolling Stone (Manchester Royal Exchange/ Orange Tree Theatre); The Glass Menagerie (West Yorkshire Playhouse and on tour); Anna Karenina, Idomeneus (Gate Theatre); Spring Awakening (RWCMD); Aladdin, Cinderella, Glitterland (Lyric); Henry the Fifth, Nutcracker, Not Now Bernard, and Antigone/Philoctetes (Unicorn Theatre); Telling Tales (Almeida Theatre); Ivan and the Dogs (ATC/Soho Theatre/Rustaveli Theatre - nominated for an Olivier Award 2011); A Kind of Alaska (JMK Award Runner Up/BAC). Her next production will be Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Ellen has recently been named Artistic Director of The Gate Theatre She was formerly Associate Director at the Gate (2012-13) and Associate Artist at ATC (2009-11). She trained as an assistant to Katie Mitchell, Marianne Elliott, and Bijan Sheibani, and was Director in Residence at the NT Studio. She received an Arts Council International Development Award 2012, and the Runner Up Prize for the JMK Award 2008.