Spymonkey are excited to offer a third series of affordable training workshops and webinars covering areas of finance, producing and marketing, alongside sessions delving into the creative process behind our work. This new series of online workshops and webinars is available to book throughout September and October. As before, with the knowledge that most theatre-makers operate on a freelance basis... View Article
With Artistic Directors Toby Park & Aitor Basauri We had such an inspiring time with our Garage of Broken Stupid Ideas during the depths of lockdown, we decided to make a festival! All our shows begin with a stupid idea. We invite you to bring your ridiculous, creative, stupid ideas for a new project, theatre show or online content to... View Article
In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, in order to try to keep your global peckers up, we are releasing free online versions of our shows to the world over the next weeks. We hope these will be of help in cheering you up and boosting your immune systems! You might like to know that most of our shows including STIFF,... View Article
June – July 2020 In response to the impact of Covid-19 on theatre makers, Spymonkey are offering a series of affordable training workshops covering areas of finance, fundraising, marketing and touring, alongside sessions looking at the creative process behind our work. We are aware that the skills and experience within our small, part-time, freelance team could be of benefit to... View Article
Some good news this morning: Spymonkey are receiving emergency Arts Council of England funds to allow us to continue to operate through the COVIDeousness. We’d like to thank all the #NationalLottery players who take a punt every week, as well as Arts Council of England, for stepping up to plate during the crisis. We’ll be using the funds to cover... View Article
Business workshop and project ideas MOT for theatre-makers. Hello from Spymonkey on lockdown! We are excited to be bringing you a series of workshops and online discussion groups to lift spirits, develop skills and help you to move forward with your current works-in-progress projects. We will host a series of Wednesday Workshops and Friday Garage of Broken Stupid Ideas sessions,... View Article
by Josie Cerise, Spymonkey 2020 bursary recipient ‘Naïve enough to start, stubborn enough to finish’ Ross Edgley, an extreme athlete’s mantra before starting a new physical challenge. I started my ‘clowning journey’ (how very yoga) 12 years ago, I was a naïve acting student who thought I would be really funny straight away. Guess what? I wasn’t. It takes patience... View Article
Successful Collaborating – Thurs 24th Sept 4pm (UK time)
With Artistic Directors Toby Park & Aitor Basauri & Producer Emily Coleman
Spymonkey are an intensely collaborative company – all of our work comes about through the meeting of creative minds, some new, some longstanding partners. This discussion/Q&A will allow you to gain an insight into how we create work with different directors, writers, musicians, choreographers, lighting designers.
90 mins. Cap 40 people
The Festival of Broken Stupid Ideas
With Artistic Directors Toby Park & Aitor Basauri
We had such an inspiring time with our Garage of Broken Stupid Ideas during the depths of lockdown, we decided to make a festival!
All our shows begin with a stupid idea. We invite you to bring your ridiculous, creative, stupid ideas for a new project, theatre show or online content to our Garage so that our expert mechanics, Artistic Directors Toby Park and Aitor Basauri, can help you take a good look under the bonnet, see how they tick, get them running and hopefully take them out for a spin. We’ll use our experience to prod, poke and shake your idea, so that you can take it forward.
We invite eight projects to join us – either solo or group projects. All eight will present their ideas in the first session to kick things off. The eight projects will then be split into two working groups. These groups will meet for three further weekly sessions to develop their ideas, and then come together in the final week to present an online festival performance.
We are accepting a maximum of eight ideas for this project. An idea may be presented by an individual or a group.
Dates for Garage sessions:
Fri 25th September @ 4pm – 2 hours – All 8 ideas
Fri 2nd, 9th & 23rd October – 2 hours per group at either 4pm or 6pm (to be decided in week 1)
Fri 30th October @6pm – Online Festival performance
Price: £200 fee for the whole Garage process
To apply to be part of the Festival of Broken Stupid Ideas:
Please email Natasha: natasha@spymonkey.co.uk
In up to 50 words please tell us about you
AND
In up to 50 words please tell us about your project/ what your idea might be (even if this is very vague initially).
Deadline to apply: 1st September. We will inform people/ groups selected on Tuesday 8th September.
We look forward to hearing your broken stupid ideas!
Overview of producing a show – Thurs 1st Oct 2pm (UK time)
With Producer Emily Coleman
A whistle stop tour through the main stages of producing a touring show – from bringing partners on board and fundraising, to timescales of the overall project management and final evaluation. This session will give you the key milestones for successfully producing your own projects.
90 mins. Cap 30 people
Arts Council England Project Grants – In Depth – Thurs 8th Oct 9.30am (UK time)
With Producer Emily Coleman
This session will explore each section of the application in detail using examples from Spymonkey’s successful grants, as well as a guide to uploading your application onto ACE’s Grantium portal.
4 hours. Cap 20 people