training, education &
artist development
FEEDBACK
Charee Monroy,
Brooklyn USA
Working with Toby and Aitor was an amazing joy, and I'm really so grateful that Spymonkey found a way to connect with the community over Zoom to offer these workshops.
I can't stress how much I learned in the relatively short amount of time we all had together. I really appreciated how generous you were with offering inspiration for everyone's pieces. I'm excited to keep working on this with my friends and bring it to Edinburgh next year (it'd be my first show!).
Elevating my writing's structure and working on my tics from performance nerves (even over Zoom) with you both was incredibly helpful, and I got a lot out of you offering clear ways on how to improve moving forward. I learned a ton as well from watching the other participants perform and, like everyone, miss being in class in person so much.
It was really heartening to be able to work on an idea and present it to everyone, and I wanted to write to say thank you again for being so generous with your expertise during this time.
Christina Tsoutsi, Nottingham UK
Having the chance to meet Aitor and Toby was amazing, both super friendly and made you feel very welcome. They made me feel really comfortable with sharing my idea with them.
Calum Johnston,
Brisbane AUS
It has been such a pleasure to join these workshops (even though I have to stay up till 2 in the morning, well worth it!). I have learnt so much and have made the realization that I have a lot more to learn to further my craft, so when the pandemic settles down I would love to save up and join the classes in person.
Guy Hargreaves,
Lancashire UK
The tone was light, warm and generous - the fact that Aitor and Toby both turned up at the Zoom meeting in car mechanic overalls with their virtual backgrounds set to a duffed up garage immediately helped me let go of any anxiety.
These workshops were lovely international affairs with participants and mentor-mechanics Zooming in from, Brighton, Bilbao, New York City, Melbourne, Lancashire and Nottingham.
They were small gatherings with 5 Zoomers in the garage for our first session and 6 for the second. I felt relaxed, open and happy to share my ideas with everyone on both occasions.
The tone of feedback was supportive but not namby-pamby. There was also the right amount of prodding under the bonnet by Aitor and Toby (with an oily, well used monkey-wrench). Questions were posed and suggestions given to get the engine of our ideas up & running.
THE GARAGE OF BROKEN STUPID IDEAS - MARK I
In the depths of Lockdown we wanted to find a way of working creatively with people on their ideas. So we opened the GARAGE OF BROKEN STUPID IDEAS, in which we invited anyone to bring along their idea for a show for chief mechanics Aitor Basauri and Toby Park to have a look at. We worked in small groups of three or four other participants, to see if we could help to get it started and even take it out for a spin.
We were very inspired by the results, with participants joining us from all over the world, from Brisbane to Mumbai to Brooklyn.
So as a follow up to this we have set up the FESTIVAL OF BROKEN STUPID IDEAS, which will support 8 different ideas over a month of regular creative sessions, ending with an online performance on 30th October.
THE FESTIVAL OF BROKEN STUPID IDEAS,
OCTOBER 2020 MODEL
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.
All weekly sessions and the final performance will be via Zoom and all times listed are UK.
Dates for Garage sessions
Fri 25th September @ 4pm - 6pm - groups A & B
Fri 2nd, 9th & 23rd October – group A: 4pm - 5.45pm / group B: 6pm - 7.45pm
Online festival performance
Fri 30th October @ 6pm
Price £200 fee (inc. VAT) 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).
If you have any questions prior to applying, please email Managing Artistic Director, Toby Park: tobypark@spymonkey.co.uk
Deadline to apply
1st September
We will inform people/ groups selected on Tuesday 8th September.
We look forward to hearing your broken stupid ideas!
Participants at a Garage session in June 2020
clockwise from upper left: Aitor Basauri, Guy Hargreaves, Christina Tsoutsi, Charee Monroy
