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 people at the start of their careers who are missing out on significant time of professional development during lockdown.
With the knowledge that most theatre-makers operate on a freelance basis we have set a scale of fees for each workshop session and would ask you to consider which bracket you can reasonable afford. All income made from these training sessions will go directly to covering the costs of keeping Spymonkey going while we’re unable to make work or run our training in person.
Workshop fee pricing brackets (see description for each workshop length)
£12/ £15 / £20 per 90min session
£16 / £24 / £30 per 2 hour session
Free sessions for BAME artists
If you are a BAME theatre-maker and particularly interested in making physical comedy theatre, we’d like to hear from you. We will build on our Brassmonkey Bursary scheme by offering 10% of spaces on this workshop programme free of charge to Black people and people of colour. These sessions will be offered on a first come first served basis by contacting Natasha Britton on natasha@spymonkey.co.uk with details of which sessions you’d like to attend.
Workshops June & July 2020
An introduction to writing a budget #1
Covering the basics of using Excel and what to include for making and/or touring a small scale show.
Weds 1st July at 2pm (UK time). 90mins. Cap 30 people
Link to book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/spymonkey-an-introduction-to-writing-a-budget-1-tickets-110096848638
Introduction to Arts Council England Project Grants: R&D under £15k
Covering the basic content of each of the main sections within Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants application. This session is specifically aimed at artists interested in applying for under £15,000 for support to research and develop new projects.
(NB: all ACE funding streams are currently closed and not expected to re-open before 2021).
Thurs 2nd July at 2pm (UK time). 2 hours. Cap 30 people
Link to book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introduction-to-arts-council-england-project-grants-rd-under-15k-tickets-110099879704
An introduction to writing a budget #2
Covering the basics of using Excel and what to include for a research and development project.
Weds 8th July at 2pm (UK time). 90mins. Cap 30 people
Link to book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-introduction-to-writing-a-budget-2-tickets-110100403270
Spymonkey’s Devising Process
With Artistic Directors Toby Park & Aitor Basauri/Petra Massey, this discussion / Q&A is a chance to gain an understanding of our process from early conception through to production.
Thurs 9th July at 2pm (UK time). 90mins. Cap 40 people
Link to book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/spymonkeys-devising-process-tickets-110100688122
A Successful Marketing Pack
What information do venue marketing teams need to sell your show? Using Spymonkey’s marketing pack from The Complete Deaths tour we’ll take you step-by-step through what to include in yours.
Weds 15th July at 2pm (UK time) 2 hours. Cap 30 people
Link to book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/spymonkey-a-successful-marketing-pack-tickets-110101851602
Spymonkey’s Approach to Music and Song
Toby Park, Managing Artistic Director, and composer for all our shows, is joined by fellow Artistic Director Aitor Basauri to discuss the role of music and song within Spymonkey’s work. We will look at the process of composing and production, creating song, dance and instrumental routines, and discuss the relationship between music and clown.
Thurs 16th July at 2pm (UK time) 90mins. Cap 40 people
Link to book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/spymonkeys-approach-to-music-and-song-tickets-110102519600
Basics of branding and poster and flyer design
Making your theatre company stand out, we’ll go through what design and image you could choose, how to layout your design and what information to include in your print.
Weds 22nd July at 2pm (UK time) 90mins. Cap 30 people
Link to book: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/spymonkey-basics-of-branding-and-poster-and-flyer-design-tickets-110102960920
Garage of Broken Ideas
After four rounds of The Garage of Broken Ideas in which Artistic Directors Toby Park and Aitor Basauri took a good look under the bonnet of some excellent ideas with bespoke, online creative mentorship, we are taking a pause over the summer. Keep an eye out for the garage opening again in the autumn.
We will continue to review and tweak the sessions we offer over the coming months. If there is a workshop you think we could offer, please get in touch with natasha@spymonkey.co.uk