Devising with Images
Discover how images can become the foundation of performance. Join The Cockpit's new resident company for this full-day workshop, exploring image-making as both a creative tool and a performance language. Drawing on physical theatre, object theatre, and puppetry techniques, participants will investigate how images can be created on stage through the use of bodies, objects, movement, space, and composition.
Who could benefit from this course?
This workshop is ideal for performers, theatre-makers, directors, writers, and creatives who are interested in visual storytelling and collaborative creation. Whether you are experienced in devising or looking for new ways to generate material, the session offers practical tools that can be applied across a range of disciplines.
Participants from backgrounds including theatre, puppetry, dance, live art, and interdisciplinary performance are all welcome. No previous experience of physical theatre is required.
The workshop is particularly suited to artists who are curious about how images, movement, and spatial relationships can communicate ideas, emotions, and narratives, and who are interested in meeting and collaborating with other creatives.
How does it work?
The day will begin with ensemble warm-ups and physical exercises before moving into a series of practical devising tasks. Participants will explore techniques from physical theatre, object theatre, and puppetry to create theatrical images using bodies, objects, space, and movement.
Working individually, in pairs, and in groups, participants will develop these images into short pieces of performance material, experimenting with composition, transformation, rhythm, and visual storytelling. Along the way, there will be opportunities to share work, receive feedback, and reflect on different approaches to devising.
Drawing on Lecoq-inspired practices, the workshop offers practical tools for generating performance from visual ideas and creating theatre that communicates through image, movement, and relationships in space.
What do you gain?
- Practical techniques for generating material through visual and physical approaches.
- Greater awareness of space, body, and image in performance.
- Experience of Lecoq-inspired physical theatre approaches.
- New ways of approaching storytelling beyond text.
- Inspiration for future creative projects.
- Collaborative experience in ensemble-based creation
- Opportunities to meet and connect with fellow artists and collaborators.
Dates, Times & Cost
Saturday 3 October,
10:30am to 5:30pm
£99 early bird (book by 21st September)
regular price £110
Save 10% when you book 2 or more Theatre Maker workshops.
Check out our other "Devising With" sessions:
Introduction to Devising (15 September)
Devising with Improvisation (11 October)
Devising with Live Cinema (18 October)
THE PALIMPSEST PROJECT
The workshop is led by Beckett Gray and Sam Critchlow of The Palimpsest Project, an international, neurodivergent-led theatre company creating interdisciplinary work that combines physical theatre, puppetry, live cinema, and explorations with sound.
Together, they co-created and performed Imprints, an OFFIE-nominated production exploring memory, identity, and belonging through fragmented storytelling and innovative theatrical forms. Their practice prioritises collaboration, playfulness, and accessibility, creating environments where participants feel supported to experiment and develop their own creative voices.
Sam Critchlow is a theatre director, performer, and Lecoq-trained deviser from the North West. They hold an MA in Directing from Rose Bruford College and trained at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris and Avignon. Their credits include Project Dictator (Rhum and Clay) and Où Reste Encore un Peu (Avignon Off 2024), alongside Imprints. Sam’s work draws on physical theatre, clown, mask, mime, object theatre, and puppetry, with a particular interest in visual storytelling, devised performance, and collaborative creation. He is passionate about helping participants discover new ways of expressing themselves through theatre.
Beckett Gray is a neurodivergent, genderqueer performer and drag artist with an MA in Acting from Mountview. Their work includes Portrait of A Queer in Panic (Kaleidoscope Theatre Festival, King’s Head Theatre) and Bark Bark (Summerhall Arts). As a performer and theatre maker, Beckett is particularly interested in exploring identity, queerness, and the ways theatre can externalise internal experiences, combining autobiographical material with imaginative and physical forms of storytelling.