Elevate Festival - Directing Without Borders: Theatre Techniques from Around the World

Anoushka Bonwick is leading a workshop on global storytelling techniques in theatre at the Barnfield Theatre on Thursday 5 November, starting at 3pm. It's part of the Elevate Festival, the annual celebration of South-West artists run by the Exeter Northcott.

If you're not familiar with Elevate, it's the Northcott's artist development programme, built on the Futures Programme and designed to support South-West artists taking their next steps. It's a free membership that gives you access to press nights, social events and discounts — including 10% off at the Northcott and Barnfield bar and café — alongside commissions, new-work platforms, training, a dedicated literary support strand for writers, free rehearsal space, up to six Associate Company slots and a place on the Artist Assembly. The programme also relaunched the Young Creatives group, bridging the Northcott Young Company and the former Futures Programme.

The festival strand, Elevate Festival, is the theatre's annual celebration of South-West artists, staged at the Barnfield Theatre through performances, workshops and meet-ups. It draws on the Write/Direct programme and commissions new writing from local playwrights through Elevate Shorts. Highwall Theatre also features: it was founded in 2014 as a graduate company whose debut, The Alpha Effect, began on the Northcott's RAW platform.

Bonwick's session fits into that training side of things, focusing on storytelling techniques from around the world. It's open to Elevate Members only, so if you're an artist in the South-West and haven't signed up for the membership yet, that's the first thing to sort. The workshop runs at the Barnfield Theatre on Thursday 5 November from 3pm.