What's on
Performances, workshops, events and seminars are shown on this page, where they're of interest to Communications, Drama and Film students.
Please remember that coursework-related events may not appear until a week before the event, so please check back regularly.
Tue 06 May
Start time: 10:00Making A Short Film - Don Boyd 3 Day Masterclass
Presented by: Don BoydIn this masterclass, students will be given the structured opportunity to make a short film from a theme, set of dramatic circumstances or preconceived script. Director and producer Don Boyd and Acting for Screen convenor Bryan Brown will work with a handful of actors, directors, writers and camera operators to explore the ways in which a short film comes alive on screen from an improvisational theme or scripted work.
This is a great opportunity to meet new students across CDF and English, to develop new skills, and to hone your creative vision. You will work fast and intensely, collaborating in small groups to create a short film in less than 72 hours.
The workshop will be structured as follows: Groups will be assigned beforehand so that you can begin to develop a theme, set of dramatic circumstances or written script. The first day of the masterclass will be a talk by Don Boyd about improvisation for screen and ways to approach your work. Each group will then present their theme and ideas for how to concretise their scene and Don and Bryan will offer guidance about how to go about filming the scene. That afternoon, and the following day, each group will film on their own, with assistance from appropriate staff when needed.
All students, but particularly camera operators, will be offered training by the CDF tech team and each group will edit their own scene (with appropriate guidance) for a final showing on the last day of the workshop. There will be a guided feedback session and discussion of the work during this screening as well as a final Q&A with Don Boyd.
The workshop has limited places. To register as an actor, director, writer or camera operator, please send a 250-word maximum personal statement to Bryan Brown B.Brown@exeter.ac.uk explaining why participating in the workshop is important for you at this time. Please include which degree and year you are in your email, and if you have a particular theme or type of scene you want to improvise or write (you don’t need to, but it will help us group you if you do). Our intention is to choose a range of experience and needs for this workshop. Previous experience is not required; passion and commitment are.
Applications due by 28 March.
Wed 07 May
Start time: 14:00T3 Festival
Employability Salon #1
2-3pm Phil Smith & Helen Billinghurst - Crab & Bee’s ‘Matter of Britain’: making performance from folklore.’
In this hour-long session, Crab & Bee (visual artist and poet and performance-maker Phil Smith) will open up their work with an extract from their 2025 performance tour of ‘Matter of Britain’, discuss their devising of a new folklore, their methods of performance-making and discuss strategies for making a living and a career in the arts.
3.30-5pm Matthew Linley – an independent theatre producer with a wide range of experience in commissioning actors, plays and venue management.
Wed 14 May
Start time: 14:00T3 Festival
Employability Salon #2
An opportunity to listen to (and also bend the ears of) the new artistic director at the Northcott and Sam Parker (theatre development producer), along with hearing from recent graduate Rob Stirzaker about local radio.
2-3.30pm Martin Berry & Sam Parker - Northcott Theatre
4-5pm Rob Stirzaker – a student on the course just last year and now working as a local radio presenter
Wed 14 May
Start time: 16:00T3 Festival
Playwriting Workshop
Location: WH1Postcode: EX4 4LA Show on Map
Have you written a play, or part of a play, and would like feedback on it?
Are you interested in writing a play but are not sure how to start?
This workshop is for undergraduate and postgraduate Drama students who would like to learn more about playwriting and to develop their own creative writing. The workshop, which will limited to twelve students, will feature writing exercises and activities. Following the workshop, students will have the opportunity for follow-up mentoring online.
Dr. James MacDonald is a playwright whose work is regularly staged in the United Kingdom. He is an associate research fellow at the University of Exeter. He has worked with Exeter Drama students for over 30 years on textual interpretation and script development. His published work includes Russia, Freaks and Foreigners (2008), Carnival Texts (2011), Freaks of History (2017), Eight Performance Texts about Disability (2020), Ugly (2021), Cripplegate (2023), and Four Plays about Disability (2023). He has also published essays from his personal experiences on physical disability in Studies in Theatre and Performance: "The Virtue of Living A Lie" (Volume 30 Issue 3, 2010) and American literary journal Boulevard (2011). He has also written "Does He Write Plays?" (Boulevard, 2013).
Sign up here: https://forms.office.com/e/SpAx9zAgBH
Wed 21 May
Start time: 14:00T3 Festival
Employability Salon #3
2-4pm Here’s a chance for you to have a 10-minute, 1-1 surgery with professional practitioners from the department, to discuss your future creative ideas, professional plans, or even to ask about who else you might talk to!
4-5pm A presentation by a representative from Equity (the Actors’ Trades Union)
Thu 05 Jun
Start times are 16:00 and 18:00T3 Festival
Unsilent Mode Vol. I Redux
Director: Kelvin Wong
Location: RS2 Roborough Studios, Prince of Wales Road, Postcode: EX4 4SB Show on Map
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