PRACTICE LAB are a curated series of workshops led by international theatre makers, offered in partnership with Chisenhale Dance Space in London. These workshops are aimed at sharing the wealth of skills and knowledge in the migrant artist community, and creating new and unexpected connections between theatre makers from all communities.
If you’re a theatre maker excited about developing your craft, PRACTICE LAB is for you!
All workshops take place at:
Chisenhale Dance Space, 64-84 Chisenhale Road, London, E3 5QZ.
8 April 2026 - 18:00-20:00
‘The Neurophysical Actor’ Training Workshop led by Dr. Khairul Kamsani
Stanislavsky, Meisner, Chekhov and Adler were highly intuitive in the approaches that they developed. Recent findings in neuroscience and sports science have given us more concrete ways of understanding the core elements of the actor and their craft. The Neurophysical approach is developed from the basis of the two ‘Thinking Systems’ and two ‘Muscle Twitch Types’ that we are all comprised of. Both Thinking Systems compete for our attention and ‘reality’ in our daily life - it becomes imperative for an actor to understand and navigate their thinking systems with craft and care, before creating the mindbody of a character.
This workshop series covers physical and cognitive aspects of an actor’s development and their implementation into their craft. We begin by understanding parts of the whole before embracing a holistic practice.
13 May 2026 - 18:00-20:00
Who Am I When I’m Hacked? - A Creative Exploration of Social Media Identity led by Laura Mottola
This creative workshop is a devising lab exploring the intersection of social media and identity. We will creatively explore a common and deeply personal experience: having your social media account hacked. The aim is to expose how intimately tied our digital presence is to our sense of self, and what happens when that identity is taken from us.
We will explore the emotional and psychological impact of losing control over our social media identity. Through guided discussion, improvisation, and collaborative devising, we’ll examine the blurred line between who we are and who we present ourselves to be online, and what’s at stake when that version is stolen. Being hacked is intimate. It's an invasion without fingerprints. It’s someone wearing your face and speaking in your voice. A contemporary tragedy with WiFi. We scroll. We curate. We perform. But who performs when we lose the account?
Join Laura to play at the edge of authorship and identity!
(Disclaimer: This workshop explores themes Laura is developing for a new performance work. The session is a research and devising lab, not a content extraction session. It is a collaborative exploration and any personal stories, text or movement generated remain the property of their creators).
10 June 2026 - 18:00-20:00
Ensemble Theatre Making with Halfpace Theatre led by Megan Brewer
This session looks at ways of building ensemble as a foundation for devised work and how to build a welcoming environment for your collective. We’ll go over co-creating codes of conduct, exercises and warm ups to foster team understanding and trust, how to take a survey of ‘who is in the room’ and a few ways of devising using collective movement and elements of design such as sound and lighting.
Please wear something you can move in and bring an interesting prop, handheld light, and/or something that makes sound.
8 July 2026 - 18:00-20:00
Collaborative Theatre Devising led by Filipa Tomas
This high‑energy workshop throws performers straight into a world of bold games, fast‑paced improvisations, and collaborative scene‑making that sparks ideas you didn’t even know you had. You’ll build brand‑new material from scratch with other devisers, discovering how shared creativity can ignite surprising and electric moments on stage. Together we’ll dig into what truly creates stage presence—that magnetic quality that makes an audience lean in and stay with you. Expect a playful, physical, imagination‑driven atmosphere where risk‑taking is encouraged and curiosity leads the way. Come dressed in comfortable clothing so you can move freely and dive fully into the creative chaos.
12 August 2026 - 18:00-20:00
To Live on the Tongue - Call and Response with material archives led by Nomakhwezi Becker
This participatory workshop forms part of Nomakhwezi’s ongoing research into German Blaudruck and South African beadwork as material languages of memory, lineage, and coded communication. Drawing from South African storytelling traditions of Call & Response, we will explore how language can be embodied, reciprocal, and collective. Through ukuzimamela, listening to the body as an archive of memory, participants will engage lessons from beads and textiles as carriers of pattern, rhythm, and ancestral knowledge. Using call-and-response exercises, we will trace how visual motifs and inherited codes might function as scores for movement, voice, and writing. Insights and feedback from the workshop will inform the development of new writing and performance within Nomakhwezi’s wider To Live on the Tongue research project.
9 September 2026 - 18:00-20:00
The Art of Character: Chicago Improv Techniques led by Jess González
This workshop is all about character building, emotional range, and understanding your role in a scene. Through playful exercises inspired by Chicago-style improv, participants will explore how to create specific, emotionally rich characters and bring them to life in the moment. There will also be movement and physical exercises, so wear clothes you can move comfortably. The workshop is perfect for actors looking to deepen their character work, improvisers wanting to strengthen their character-based choices, or anyone curious to play, experiment, and have fun. By the end, you’ll leave with practical tools to create dynamic, responsive, and engaging characters in any scene.
14 October 2026 - 18:00-20:00
Embodied Stories: Exploring Movement Heritage led by Nasia Papadopolou
This workshop invites participants to delve into the rich movement heritage that their bodies carry, shaped by their ethnic origins, cultural backgrounds, and family histories. Through guided exploration, participants will uncover and express their unique personal stories through movement. The workshop aims to create a deeper connection to individual identity, offering artists a space to develop their expressive tools and celebrate the diversity of their embodied experiences. Everyone is welcome, please come with an open heart and comfortable clothes.
11 November 2026, 18:00–20:00
Borderless Tongues: Multilingual Poetry & the Beautiful Art of Mistranslation led by Leo Boix
What happens when languages collide, overlap, and refuse to stay in their lanes? What new music emerges in the space between what can be said—and what can’t? In this dynamic, hands-on workshop, we’ll explore the vibrant, rule-breaking world of multilingual poetry through the work of visionary Latin American and Latinx poets, including Irma Pineda, Diego Báez, Natalie Diaz, and Raúl Cisneros. Together, we’ll uncover how poets weave languages to create texture, tension, intimacy, and surprise. This session invites you to embrace mistranslation not as error, but as creative force. We’ll play with sound, ambiguity, hybridity, and voice—experimenting with code-switching, plurivocal poems, invented languages, and the rich emotional terrain of writing across borders. Whether you speak multiple languages fluently or carry fragments, memories, or echoes of other tongues, this workshop will open new pathways into your writing.
Expect generative prompts, collaborative exploration, and bold experimentation. You’ll leave with fresh drafts, new techniques, and a deeper sense of the expressive possibilities that emerge when languages meet, fracture, and transform. Come curious. Come playful. Come ready to disrupt the idea that poetry belongs to just one language.
Bring: Pen and paper (and any languages you carry with you).
9 December 2026 - 18:00-20:00
Activating the Archive led by Gabriel Dias Cardenas
How do we activate the memory carried in the objects we travel with across borders? Through a sequence of practical exercises, participants will explore how migratory archives and objects hold traces of movement, memory, and transformation, bringing them into live performance. We will disassemble and recompose these materials to create short scenes and moments of shared witnessing. The session invites participants to consider how the past we carry can reshape the futures we imagine.
Participants should bring:
A personal migratory archive or object with a meaningful connection to them, for example a recipe, photo album, letter, postcard, gift, document copy, map, or a piece of clothing or textile. Bring something you feel comfortable handling and sharing. Please wear comfortable clothing for movement. If possible, bring a phone we can record on and headphones that can plug into it.
