COMMUNITY

Open Sky is grateful to be funded thanks to taxpayers as an Arts Council England, National Portfolio Organisation.

One of our favourite responsibilities as an NPO is engaging with our community via teaching, projects, shows and mentorship.

Community engagement ensures our own artistic work stays rooted and relevant. If you want to get involved please get in touch!

TEACHING

  • A group of students move around stage exploring space.

    LECOQ-BASED PHYSICAL ACTOR TRAINING

    Claire is a guest lecturer at Hereford College of Arts where she specialises in teaching multiple aspects of the Lecoq pedagogy to performing arts students at both diploma and degree level. She began teaching at the college at 2017 and offers regular professional opportunities and work placements on Open Sky projects to HCA students.

  • Close up photo of Lisle explaining

    WRITING ROOM EXTRA

    Lisle teaches a writing class for Feral Productions at Courtyard Hereford on Monday afternoons. The Writing Room Extra is for established writers writing long-form work. Please visit the Courtyard website for further details or to sign up for the class.

  • A close up photo of Lisle checking the camera positioning

    FILM OR DIGITAL THEATRE WORKSHOPS

    Lisle Turner has nearly 20 years experience of writing, directing, producing and distributing film. He teaches screenwriting, directing and acting for camera for the BBC, BFI and others. Workshops can be tailored for participants of any background, ability or age. Please get in touch if you’d like to book as a group or individual.

  • Student exploring movement, a young black woman is bending forward looking ahead.

    PHYSICAL THEATRE WORKSHOPS

    Claire is a full graduate of Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris where she studied mime and physical theatre. Claire also attended École Lecoq’s Laboratoire d’Etude de Mouvement intensive training in scenography and their Pedagogical intensive teacher training. She teaches all aspects of physical theatre to individuals and groups.

  • Three people acting wearing costumes and red noses.

    CREATIVE PLAY WORKSHOPS

    Whether you are working on something light and breezy or unearthing the darkness, creating from a place of playfulness brings another dimension to your practice. Using clown training, mindfulness techniques, gentle movement, laughter, and a dollop of silliness we’ll shake off doubt, adulting and analytical thought to embrace a state of play.

  • Lisle is standing leaning over a young man discussing a script.

    WRITING FOR DEVISED THEATRE

    Lisle has been writing for devised theatre for nearly twenty years. This workshop covers how to generate source material for devising, how to structure improvised material, how to edit improvised material and how to capture then enhance improvised dialogue. Suits individual writers or companies.

PROJECTS

  • A group of student move across the stage.

    DIGITAL STORYTELLING

    In person skills workshops for young people introducing writing for digital theatre, devising performance and shooting action READ MORE Funded by the UK Government, Powered by Levelling Up and Herefordshire Council #UKSPF
    Herefordshire, Spring 2024.

  • Students dressed as turtles are acting in front of people playing instruments.

    TURTLE OPERA

    Turtle Opera is a music and drama project for young people aged 11-14 on the autism spectrum. Created and produced by Turtle Key Arts and directed by Claire Coaché in Bristol in 2022 and 2023.

  • A mature lady is doing embroidery with a female actor sitting next to her. The actress is wearing a red nose.

    OPEN ARMS

    Individual clowning interactions with isolated older people (also socially distanced in gardens during Covid), Creative Age, Bethesda Church Cheltenham 2020 & 2021.

  • A group of people holding their arms in front of them.

    TURTLE SONG

    Creation of a movement and song writing cycle with people living with dementia and their carers alongside composer Richard Barnard. Turtle Key Arts. Three Choirs Festival, Gloucester 2019.

  • A group of people are sitting in a circle ina village hall. They all have coloured rosettes. There is a lady dancing in front of them. She is wearing 3 rosettes.

    RIVER TALES

    Facilitating workshops about imaginary river towns across three Herefordshire homes culminating in a live sharing at Courtyard Hereford, 2017.

  • An elderly woman sits in an armchair looking at something on a clipboard through a magnifying glass. A younger woman is leaning over her looking at the same thing. She is holding a pencil.

    CREATIVE AGEING

    Creating and facilitating drama workshops with older people in multiple Herefordshire residential care homes. Courtyard Hereford. 2015-2018.

  • Claire is standing wearing a face shield. She is looking at a script. She is holding her left hand out gesturing something small with her thumb and forefinger.

    WRITING ROOM SHOWCASES

    Biannual showcase of new writing from Lisle’s Writing Room courses at Courtyard Hereford. Directed by Claire, performed by professional and young trainee actors in 2022/23

SHOWS

  • A young couple embrace, woman is upset and the man holds her tightly

    LOVE WILL TEAR US APART

    Love Will Tear Us Apart is a community written play about standing in the mud whilst looking at the stars, trying to hold on to each other when the sky falls in and the heartbreak of saying goodbye.

  • LOVE BITES

    Love Bites was written by members of Writing Room Extra, a local writing group based at The Courtyard Hereford. A series of five funny, moving and entertaining short plays were served up to diners in between courses at The Beefy Boys restaurant.

STUDENT SHOWS

  • 3 young men stand leaning slightly back with their right arm raised. There is a reflection which duplicate images so it looks as if there are 5 of them.

    MY ROMANTIC HISTORY

    D.C. Jackson’s My Romantic History. Physical Direction of BA Hons Performing Arts student final year performances, Hereford College of Arts, Ludlow Assembly Rooms, Theatre Royal Tenbury Wells June 2023.

  • In the foreground are 2 young men acting. In the background on a bunk bed sits a young woman wearing orange dungarees

    DEAD PLANET

    Hereford College of Arts BA Hons Performing Arts Degree final year show. Directed and co-devised ‘Dead Planet’, a post-apocalyptic comedy, with the class of 2021.

  • Five actors are walking across a set of chairs lined up in a row. They are holding hands. They are wearing Black tops and baggy trousers.

    THE DAY WAR CAME

    The Day War Came by Nicola Davies – directed devised children’s theatre performance by HCA students at Hay Festival 2017.

  • $ people stand on a stage. They are grouped together and are all looking to the right. They are wearing black jackets and sunglasses. The young man at the front holds out his mobile phone.

    A BOTTLE OF HAPPINESS

    A children’s theatre adaptation of the book by Pippa Goodhart. Co-directed (with Gillian Hipp), for performances by HCA students at Hay Festival 2019