Making a new piece of theatre inspired by your cultural heritage can be an equally empowering and terrifying thing. Where do you start? How do you put your experience onstage in a way that resonates with others? And how do you balance artistic integrity with self-care? Join Sepy Baghaei in this workshop exploring the power and potential of creating performance rooted to your cultural heritage.

Sepy is a theatre director/writer who has previously created work exploring her heritage as an Iranian woman.

In this workshop, she will guide participants through:

– Conceiving and developing an idea for a new piece of theatre rooted to your cultural heritage

– Thinking about the audience experience: who do you want to see this work and what do you want them to get out of it?

– Techniques for feeling equipped and supported throughout the realisation of your work

This workshop is suitable for writers, directors, performers and other artists interested in making theatre inspired by their cultural heritage. It will be a 50/50 mix of discussion and individual/group exercises.

About Instructor Sepy Baghaei
Sepy Baghaei is a theatre director and writer. She works primarily with new writing and verbatim theatre, and has workshopped new plays with the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre Studio. As a director/assistant director, she has worked with companies including Theatre Royal Stratford East, The Space, English Touring Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. As a writer, her credits include CITIZEN, a verbatim play which spotlighted the experiences of Iranian refugees and migrants. She also wrote A Good Day Will Come, a monologue that delved into Iran’s Bloody November protests and was a winner of Mercury Theatre & Josef Weinberger Plays’ monologue competition in 2020. She also writes prose, and is part of the current cohort of Faber Academy’s Writing A Novel course. Awards include: Longlisted – Sir Peter Hall Director Award; Ian Potter Cultural Trust Award; Guildford Academics Associates Scholarship; Best Production (Winner) and Best New Talent (Nominated) – Short+Sweet Sydney Short Play Festival. Sepy is Associate Director at The Space Theatre and Co-Vice Chair of MENA Arts UK.