The School of HighTide is open to playwrights who identify as Black, Asian, MENA, Latin and/or all Minority Ethnic heritage. It is a free 3-month workshop programme curated by Director and HighTide Associate Artist Chris Sonnex designed to develop craft and deepen thinking through a series of workshops led by a wide range of leading practitioners.

The workshop series will offer a safe space to converse, listen and reflect on the significant inequalities in the arts sector, and to implement change and positive response. The school will be an opportunity not only to develop your craft but also how to use your artistic voice to tell stories that reflect the urgent political and social changes that have happened this year.

The School of HighTide will explore topics such as art as activism, character representation & intersectionality, unconscious bias, writing joy, centring communities in your work, accessibility, form & structure as well topics surrounding artist wellbeing, how to earn a living from creating and more.

Sessions will run weekly from January – April 2021 with an introductory session in December 2020. The sessions will be approximately one hour in length and will take place on Monday evenings via Zoom.

Session leaders will include:

Juliet Gilkes-Romero (Writer: The Whip, RSC)
Sonia Jalaly (HighTide Commissioned Writer, BBC Comedy Writers Room)
Milli Bhatia (Director: seven methods of killing kylie jenner – Olivier nominated)
Dominic Garfield (High Rise Theatre Collective)
Temi Wilkey (Writer: The Stage Debut Award Best Writer, The High Table)
Debbie Hannan (incoming co-Artistic Director Traverse Theatre)
Myah Jeffers (Royal Court Literary Associate)
Eve Leigh (Writer: Midnight Movie, Royal Court)
Ned Glasier (Artistic Director, Company Three)
and more to be announced…

Criteria 

• The School of HighTide is open to playwrights who identify as Black, Asian, MENA, Latin and/or all Minority Ethnic heritage. These writers will join the HighTide’s Supported Writers who HighTide have been mentoring throughout the pandemic.
• This programme is not aimed at artists who have never created work before. However, they do not have a set criteria on how much work you must have previously created, acknowledging the barriers that may have prevented work being staged or created.
• This programme is designed to engage writers who are motivated and committed to furthering themselves as artists and are willing to attend sessions with an open mind and a willingness to explore.

Taster session:

The Taster session will be led by HighTide Artistic Director Suba Das and HighTide Associate Artist Chino Odimba in December 2020. The session will look at writing craft with the chance for participants to take part in a writing exercise. More information regarding this session will be shared to those who fill out the expression of interest form.

DEADLINE:

Deadline to sign up is 5pm on 6th December with an intended programme start date of 11th January 2020.

https://hightide.org.uk/inventing-the-future/school-of-hightide/