A young theatre performer stood in front of lights
Toolkit

Outdoor Performance

Thinking of bringing your youth theatre workshops or performances outdoors?

This toolkit provides a starting point for groups researching ways to work outdoors. You might want to take your work outside in order to remain sensitive to anxieties around COVID-19, or you might be interested in making this more a part of your long-term practice, and focussing on the benefits of spending time outside.

If you’re interested in exploring more environmental issues check out our Climate Awareness and Green Recovery Toolkit.

Whether you’re urban or rural, there’s never been a better time to wrap up warm and head outside (we are still in Scotland after all!).

Resources

A crowd of people indoors
Scottish Outdoor Arts Index
A guide to Scottish companies making work outdoors: use it to research practice or connect with artists and organisations looking to develop partnerships.
People on a bus
Why Work Outwith Theatre Spaces?
Gobsquad have a brilliant FAQ’s section on their website exploring how they make their performances and why they work outdoors.
Post-it notes on a window
Scottish Outdoors Arts Training Sessions
Three pre-recorded training sessions exploring possibilities, practicalities and partnerships involved in making work outdoors.
Street Theatre Workshop
Training Opportunity: Masterclasses in street and non-theatre-based performances.
Reading a book on a bus
Workshops: Rowanbank Environmental Arts & Education
Training Opportunity: Edinburgh-based company offering CPD workshops for practitioners to learn about leading sessions outdoors.
Making Outdoor Theatre: A Theatremaker’s Guide
An introduction to performing in outdoor theatre experiences.
The back of a school bus
Returning to Outdoor Work in Live Performance
Published in July 2020, this guide is for Equity members on what to look out for if engaging in an outdoor project.
An outdoor gazebo
Grow Youth Theatre
A youth theatre based in Sheffield who specifically work outdoors. Their blog reflects on some of their regular activities including workshops and performances.
Youth Theatre Participants
Towards an Ecological Performance Aesthetic for the Bio-Urban: A Non-Anthropocentric Theory
A thesis on how theatre can frame and question climate issues for audiences to think about the ecological world in a new way.

Share

You might also like...

View our resources for youth theatre groups, theatres, practitioners and  professionals

Toolkit
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Stage performers lying down
Toolkit
Money Matters