Last week in Melbourne, nine talented actors and five Emerging Minds project officers and managers came together under the directorship of Melbourne theatre professional, Melinda Hetzel, to run a two-day intensive story creation workshop. This story-devising workshop was convened by Artist Made Productions with the aim of drawing on the actors’ diverse backgrounds and lived experiences to bring to life the fictional family stories that we utilise in our e-learning courses.
The actors were given simple provocations as starting points to devise family scenarios. They gathered in small groups and created rich, moving and authentic scenarios. These were further work-shopped by Melinda, exploring the themes and connections in the families.
Emerging Minds staff reflected in journals on the intersection between their work creating e-learning content, and the actors’ process. They also had the chance to sit in on the devising process. It was a rich experience for the actors and the staff, allowing these often separate spheres of work to intersect and build understanding about what goes into the respective processes.