ROCKET BOX X JUSTOUT THEATRE
What is it like to leave a University bubble and enter the industry?
How do we find a unique image for ourselves in a crowded industry?
How do we approach theatre-making in a time where ‘traditional’ performances are on pause?
When theatres closed in early 2020, both Rocket Box and Just Out Theatre responded creatively with their own digital seasons of audio theatre – work that resulted in a meshing together of artists, art forms and styles of performance. This workshop will explore both companies’ approaches to creating online content – from seeking out artists, building worlds with sound, rehearsing and recording from home, and how the current climate might be viewed as an opportunity to evolve and develop as emerging artists.
Join Rocket Box and Just Out Theatre for your chance to ask questions about their insight on what life is like post-graduation, and your first steps into the theatre industry.
Mistakes were made, lessons were learnt - sit down, open your notebooks, let’s de-mystify what entering the industry is actually like.
ROCKET BOX THEATRE
Rocket Box Theatre are a company made up of producers, designers, musicians and performers. At the core of their work is storytelling, and an interest in working collaboratively to create something that connects with audiences in the live, shared moment of performance.
Shortly after graduating in 2019, Rocket Box, with the generous help of the York Performance Award, completed a national tour of Alice Birch’s Many Moons. This led to building successful relationships with venue’s across the UK, including the The Pleasance Theatre, the UK’s leading Off-West End venue, who currently offer mentorship to Rocket Box and an interest in programming their future work. Lockdown then put all prospects of live performance on pause, leading to a partnership with the The Sunflower Skills Club to create ‘Rocket Bytes: A Digital Season of Audio Theatre’, raising money for Cancer Research UK. This season allowed Rocket Box to explore and experiment with different mediums of storytelling from the comfort of a sofa, of which the most recent release was an “impressively detailed and high quality” (Pocket Size Theatre 2020) audio adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: A Binaural Audio Experience.
JUST OUT THEATRE
JustOut Theatre was founded in early 2019 by University of York graduates Gabriel Stewart, Keira MacAlister and Ben Wilson. The company was set up to showcase new works and provide opportunities to talents from the North of England's creative scene.
In summer 2019, JustOut produced and toured two original plays by University of York alumni, Home by Gabriel Stewart, and White Nurse by Abby Coppard, across various UK fringes to glowing reviews. In March 2020, they launched a very successful monthly scratch night in Manchester, working with a variety of Northern based creatives to promote and reflect upon their writing. During the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic, they launched their radio play series JustOut Stays In, to provide an alternative digital venue for Northern writers to have their work produced. Since March, JustOut have produced 13 radio plays, worked with 50 creatives and read 247 scripts. This work has enabled JustOut to build a community of emerging and established Northern creatives, placing new work and storytelling at the heart of their practice.
