Margate Recovery College: Writing and Performance workshops

In the early summer of 2019, coming out of our work on the Escapologist project, my collaborator LH and I ran a series of creative workshops partnering with Margate Recovery College and the Turner Contemporary, who hosted us in one of their beautiful rooms overlooking the sea.

The theme for the workshops was “The Escapologist’s return: What does it feel like to embark on a journey of recovery”?

Our handout stated:

These workshops will be free of pressure, and meet you wherever you are on your journey. We will take you through creative writing tasks, the outcomes of which are then further explored through performance. We will look at what words can do to communicate, and how performance can help when words alone are not enough.

Over four sessions, we worked with writing, speaking, movement, objects, music. We discussed and we laughed a lot. Connection with the imagination — so very different for each individual, offering a beautiful palate of styles — is at the heart of the work.

We worked with each other and with the presence of the sea, sky and horizon. By the final week, the group had produced deeply moving performances, each person giving a little treasure from their process. The growth in confidence and the warmth of the group were a joy to be part of.

Image: LH

At the end of the process, the group requested help with a meeting space from the Recovery College, to continue to meet without us.

Participant feedback:

Thank you, Roanna and Louisa, for providing a fantastic workshop. Your professional approach, competency, patience and openness gave me the self-confidence to create something new. The workshop encouraged me to be more open to work with my body and finally create my piece of poetry. It was an amazing experience. I have never created poetry, but step by step, I was able to write something new. It allows me to express my feelings, and I am really happy about that. Thank you very much.

The course was challenging for me personally as I have never taken part in creative writing / movement course. But I really enjoyed the course and felt the workshops gave me the opportunity to explore my creativity from a different perspective. I just didn’t want it to end. Fantastic ! !

The performance was blast in the making and fun to perform and the location made it so much more exciting and easier to perform at. Creativity in all of us comes with the help of being allowed to connect in so many different ways.