An opportunity to create and showcase a new solo show
A two-day workshop & performance evening
Day 1: Creating material for a solo show;
Thursday November 19th – 10.30am to 5.30pm
Day 2: Structuring ideas for a solo show;
Thursday November 26th – 10.30am to 5.30pm
Evening: Performance of your solo show/feedback session MT Studio
5/10 minute evening showcase
Wednesday Dec 2nd – 6.30pm – 9.30pm
From basic principles to advanced techniques:
These workshops will be aimed at creating a solo show from scratch or developing existing ideas.
Working on your relationship with the audience; creation and development of characters and narratives; physicality; visualisation and structuring a performance
The workshops will draw on methods which evolved whilst developing and directing legendary solo performers Claire Dowie and Ken Campbell over the past 40 years
Solo plays created in Solo Theatre Workshops at the old Actors Centre have been performed in festivals all over the UK and beyond including Edinburgh Brighton, London and New York.
Most recently Colin directed Claire Dowie’s Swansong and Jack Klaff’s Kafka at the Finborough; Elena Mazzon’s Popess at the Glitch and Lyrici’s Soul Food at the Glassbox in Medway. Jack Klaff’s Kafka transferred off broadway to 59E59 theaters in New York in 2025 and Elena Mazzon’s play about Clara Schumann played there in April 2026.
BIOGRAPHY
Director Colin Watkeys, founder director of the Face to Face Festival, has been directing solo performers for more than forty years.
He studied philosophy in London, Japanese Theatre, Music and Dance in Tokyo, and founded the Finborough Cabaret alongside Nica Burns in 1982
directing Nica Burns in Dulcima, his first solo theatre production.
Colin also worked at the Royal Court Theatre for the Young Writers Festival. Amongst his many notable productions are Pigspurt, Jamais Vu and Theatre Stories by Ken Campbell (National Theatre and Royal Court Theatre) and Claire Dowie’s Swansong (four solo plays at the Finborough Theatre in 2025)
Colin is Associatte Theatre Director of Lyrici Arts where he is currently developing Sound System Stories with Will Johnson.
