Creating autobiographical performance work with Phil Spencer 2021

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This 1-day course will provide a safe, supportive and rigorous environment for writers and performers who are interesting in using autobiographical material to create storytelling shows or solo performance works for the stage.

It will be a hands-on workshop with practical exercises, writing tasks, industry examples and peer-led discussions. Focusing on the way memoir, testimony, family history, personal stories and lived experiences can be channeled to tell powerful, comedic and theatrical stories.

The aim of the workshop is to spark ideas for participants at the early stages of a project and the session is aimed at participants with general experience in writing and/or performing for the stage. Be you an emerging artist, an actor wanting to write something for the first time, or a writer considering stepping onto the stage.

What to bring:

• A personal story (max 500 words) to share

• Your own utensils/food (we have a fridge and microwave)

About the artist:

Phil is a writer, comedian, theatre-maker & creative producer. He is festival director for the annual Bondi Festival, a regular contributor to the Radio National Fictions podcast and a long-time friend of the popular Story Club podcast.

Phil was the recipient of the Peggy Ramsey Foundation Award for Writers and has been shortlisted for the Philip Parsons Playwright Award not once, not twice, but thrice (but still hasn't won it. He's pretty sure it's rigged).

Over the past 15 years, Phil has performed in lounge rooms across Sydney, arts festivals across Australia and in shitty rooms above pubs the world over.

His most recent show credits include; The Smallest Hour (Griffin Theatre Company), No Standing. No Dancing. (Giant Dwarf, ABC Radio National), Hooting & Howling (Melbourne Fringe, NSW Tour, Lorne Arts Festival) and tour director for the award-winning one-man show Since Ali Died by Omar Musa.