Tuesday 27 November 2012

The Directors' Weekend


Rob Watt
Producer, Connections
 
The Connections Directors' weekend took place from the 9-11th November. Each year we offer this weekend as the official start of Connections, where all of the directors of Connections shows are invited to London to explore their play with the writer and to network with other directors.

This year we decided to be ambitious. We wanted to make the best use of the small amount of time that everyone gets together and to offer the most resource filled and comprehensive training and networking weekend we could.


So we created the opportunity to select up to 5 skills workshops across the weekend, in addition to the usual full day session with the writers, and a session with the representatives from Partner Theatres. Oh, and add to that the chance to see a smash hit NT show for a tremendous price and a social gathering and you've got one comprehensive weekend.

How comprehensive? 48 skills workshops, 70 hours of workshops with writers, 130 tickets to One Man Two Guvnors and over 350 people involved across the weekend. That comprehensive.

We're always looking to improve and develop what we offer so right now we're gathering feedback on the weekend in order to make sure that the workshops we offer are of value, that the information we give is clear and that the catering we provide fills that nagging hunger hole.

We heard fantastic things about the movement workshops so we'll make sure that's there next year, we're already looking at where we can hold the festivities next year in order to make the weekend as efficient as possible and we know there we lots of fans of the chocolate provided in the registration pack...

Not only that, but we'll also have a series of videos available to those taking part in Connections on the brand new Connections Community very soon. So if you missed out on a workshop we might have some highlights for you to enjoy.

All that's left for me to do is to thank everyone involved in the weekend, from those who took part, the workshop leaders, the writers and the volunteers who have up their time to support us all weekend. Now let's put it all into action and enjoy making theatre!