Facilitate

Music & Songwriting

Vocal exploration, instrumental improvisation. Musical journeys from vocal discovery, no experience necessary to sound baths, to advanced harmony, arranging, instrumental improv & performance.

I have run music workshops in 15 countries in everything from collective songwriting, to vocal technique, to British, Irish, & Latin American folk musics, to recording & electronic performance setups. I compose & perform on voice, classical guitar, piano, synth, oud, clarinet, congas, djembe. I lead 4 bands. I trained in jazz under Nikki Yeoh, classical in Camden Music, Ma'qam under Khyam Allami at ethnomusicology SOAS & worked in folk revival with Sam Lee.

I have taught full piano performance in 10 minutes to poshies in Kent & street-based youth in Sierra Leone. Got 12 year olds to Samba Band performance standard in front of 1,000 people within 1hr. Connect to your inner musicianship as an ancient birthright. Through playful, practical, fun exercises, made irresistible. A space where you fail upwards, let it all out, experiment, break things, then come back to refine & make the work easier, calmer, not harder, more stressed.

Theatre Directing / Devising

Directing, Development, collective writing. Bring new work to life across departments. Strengthen script, physicality, music, dramaturgy. Work with creatives & lived experience communities to co-create.

I led the devising & group composition of a 2.5hr musical that sold out in 9 countries to standing ovations every night. I've directed 14 shows & facilitated 175 days of collaborative writing/devising workshops in multiply marginalised communities. A PhD has been published on mine & Siobhán Knox' participatory pedagogy over 5 years of S.W.Opera.

Germinate initial ideas, research & consult across communities & sectors, connect script development to music, costume, lighting, set. I am passionate about nurturing bold, experimental work that platforms hidden voices, breaks stigma, stereotypes & monoliths to communicate a rich, complex portrait of humanity, served by all layers of the creative production. I have a library of tools for enabling co-writing, co-design & experiential devising, including for those with less access to education, literacy, or less interest in sitting down at a laptop to type.

Script Writing & Film

Triangulate character, plot, theme & setting. Write in the concise, direct language of film. Kill darlings. Show don't tell. Marry action & dialogue. Reference relevant antecedents, connect to film hxstory.

My debut auteur 11min short film (wrote, directed, starred, art directed, exec produced) was shot on ARRI Alexa in 5 days over 6 locations (inc. a boat at sea, a temple, catacombs, rolling hills), raised £45k & has been to 5 film festivals in UK, Netherlands & Canada. I have led 4 film writing courses (UK, Belgium, Spain, South Africa) spanning topics of core story, script, cinematography, art direction, pre-production (casting, locations) & production (camera, sound, lighting). I am not a film producer.

Write your first short. Map your first fiction feature. Plan your campaign. Understand the fundamentals of the medium, how it differs from novels & stage plays. Explore compelling character creation (arcs - objective, obstacle, setting, theme, message) inc. ensemble casts & how they impact each other. How plot, narrative & visual storytelling is shaped by cinema hxstory, cinematographic conventions, technical constraints, financial considerations.

Public Speaking & Pitching

Epic tools to multiply comms impact instantly. Win people over in 30 seconds. Reach hearts & minds. Navigate controversial topics. Deal with high pressured TV / Radio. Find your story.

Between 2014-2019 I created £4M in independently estimated press/media impact producing high profile theatre productions & narrative-led rights campaigning with communities at the margins. We had to train community members to represent contentious topics on TV at a moment's notice on BBC, ITV's This Morning, VICE, Classic FM, and articles in the Independent, TimeOut, The Guardian, The Morning Star, Open Democracy & New Internationalist.

This led to a unique experiential methodology that simulates high pressure environments in a safe space, crowdsourcing research, lived experience & strategic wisdom in the room to come up with water-tight blurbs, compelling elevator pitches, & effective responses to questions & challenges. I focus on universal performance skills, stress navigation mechanisms & tone/language that wins over hearts & minds, while conserving your individual skills & authenticity.

Workshop Facilitation

Participant-centric design & space holding. Make big ideas interactive. Guarantee learning thru decentralised self-discovery. Run powerful consultations & cross-sector collaborations. Enable skillsharing.

I've trained faciliators in (including, but not limited to):

• London, Bristol, Edinburgh with London Roots Collective, Rebel Clowns, Fire Choir, On:Song & Sibling Arts
• Free Town, Sierra Leone with Music Action International
• Cape Town, South Africa with SWEAT/Sisonke
• Dublin, Republic of Ireland with Center 4 Artistic Activism
• Tbilisi, Georgia with Erasmus+

I can deliver your prepared workshops, help you design, or work from a brief ensuring all stakeholders' objectives are met. Go from concept to full day workshop drawing on my library of tools including:

• Music - from vocal & instrumental improvisation to collaborative songwriting, drum circles, Musical Director & short/long form composition
• Community Organising - from bonding to safer/braver spaces to consensus decisions making to 2/5/10 year visioning to conflict mediation
• Human Rights - from active listening & lived experience spectrum lines to human rights storytelling, motivating volunteers & winning public health/policy via narrative storytelling
• Business Development - from Lean Canvas & multi-year sales/finance modelling to team reorganisation, impact measurement systems & theory of change

Course Design

Build courses that nurture, fulfil, consult & evolve. Guarantee learning, deep engagement, measurable skills & collaboration. Factor in different backgrounds, learning styles & needs. Activate hidden skills.

Develop comprehensive course structures that engage all learner types and and set achievable, participant-centric outcomes. Foster peer support, leadership & post-course independence.