BET mailing list
Submit your email
BET on Twitter
Loading feed...
Charity number: 1077161
Company number: 3724349
Blue Elephant Theatre Privacy policy.
We use cookies for Google Analytics, but these can be disabled via your browser configuration.
Past programme
Showcases an eclectic range of fresh and interesting contemporary work, largely by emerging artists
Creative workshops for young refugees and migrants
Blue Elephant Theatre's ReAct Youth Theatre's workshops for young refugees and migrants!
Aimed at refugees and migrants aged 13-18 years old, these are fun and creative workshops playing games, developing English language skills, meeting new people and learning from each other.
Workshops take place on Zoom on Fridays between 5pm - 6.30pm on these dates:
Friday 5th February
Friday 12th February
Friday 26th February
Friday 5th March
Friday 12th March
Friday 19th March
Friday 26th March
For more information or to join, please email francesca@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk or call 07957 309001 (please leave a message if you do not get to speak to someone, and we will call you back).
Journaling Workshop for Theatre Makers
Feeling under-motivated or lacking in energy when it comes to your creative practice?
This workshop is designed to spark creativity around theatre making in a relaxed and unpressurised way. The workshop will mix written and artistic activities encouraging creative thinking and imagination to support the ideas you may have for your work and inspire new ones.
No experience necessary. You will need a journal or notebook but even some sheets of paper will work. Any art materials that you have are helpful for example, paints, colouring pencils, old magazines or newspapers and a glue stick. However, you’ll be encouraged to use whatever you have, whether that be a pencil or a pen, you can still take part. The workshop will take place via zoom and a link will be sent ahead of the event.
Following the workshop there will be a set of prompts sent out to participants over the course of the month, to continue the journaling journey. We’ll check in at the end, via email to share and reflect on any discoveries.
Drama with Headway and Blue Elephant
Blue Elephant Theatre and Headway SELNWK are partnering to deliver online drama workshops to people in South East London or North West Kent with acquired head injuries and their carers and keyworkers.
The workshops will take place on Zoom on Thursday afternoons (3pm - 4.45pm) from March 4th for twelve weeks.
Free to sign up, please register your interest before March 3rd.
Supported by
Arts Council England Project Grants Discussion Group
Primarily designed for those who have applied for National Lottery Project Grants before either successfully or not, to discuss the process, share tips and ask questions.
Facilitated by Blue Elephant Theatre who will offer prompts and kick start discussion, this is a friendly informal space to explore the application process, help others and gain confidence yourself.
Blue Elephant Theatre supports emerging and early career artists, and has a strong track record on successfully advising on project grant applications.
The event will last approx 1hr and will take place on zoom. Spaces are free but limited, so book ahead to secure a space.
The Story of Little Snow
A Blue Elephant Christmas Show with a difference!
Pixies are never seen, but are always busy making the seasons change around us – they make the leaves turn brown and crispy, paint the patterns onto butterfly wings and fill fields with colourful flowers.
Little Snow is the pixie who plants snowdrops, but she thinks her job is rubbish. Nobody seems to understand her and she feels like she’s unimportant, so one night she runs off to have her own adventure.
A “documentary” about discovering self-worth and self-acceptance, with more than a pinch of pixie dust and a cast of colourful characters make this a festive treat for the family. Anyone who would normally come to watch a Christmas show at the Blue Elephant, or perform in their own, may spot some familiar sights and faces....
The Story of Little Snow is a mini-adventure on film, which is free to watch online.
Tea & Chat: Lockdown Check-In
2021 has not started out as well as we’d hoped and we wanted to take a moment to check-in, have a chat and bring people together.
This online chat is primarily for emerging performance-makers to talk about what feels possible, impossible, inspiring, depressing and overwhelming for us at the moment. However, anyone who feels they may benefit from joining is welcome and some of the Blue Elephant Team will be there to chat and provide a supportive ear.
As a virtual event, this will be taking place on Zoom (please provide your own tea....!). Spaces are free but limited, so book ahead to secure a space here.
Train in Work Taster Sessions
Are you interested in learning to run drama sessions with young people?
Blue Elephant Theatre are delighted to once again be running their successful Train in Work programme. A training and work project designed for 18-24 years olds which will introduce participants to the world of arts facilitation and give them experience running sessions with young people. We’re looking to recruit trainees who are not in Employment, Education or Training or are at risk of becoming so and/or who face other barriers to working in the arts.
This 1.5 hour online session offers a taste of the project, discussing what the role of a drama facilitator is and the skills and benefits that can be gained from drama. We will introduce drama activities, ice breakers and activities to promote concentration and self-expression, all of which you’ll learn to run yourself through the Train-In-Work programme.
There will be two sessions; one on Wednesday 25th November from 3pm - 4.30pm and one on Thursday 26th November from 2pm - 2.30pm.
*Applications are open for the full programme and details can found here although more information about this will be given at the taster.
Please book below via Tickets Ignite and we will send out the link before the sessions. Please use the tab button if you have difficulty accessing fields or you can book directly through this link.
Supported by
Celebrating Black Voices
Five short monologues have been written specially for Blue Elephant Theatre for Black History Month 2020. These monologues by Sandra Brown Springer, Elizabeth Adejimi, Angela Mhlanga, Saana Sze, Olu Alakija are inspired by Black people of past and present and intended to introduce young people to heroes they may not have heard of previously.
The monologues focus on Mary Prince, the first woman to have her account of slavery published in Britain, Mary Seacole, who nursed men on the battlefield of the Crimea, Madam CJ Walker, the first female self-made millionaire in America, Claudia Jones, activist and a founder of Notting Hill Carnival, and legendary tennis player Serena Williams.
The monologues are being recorded as rehearsed readings by Sharla Smith, Romy Foster and Amelia Parillon. They are available to view here or click on the links below for the individual recordings.
Mary Seacole by Sandra Brown Springer
Claudia Jones by Saana Sze
Mary Prince by Olu Alakija
Serena Williams by Angela Mhlanga
Madam CJ Walker by Elizabeth Adejimi
Audio only versions:
Claudia Jones (Audio Version) by Saana Sze
Mary Prince (Audio Version) by Olu Alakija
Madam CJ Walker (Audio Version) by Elizabeth Adejimi
This work is funded by Southwark’s Black History Month Fund, with further support from Alan and Babette Sainsbury Charitable Fund.
Supported by
A Bonfire Night Workshop
Remember, Remember..... goes the old rhyme but how well do you know the story of Guy Fawkes?
Join Further Theatre’s Ollie Yellop for a fun interactive storytelling workshop on The Gunpowder Treason and Plot. Learn the gruesome details of Guy’s fate and then use your imagination to tell the story in your own words.
Ollie Yellop regularly works with the Blue Elephant on workshops and shows, most prolifically as the character Cow. These one-hour online workshops jump into the history behind Bonfire Night and are aimed at children aged 7 - 11. Children taking part should have a pen/pencil and paper with them.
The workshops are free and will take place via Zoom.
Supported by
[1][4][1][2][3][1].png)
Celebrating Black Voices - Heroes Drama Workshop
This Black History Month, we are celebrating Black voices and Black heroes.
Alongside the five monologues we commissioned about inspirational Black people, we are running online drama workshops for ages 7 - 10 to explore what we think makes a hero and learn a little more about Black people who have made a big difference.
These free hour-long workshops are supported by Southwark's Black History Month Fund. They will take place via Zoom and the link will be sent out before the workshops; children under 16 should not have Zoom accounts and should use an adult's or log on as a guest if possible. We will send out guidelines around the use of Zoom and our own safeguarding measures to those who book.
These workshops were originally planned for October 27th and then postponed to October 31st.
Supported by
Drama Workshops with Literacy and Numeracy skills
Join Blue Elephant Theatre for some drama activities with a focus on literacy and numeracy for 7 - 10-year-olds.
These online sessions will reinforce numeracy and literacy topics this age group covers in school, exploring them in a creative manner, full of fun and games.
11am - Drama with Literacy skills
We'll be exploring different ways of writing and different topics through games, storytelling and drama.
2pm - Drama with Numeracy skills
Number games and creative activities will allow us to explore different topics such as problem-solving, reasoning and other numerical skills.
Workshops are FREE, and you can book for just one or both.
These are trial workshops and we may run more after half-term. They will take place via Zoom and the link will be sent out before the workshops; children under 16 should not have Zoom accounts and should use an adult's or log on as a guest if possible. We will send out guidelines around the use of Zoom and our own safeguarding measures to those who book.
Supported by
Virtual Tea & Chat: Arts Council Project Grants
Join Blue Elephant Theatre for a free tea and chat all about Arts Council England's Project Grants.
We're offering an informal opportunity to chat to us about your project ideas and ask any nagging questions. We'll be helping to demystify the process, giving you our top tips and generally providing a supportive ear. This is a friendly, interactive online session with some of the Blue Elephant Team.
Project Grants is Arts Council England’s open access programme for arts, museums and libraries projects, funded by the National Lottery. It has now re-opened and is accepting funding applications, prioritizing supporting independent organisations, creative practitioners and freelancers.
Blue Elephant Theatre’s free workshop will give a small number of individual artists and companies in the performing arts the opportunity to explore the application process. Blue Elephant Theatre supports emerging and early career artists, and has a strong track record on successfully advising on project grant applications.
As a virtual event, this will be taking place on Zoom (please provide your own tea!). Spaces are FREE but limited, so book ahead to secure a space.
Tell Your Story
These workshops are for anyone with something to say about themselves!
We will explore the topic of identity (who you are, where you come from), and particularly what it means to grow up locally in South East London. We'll be exploring these themes through writing and performance, looking at how to write a monologue that tells our stories. What would you like the younger generation to know? We will spend a few weeks collecting material and information about ourselves, and then turn this into creative performance, celebrating our own unique heritages and backgrounds.
For ages 16 - 24 (ideally living locally to Blue Elephant), taking place over Zoom. The link will be sent out before the first session, so keep an eye on your email for this.
The course will run every Monday evening between 3rd to 24th August, plus Thursday 27th, from 7.00pm - 8.30pm via Zoom.
Places are FREE, but need to be booked in advance to guarantee a space. Click here to book.
Tackling Arts Council Project Grants
Blue Elephant Theatre offers a free online workshop about navigating Project Grants applications. If the thought of facing Grantium brings on a cold sweat, we aim to help with some reassurance, tips, prompts and clarity.
Project Grants is Arts Council England’s open access programme for arts, museums and libraries projects, funded by the National Lottery. It has now re-opened and is accepting funding applications, prioritizing supporting independent organisations, creative practitioners and freelancers.
Blue Elephant Theatre’s free workshop will give individual artists and companies in the performing arts the opportunity to explore the application process. Blue Elephant Theatre supports emerging and early career artists, and has a strong track record on successfully advising on project grant applications.
The application process can be daunting so our aim is to demystify, offer a friendly space to discuss the process and lend a helping hand to those intending to apply. The workshop is open to those who have already made applications in the past and those new to the process, as an opportunity to re-familiarise and adapt to the changes in the guidance.
The workshop will:
Introduce the application process
Cover some of the changes in guidance and what’s now eligible.
Discuss the “Let’s Create’ strategy.
Offer an opportunity for questions and trouble shooting.
This workshop is for everyone; whether you have a project you are planning to apply for already or not. If you don’t, it might be helpful to come with a hypothetical project in mind but you won’t be asked to talk about it unless you’d like to.
This workshop is not a substitute for the general guidance and the supplementary guidance on Project Grants which has been provided during the current Covid 19 crisis. This can be found on the Arts Council England website. You may find that reading it in advance will help you to get the most out of the workshop.