Stage skills at the UCL Bloomsbury theatre

If you ever fancied learning how to jazz scat, or you wondered how to win a poetry grand slam, now is your chance.

A series of innovative workshops at the UCL Bloomsbury theatre will give students a chance to develop their core performance skills.

The workshops are divided into two streams, one for young people and the other for adults. The young people's theatre classes for 9-18 year olds will cover theatre, street dance, singing and musical play. The adult classes comprise of basic and advanced theatre skills courses, 'Poetic Intercourse' workshops covering the theory and practice of performance poetry, and jazz singing courses with singer Filomena Campus, where students will learn about jazz basic theory and singing techniques.

Mr Steve Winter is education officer at the UCL Bloomsbury. He explained that the theatre skills courses are one aspect of a programme designed to open up the theatre to a wider audience: "We run a diverse range of activities, including schools drama workshops and a young critics scheme where school age students can obtain free tickets to our shows and review them for the Bloomsbury website. In 2005, we will be hosting an Asian youth theatre group and running drama workshops with Muslim communities. Our activities are designed to encourage people to enjoy the Bloomsbury who might otherwise never see the inside of a theatre."

The same goes for the stage skills courses, said Steve, who believes that the courses should suit everybody: "The teachers leading the workshops are professionals in their field, but the workshops themselves are for all levels and abilities. You really don't need to be an expert, just sign up and give it a go." Course bookings start on 25 August 2004, and courses will run throughout the autumn of 2004.