Introducing
our
teachers
We are Alice Robinson & Mark Winstanley, two experienced performers, teachers and theatre makers. Our work has played at venues and theatre festivals across the world. We are both Associate teachers at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and teach at conservatoire theatre schools and universities across the UK. Between us we have taught at RADA, East 15, RWCMD, LIPA, ALRA North, Bath Spa, and University of Salford to name a few. We are based here in Manchester and the Performers' Playground aims to help you discover new approaches to Theatre and Acting.
We have worked with hundreds of students over the years and we realise that each person is on their own individual creative path.
If you choose to work with us we will help and guide you towards achieving your creative goals and ambitions.
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"Mark & Alice are highly professional and excellent fun. They gave me an invaluable insight into the spirit and mechanics of clowning and helped me to consolidate years of clowning and clown teaching I would recommend this work to anyone.”
Jonny Hoskins, Senior Lecturer Arts University Bournemouth.
Alice Robinson
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“I specialise in enlivening the play within your bodies through a combination of yoga, ball work, dance, game play and improvisation. My approach will encourage a fitter, stronger and more agile body and mind ready for the demands of performance and creativity. I will invite you to go beyond your movement patterns and habits and you will leave with a deeper understanding of how to access movement that is playful, impulsive and free. As you re discover the freedom to play you will become present to the endless possibilities you have as a performer.
It's a whole new world”
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Mark Winstanley
I love to play; it is the most amazing fun we can have on stage.
I want you to learn to love to play on stage too, together we will go in search of a beautiful game, one that is light as air and vibrates with laughter, that carries in it imagination, the rhythms of nature and the unique impulses of each actor.
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Along the way you will encounter the flop, don't be afraid because in the flop there is the possibility of discovery, of vulnerability, of courage, of humour and of course, most importantly, of your humanity.
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I want actors to be fully alive, playful, present and bursting with fun, pleasure and mischief, is that too much to ask?
I got this from my teacher, the wonderful Philippe Gaulier who taught me more about theatre and acting than I ever thought possible.
So far I have been lucky enough to teach at many drama schools, universities, theatres and festivals around the UK plus little bit abroad too.
Now with the Performers' Playground our focus is on serving the theatre community here in Manchester.
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It is a great pleasure to teach, every day I say to myself today we are going to have fun and we do.
So come on, what are you waiting for?
Let's play!
