No Dramas – The Process of a National Pilot 

From October 2024-March 2025, we delivered 20* (*actually 21 but who’s counting?) No Dramas workshops across the country. No Dramas had previously only happened in London and online with a focus on improvisation, so our task with this pilot was to create a new 5 session workshop structure, develop and re-train a group of 8 visually impaired facilitators and attract new visually impaired participants to attend the sessions.  

Kicking off during a busy Extant activity period, this was a daunting task. The project started with a bunch of brilliant venues wanting to work in partnership with us: The Courtyard (Hereford), Arena Theatre (Wolverhampton), and Battersea Arts Centre (London). And we knew there was a demand for it, so we logged back onto Zoom for a series of online series too.  

Like any project, there were challenges along the way – new areas meant new people, new recruitment of access workers and new venues to navigate alongside the workshops taking place during the darker and wintery months, snow getting in the way of some travel and winter bugs. But participants and facilitators still made it work and brought a sense of community to these sessions as well as lot of laughter and fun.  

Hereford was our first location. A 2-4pm time slot on a Tuesday afternoon in a new location, meant that recruiting participants was tricky. Despite both ours and The Courtyard’s efforts, session numbers were lower than we’d hoped. However, we were really happy to have recruited two new local access workers who lifted the spirits of the group and developed the confidence of the participants that attended. The facilitator noted how his own confidence grew as he experienced the participants growing with their drama skills. I attended the first and last session and experienced firsthand the power of this confidence shift. One participant was reluctant and eager to leave early during the first session, but by the last, stayed the full two hours and pulled a convincing performance as a terrifying criminal out of the bag. This level of personal growth is something that makes No Dramas so valuable. 

Whilst we were in Hereford, we were invited to deliver an additional No Dramas session at the Royal National College for the Blind, where 14 eager students played Zip Zap Boing and ‘improvised’. One student said “I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed last night. I might have kept quiet, but it was really nice to be able to do drama again in an environment that was accepting and inclusive. Thank you so much for putting this event on and allowing Extant to come to RNC.”  This turned out to be a great partnership, as the students joined us later that month for an Enhance performance of ‘Fluff’ at The Courtyard. 

After Hereford, we introduced workshops in Wolverhampton, London and online during November. My daily to-do-list grew longer, as I ensured all facilitators and access workers were prepped, trains were booked, and as many participants as possible were signing up. It was full speed ahead.  

In Wolverhampton, we had a good and growing number of eager participants, however, we had no local access workers. This proved costly in terms of the budget, as we had to bring in access workers from Derby and London to make sure our sessions were accessible, safe and that we could provide a meet and greet at Wolverhampton station. On reflection, having a more local and stable access support network would have made this part of the delivery significantly smoother, more cost effective and greener. Our total carbon footprint calculated for the programme was 468.8kg CO2e, and across 84 journeys, we racked up 20,463km worth of distance with an average of 194.8km. To do this project again, we would need to find further ways of reducing our carbon footprint like hiring local access workers and where possible, local facilitators. The participants were fantastic at supporting each other and enjoyed the sessions so much that they now want to run their own sessions until further funding can be found, and we can continue the sessions.  

Apart from the occasional dodgy internet connection, our online No Dramas sessions were an adaptation of the in-person sessions. With participants making animal noises or prancing around their front room in a high or low status might be considered unusual for a Thursday evening, but our attendees loved it. One said: “being able to experiment with different ideas and not having to worry about whether you get it wrong, was a great experience and great fun.” Thus, proving that making animal noises in your own front room should be completely normalised. 

The hardest challenge I found for the online sessions was that I could never accurately brief our facilitators on participant numbers, despite reminders, we sent our mailing the Zoom link to click on and it was up to them if they attended or not. However, even with the unknown, the facilitators were willing to stretch things further with the addition of breakout rooms. This meant online participants could work in smaller groups or pairs and deliver short performances at the end of the session. Running sessions in this way gave participants the opportunity to Zoom in from anywhere, including internationally. And during these chilly wintery months, it felt both safe and vital to keep these connections up.  

Our London sessions were almost business as usual. Last year we became community partners with Battersea Arts Centre and through this we have access to the glorious studio one space and other community opportunities. The biggest challenge has been finding the correct Meet and Greet exit at Clapham Junction station (we meet at 5:15pm at St John’s Hill exit if you’re interested). Although this round of workshops focused on expansion, we knew a return to London was still needed. Our first session attracted 18 attendees, proving that after a hiatus, No Dramas was well truly back and in demand. And according to one attendee, “It was a fantastic acting class! One of the best I’ve ever done!” 

 Our sessions evolved as we learnt further lessons during delivery and we altered the original structure of the 5 workshops, opting to move the acting session to the end of the programme (rather than the middle), which allowed participants time to develop further confidence. Our entire cohort of facilitators were incredible. They made the sessions fun, playful and boosted the confidence of our visually impaired attendees. One participant even saying, “I feel like I can say to people that drama learning needs to be more like it is in No Dramas.” For me, it was a real pleasure organising these workshops and to experience feedback like this as well as meet visually impaired adults, it made the hours of admin worth it.  

And what have I learnt? Aside from a strong belief in the power of these sessions for participants, I learnt the hard way that scheduling three national No Dramas on the same day simultaneously was both a multitasking triumph and, more pressingly, a logistical nightmare. One that I’ll probably try to swerve in the future. 

For now, our next London sessions will be continuing and led by our Artistic Director, Maria Oshodi. So, if you’re funder who would love to support No Dramas continue at a national scale, get in touch. Or if you’d love for us to run a No Dramas workshop to a group of visually impaired adults, email [email protected].  

We’ve got plenty of well trained and fantastic visually impaired drama facilitators who can deliver a variety of sessions, from improvisation to devising to acting to voice and physical performance skills.  

With thanks to Fight For Sight, Boshier Hinton, The Courtyard, Arena Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre for making these workshops possible.   

Ellen Jupp, Administrator and Project Coordinator, May 2025