Acting workshops • Ensemble

Advanced training workshops for professional actors.
Working on the individual, learning in a group.
A project from Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton.

We believe in the power of actors when they come alive

We believe in the potential of the actor to do work that is arresting and magnificent. We believe in encounters that feel deeply necessary for the actor. We believe in the uniqueness of the individual. We believe in transformation.

We teach work that is demanding and detailed

We open the actor. We work on the body, breath, voice, concentration, impulse, courage and honesty. We challenge the actor to break free of previous patterns and to make real discoveries. We exercise the imagination. We release a deeper response, integrating thought, feeling and physicality.

We are committed to process

We create a space for actors to work, free of judgement and enabled to fail. We work on the individual, learning in a group. Each workshop is bespoke. We invite a commitment to process more than outcome. Dedicated seriousness and great humour are involved. There are no quick-fixes, short-cuts or gimmicks; nor do we seek to resolve the questions of acting. We hold paradox as central to artistic exploration. Our approach is innovative whilst drawing on important acting traditions.

Workshop programme

#017
‘Lying’

How does a character tell a lie? What is it to conceal the truth and how do we lie convincingly? Playing with falsehood and pretending in acting. w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

Saint Barnabus Dalston,
Shacklewell Row,
London E8 2EA

150 GBP 10am – 5pm

10 December, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Enquire

#016
‘Remembering and Forgetting’

How are memory and imagination interwoven, and what happens when we embrace not knowing the difference? Deepening insights into the energies, rhythms, and techniques of how we do, and don’t, recollect. w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

Saint Barnabus Dalston,
Shacklewell Row,
London E8 2EA

250 GBP 10am – 5pm

4 & 5 November, 2026
(2-day workshop)

Enquire

#015
‘Belief’

How do our most strongly held convictions inform our choices, behaviours and desires in acting? And what can’t we believe? Explorations in inhibiting, owning and connecting. w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

Saint Barnabus Dalston,
Shacklewell Row,
London E8 2EA

150 GBP 10am – 5pm

26 September, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Enquire

#014
‘Text’

How does an actor work with text? Intensive 2-day training to deepen connection, spontaneity, embodiment, play and the rigour of imagination when working with a text. w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

Saint Barnabus Dalston,
Shacklewell Row,
London E8 2EA

250 GBP 10am – 5pm

15 & 16 July, 2026
(2-day workshop)

Closed

#013
‘Catastrophe’

Mistake, failure, error: how does the actor embody catastrophe as an expression of a character’s dramatic situation? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

Saint Barnabus Dalston,
Shacklewell Row,
London E8 2EA

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

6 June, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#012
‘Fake’

What is truth in acting and how can the actor find greater playfulness and irreverence towards it? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

30 April, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#011
‘Persona’

Identity, character, role: how can different notions of self inform an actor’s work? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

31 March, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#010
‘Sacrifice’

How does the actor experience, surrender and yield in the body? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

26 February, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#009
‘Delight’

What is the emotional state of delight for an actor? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

27 January, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#008
‘Strangers’

How does the actor work so that every moment is an encounter with the unfamiliar? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

12 December, 2025
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#007
‘Stillness’

What is stillness and how does it combine with energy, openness and simplicity? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

1 November, 2025
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#006
‘Playing Dead’

Working with masks, what is happening when we say we are alive, dead, corpsing? w/Mark Proulx

150 GBP 10am – 5pm

24, 25 & 26 September, 2025
(3-part workshop)

Closed

#005
‘In Bad Taste’

How does taste inform the choices an actor makes? What discoveries might we make if working in bad taste were permitted? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

14, 15 & 16 May, 2025
(3-part workshop)

Closed

#004
‘Moments of Total Change’

What is it like when everything we think, we believe or we desire is altered? And how does that actor embody that? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

2, 3 & 4 April, 2026
(3-part workshop)

Closed

#003
‘Mirrors of Madness’

What is it to reflect, to imitate, to copy? What is it to explore the less reasonable versions, the versions others might call ‘mad’? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

26, 27 & 28 February, 2026
(3-part workshop)

Closed

#002
‘Logic and Impulse’

How does the actor sustain a vital energy through their playing? What does it really mean to be in the moment? w/Eliot Shrimpton and Chris Kelham

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

29, 30 & 31 January, 2025
(3-part workshop)

Closed

#001
‘In disquiet’

What is it to disquieten and to be disquieted? What are the internal and external manifestations of disquiet? w/Eliot Shrimpton and Chris Kelham

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

18, 20 & 21 November, 2024
(3-part workshop)

Closed

FAQs

Who can apply to a workshop?

Participants must be professional actors aged 18 years or older, with an interest in training, ensemble and physical work. Our participants come from diverse backgrounds and include those who have attended a drama school as well as those whose journey has taken other routes. Unfortunately, we do not take applications from actors considering undertaking a training at a drama school.

Where do the workshops take place?

Workshops normally take place in London. The venue is announced when details for the workshop are posted on our website and Instagram page.

What is the size of a workshop group?

Each workshop contains no more than 15 participants.

What is your approach to privacy and discretion?

We take the sensitivity of a training space seriously and protect the actor’s ability to engage confidently and with trust. As part of our commitment to ensure an enabling experience, photography and filming is not allowed. The content featured on our website and social media posts was created during workshops in which participants agreed to have their image captured. Actors with a public profile and those with questions about how we manage privacy are invited to contact us directly.

Eliot Shrimpton
Send Eliot an email

Send Eliot an email

Eliot studied theology at Cambridge University and subsequently trained as an actor at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, the École Philippe Gaulier in Paris, with Marc Proulx (France), Sue Lefton (UK), Irineu Nogueira (Brazil), Jane Gibson (UK), Merry Conway (USA), Mike Alfreds (UK), Patsy Rodenburg (UK and Portugal) and many others.

[ Read more ]

Eliot is an acting teacher and coach who has trained some of theatre, film and television’s most successful actors. He has taught and collaborated at leading conservatoires and arts institutions throughout the world including: São Paulo Drama School (Brazil), National Autonomous University of Mexico, École de Sables (Senegal), Central Academy of Drama (Beijing), Primo del Teatro (Italy), Royal School for Performing Arts (Madrid), Superior School of Dramatic Art (Barcelona), National School of Performing Arts (Copenhagen), National Theatre School of Strasbourg (France), National Institute of Performing Arts (Brussels), Amherst College (USA), Escuela Del Actor (Uruguay), NEOJIBA (Brazil) and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London).

Eliot has worked as an educational consultant for the Ministry of Education in Japan, and as a Japanese speaker has interpreted for the National Kabuki Theatre of Japan. Since 2014, he has collaborated with practitioners in mask work across the world, developing an innovative approach to artistic training with masks and a unique series of mask designs. He holds a PhD for his practice-based research on the actor’s work to play the fool. Eliot is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Fellow of the Guildhall School where he is Head of Acting Practice.

Eliot’s approach is informed by a sensitive and demanding attention to the actor’s energy. He seeks a strong physical life and a playful spirit. His relationship with actors is characterised by a commitment to each person’s development and the pursuit of a shared human connection. His work is informed by performance traditions drawn from international contexts. He is inspired by the possibility of the actor’s connection to the sacred and profane in themselves. His work searches for simplicity, honesty, what is practical, and an encounter with the extraordinary.

Chris Kelham
Send Chris an email

Send Chris an email

Chris both teaches and directs at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. He has directed numerous projects for the BA Acting Programme alongside full-scale productions. He was Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for the Acting Studies Programme in conjunction with Central Academy of Drama, Beijing.

[ Read more ]

A former recipient of the Carleton Hobbs BBC Radio Drama Award he has performed widely across UK theatres including, The Manchester Royal Exchange, Leeds Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic, The National Theatre and the West End. He won Arts Council funding and partnered with Graeae Theatre Company to explore the relationship between anxiety, creativity and performance.

Over seven years, he worked as an actor and director alongside Di Trevis at The Jerwood Space addressing questions of culture, society, politics, poetry and performance through the writing of Shakespeare, Brecht, Beckett, Lorca, Kane, and Churchill.

Curiosity, humour and bravery sit at the heart of Chris’s approach to acting and teaching. Working with patience and compassion, he draws performers beyond the established frameworks of the written material, challenging them to discover what is essential in the work. His practice is built on a deep trust, stimulating the actor’s imagination and charging them with a sensory, visceral and corporeal memory of each experience.

At Guildhall, his directing work includes, As You Like It, Birdland, The Crimp Plays, The Journey, Hamlet Under The Shadow Of Water, When All The Dogs Came Running, Hamlet, Mother Courage, Blood Wedding, Antigone, Three Sisters.

Enquire

#016
‘Remembering and Forgetting’

Saint Barnabus Dalston,
Shacklewell Row,
London E8 2EA

250 GBP 10am – 5pm

4 & 5 November, 2026
(2-day workshop)

Enquire

#015
‘Belief’

Saint Barnabus Dalston,
Shacklewell Row,
London E8 2EA

150 GBP 10am – 5pm

26 September, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Enquire

#014
‘Text’

Saint Barnabus Dalston,
Shacklewell Row,
London E8 2EA

250 GBP 10am – 5pm

15 & 16 July, 2026
(2-day workshop)

Closed

#013
‘Catastrophe’

Mistake, failure, error: how does the actor embody catastrophe as an expression of a character’s dramatic situation? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

Saint Barnabus Dalston,
Shacklewell Row,
London E8 2EA

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

6 June, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#012
‘Fake’

What is truth in acting and how can the actor find greater playfulness and irreverence towards it? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

30 April, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#011
‘Persona’

Identity, character, role: how can different notions of self inform an actor’s work? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

31 March, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#010
‘Sacrifice’

How does the actor experience, surrender and yield in the body? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

26 February, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#009
‘Delight’

What is the emotional state of delight for an actor? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

27 January, 2026
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#008
‘Strangers’

How does the actor work so that every moment is an encounter with the unfamiliar? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

12 December, 2025
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#007
‘Stillness’

What is stillness and how does it combine with energy, openness and simplicity? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

1 November, 2025
(1-day workshop)

Closed

#006
‘Playing Dead’

Working with masks, what is happening when we say we are alive, dead, corpsing? w/Mark Proulx

150 GBP 10am – 5pm

24, 25 & 26 September, 2025
(3-part workshop)

Closed

#005
‘In Bad Taste’

How does taste inform the choices an actor makes? What discoveries might we make if working in bad taste were permitted? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

14, 15 & 16 May, 2025
(3-part workshop)

Closed

#004
‘Moments of Total Change’

What is it like when everything we think, we believe or we desire is altered? And how does that actor embody that? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

2, 3 & 4 April, 2026
(3-part workshop)

Closed

#003
‘Mirrors of Madness’

What is it to reflect, to imitate, to copy? What is it to explore the less reasonable versions, the versions others might call ‘mad’? w/Chris Kelham and Eliot Shrimpton

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

26, 27 & 28 February, 2026
(3-part workshop)

Closed

#002
‘Logic and Impulse’

How does the actor sustain a vital energy through their playing? What does it really mean to be in the moment? w/Eliot Shrimpton and Chris Kelham

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

29, 30 & 31 January, 2025
(3-part workshop)

Closed

#001
‘In disquiet’

What is it to disquieten and to be disquieted? What are the internal and external manifestations of disquiet? w/Eliot Shrimpton and Chris Kelham

100 GBP 10am – 5pm

18, 20 & 21 November, 2024
(3-part workshop)

Closed

FAQs

Who can apply to a workshop?

Where do the workshops take place?

Workshops normally take place in London. The venue is announced when details for the workshop are posted on our website and Instagram page.

What is the size of a workshop group?

Each workshop contains no more than 15 participants.

What is your approach to privacy and discretion?

[ Eliot Shrimpton ]

Send Eliot an email

[ Read more ]

[ Chris Kelham ]

Send Chris an email

[ Read more ]

Testimonials

[ Jo McInnes ]

Working with them feels both creatively energising and grounded in genuine expertise — an uncommon and valuable balance.

[ Jo McInnes ]

They truly understand what the work is — that each actor is unique and on their own journey — and the workshops are structured along these lines.

[ Josh Goulding ]

They subtly invite and nurture the individual quality of each person in the room, creating a space of play and artistry in which true collaboration can occur.

I’ve always come away from the workshops inspired and excited to apply a renewed spirit of play to my own work as an actor.

[ Josh Goulding ]

I’ll never forget the ‘Mirrors of Madness’ workshop I attended with Chris and Eliot.

Their cohesion and guidance taking us out of our heads and opening us into new modes of reacting; it felt ridiculously freeing. Their ability to crush any sense of apprehension was immediate.

I left the workshop with a totally new approach and think about it often.

[ Amelia Clarkson ]

[ Shubham Saraf ]

I found myself shocked into aliveness, inspired and galvanised. I was reminded of my body and my voice and my imagination’s capability to work beyond my expectations. It felt essential to what I understand acting can be. Looking forward to the next one!

[ Shubham Saraf ]

I do love these workshops. I found it challenging. The attention to detail. I’m always left reflecting on something in my own work that needs releasing.

[ Emma Naomi ]

Eliot and Chris are exceptional practitioners: eternally curious, deeply engaged with developing new acting methodologies and sources of inspiration for the actor, and unequivocally generous with each of their participants. Every workshop is a new challenging playground of provocations. They’re unafraid of exploring difficult and uncomfortable terrain that resonates deeply with our rapidly changing times. I gain so much from attending. They also provide biscuits — it’s the complete package.

[ Samuel Blenkin ]