Four weeks.
One story.
Anything can happen.
Event Theatre Training
for Actors in the Midlands.
Practical training for actors who want to perform without the safety net of a conventional script.
Build a character. Respond to the unexpected. Interact with audiences. Keep a developing story alive.
Four two-hour sessions built around one specially written plot.
Three sessions to develop the skills.
One Long Form to put them to the test.
NOW BOOKING
The First Block
A film noir. A premiere. And ninety seconds nobody expected to see.
This November, step into The First Block — a specially written film-noir story that becomes the training ground for four weeks of practical Event Theatre work.
Build a character. Discover their relationships. Learn to respond when the story changes around you.
Then put everything into practice in the Long Form.
Four sessions. Eight hours. One story.
Mondays 2, 9, 16 & 23 November 2026
6.30–8.30pm
55 Newhall Street, Birmingham City Centre
INTRODUCTORY PRICE: £99
Some acting experience required.
Event Theatre experience optional.
You already know how to act.
Now take away the script.
What happens when nobody notices the clue you're trying to introduce?
When another actor reveals something far too early?
When a Guest becomes convinced you're guilty and won't leave you alone?
Event theatre asks actors to create convincing characters, improvise, interact directly with people and protect a developing story at the same time.
That's what we train.
What you'll develop.
Character
Build a character strong enough to survive beyond rehearsed dialogue — with objectives, relationships and attitudes that give you something to play when conversations go somewhere unexpected.
Improvisation
Listen. Respond. Adapt. Learn to improvise in service of the character and story rather than simply trying to be quick or funny.
Audience Interaction
Involve Guests naturally, handle unexpected questions and make their contributions feel as though they matter.
Storytelling
Learn when to reveal, withhold, repeat or redirect information — without turning conversations into exposition or accidentally rewriting the story.
Ensemble
Recognise when to lead, when another performer needs support and when the best contribution you can make is to get out of the way.
Is this for me?
The Blocks are designed for adults who already have some acting or performance experience and want to explore a different way of working.
You might perform professionally, with an amateur company, be studying performance or be returning to acting after time away.
You don't need previous Event Theatre experience.
You don't need to be an experienced improviser either.
What matters is that you're comfortable performing and willing to listen, respond, experiment and play.
Some acting experience required.
Event Theatre experience optional.
Minimum age: 18.
This isn't an introduction to acting.
Bring the skills you already have. We'll remove the safety net.
One Block.
Four sessions.
Every half term brings a new specially written story.
Its characters, relationships, secrets and situations become the training ground for four weeks of practical event-theatre work.
Session One:
ENTER
THE WORLD
Meet your character. Explore relationships, status and the fictional world. Start playing before you know exactly where the story will go.
Session Two:
PROTECT
THE STORY
Work with objectives and information. Learn to improvise freely without inventing your way out of the story.
Session Three:
EXPECT
THE UNEXPECTED
The Guest raises the stakes. Questions, interruptions, misunderstandings and plans that don't work. Listen, adapt and keep playing.
Session Four:
THE
LONG FORM
Put it all together in one sustained event-theatre improvisation. No fixed dialogue. No stopping. The Guest is part of the story.
Training built from experience.
Insolent Retinue was created by David Claridge, an Event Theatre practitioner with around fifteen years' experience performing murder mysteries and interactive theatre.
The training is built around the demands of actually doing the work: creating characters that can survive without fixed dialogue, interacting directly with audiences, responding to the unexpected and keeping a developing story alive.
Know the story. Know your character. Then let go.