Family Friendly Workshop: Glitching Zoom, Virtual Storytelling with Soraya Nabipour
workshop • 29 May 2021 12pm–2pm
Join Soraya Nabipour for a family friendly session exploring how our Zoom windows can be subverted as a space for performance and storytelling.
This workshop explores experimental performance techniques and storytelling in the virtual realm. By embracing the limitations of the screen as ‘the frame’, we will examine what it means to perform online, what ‘presence’ means in the virtual space, and how this impacts the performer/spectator relationship.
Drawing on improvisation and task-based activities, we will explore the ways in which text, image and sound can be manipulated to develop unique solo and collaborative performances that trouble the tension between what is deliberately presented and what is unconsciously revealed.
If you want to take part but don’t have access to a laptop please get in touch and we can provide these for the duration of the project to those in the Sheffield region.
This workshop is aimed at audiences aged 12+. Intergenerational collaboration between your household is encouraged. The session will have auto captions provided by otter.ai and we will also have a member of staff offering additional facilitation and support over the chat function within zoom.
Artists
Soraya Nabipour is a theatremaker, facilitator and practice-based PhD researcher at the University of Sheffield. Her practice is based in non-traditional performance and participatory art.
Soraya has worked in a variety of community theatre and drama education contexts, more recently with experimental theatre company Forced Entertainment, helping to set up their participation programme for young people. Her work as a performer/deviser with experimental performance companies New York City Players and The Wooster Group brought her to venues including the ICA, London and The Kitchen, NYC.
This session was road tested with Society of Explorers (Site Gallery’s collective of 14-18 year olds). The Explorer’s enjoyed how Soraya subverted the zoom format into a space for performance.
Image credit: Soraya Nabipour, 2021