Education
Current Workshop Offerings
Writing for Immersive Theater & Experiential Performance
Zoom Workshops w/ Zach Morris
Tuesdays 7:00 - 10:00 pm ET October 7, 14, 21, & 28
$300 for 4 Sessions
ON ZOOM
Creating scripts and scenes for immersive/experiential performance is, in some ways, a fundamentally different endeavor than writing for more traditional stage or screen projects. Explore the questions and considerations that arise when creating coherent, compelling scripted material without a fourth wall.
In this four-part workshop, participants will look at techniques that come into play when script-writing for immersive theater, trying out ways to convey narrative, thematic, and dramatic action while simultaneously creating invitations for audience participation. In a welcoming, warm, and relaxed Zoom atmosphere, Zach will offer insights and perspectives on the week’s topic. Over the four weeks, we’ll investigate practical tools and techniques for the creation of monologue/story-telling scenes and scenarios where a performer is in dialogue with audience members. We will also discuss considerations around crafting individual scenes within the context of longer-form performance experiences and how to create cohesion in works that feature non-sequential or multi-linear action. Each workshop will include in-class and out-of-class writing exercises, and participants will have the option to share their work and receive feedback from classmates if they wish. A performance or writing background is not required, and these gatherings are open to anyone who wishes to work, play, and/or learn more about writing practices.
NOTE: This is a four-part series that will build cumulatively and participants will sign-up for the full series (all four dates) to participate.
$300 for full Series
Subsidized rates for those experiencing financial hardship: $200
Enter code WITEP at checkout
To ensure an atmosphere conducive to sharing and collaboration, these sessions are not recorded. However, key takeaways and segments of in-class exercises will be distributed as PDFs, notes, or links after the sessions.
For any questions about this workshop, please reach out to info@thirdrailprojects.com
Immersive Makers: Writing, Devising, and Crafting Meaningful Works that Center the Audience Experience
Zoom Workshops w/ Tom Pearson
Thursdays 7:00 - 10:00 pm ET November 6, 13, 20, & December 4
$300 for 4 Sessions
ON ZOOM
In this four week, four part series, we will dive deep into the tools and methodologies used by Tom Pearson and Third Rail Projects to create meaningful immersive theatrical experiences, specifically in collaborative, cross-cultural, and community-based projects. We will look at the art of devising and directing from the audience perspective and working with models that support works that can address social issues through storytelling, personal experience, and poetic devices—how we might elaborate a work through allegory, parable, and mythology while simultaneously addressing specific issues and potential solutions within collaborative communities. This workshop series proposes a methodology developed through Tom’s work with the Global Performance Studio and in other partnerships for cultural listening and learning, seeking ways to make good use of our creative inventions to ally with artists and partners, exchange viewpoints and create works we can enter into for shared experience—so that we may dialogue around a topic from embodied perspectives of analysis and care. Several of Tom’s collaborative works will serve as references, including recent works like Yours To Lose, UN-[TITLED], and This Between Shadow. Other works through the Global Performance Studio as well as techniques derived from site-specific and immersive projects including Ikaros, Then She Fell, and The Grand Paradise, and others will be discussed.
November 6th: Writing and Directing from the Audience Perspective
November 13th: Embodying Metaphor, Allegory, and Sensory Design in Immersive
November 20th: Models that Support Community Partnerships and Cultural Listening
November 27th: OFF for Thanksgiving Holiday
December 4th: Working in Collaboration to Create Transformative Experiences
NOTE: This is a four-part series that will build cumulatively and participants will sign-up for the full series (all four dates) to participate. We cannot accommodate drop-ins for this class.
$300 for full Series
Subsidized rates for those experiencing financial hardship: $200
Enter code IMWDC at checkout
For any questions about this workshop, please reach out to info@thirdrailprojects.com
Educational Offerings
Workshops | Lecture Presentations | Residencies
Our education program reflects twenty years of experience as storytellers and crafters of audiences experiences across many platforms. Designed to welcome artists and creatives from a variety of backgrounds, disciplines, and communities, our
TRP Immersive Performance Workshop
educational offerings are available both privately and to the public through various organizational partnerships. We cultivate positive environments where collaboration, inquiry, and experimentation are integral to the learning process.
Creative Process Intensive at Gibney Dance
Chinook Festival
Private Offerings
We offer private workshops and lecture presentations for arts organizations, academic institutions, and companies representing a wide variety of industries. These customized engagements are tailored to meet the specific interests of each unique group and range from half or full-day workshops to multi day intensives.
Control Group Productions, Denver
Future of Storytelling Workshop, NYC
Brandeis University, Massachusetts
Our private engagements are currently being offered remotely through Zoom and are available nationally and internationally on mutually agreed upon dates, times and intervals.
Connect with us at edu@thirdrailprojects.com to schedule an offering for your group.
Chaney High School, Ohio
Lincoln Center Young Patrons NYC
Devised Work Panel, Denver
Materials for the Arts, NYC
MindPark 2018, Shenzhen
Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation
Academic & Partner Residencies
For a comprehensive Third Rail educational experience, we offer residencies that take place over a span of weeks or months and culminate in a performance project. Residency participants are encouraged to bring their unique voices and perspectives into a collaborative creative process, experiencing this approach to art-making first-hand as an integral aspect of Third Rail Projects’ work. Our residencies are
Past Residency Projects
Olin College of Engineering
Texas A&M University
customized for each institution and may take place in one concentrated time frame or be spread over several intensive periods. Final projects range in scope from informal class showings to fully realized productions.
To discuss a creative residency with Third Rail Projects, connect with us at edu@thirdrailprojects.com
Wesleyan University
Florida State University
Princeton University
Albany Park Theater Project
