Spoke-Lab
Spoke- Lab is an exciting coming together of Spoken Word artists, who along with Roger Robinson (Writing Coach) and Dawn Reid (Associate Director at Theatre Royal Stratford East), feel the urge to explore the art forms of Spoken Word and Theatre and see how the two might collide and inspire each other to create new waves of expressions.
The Lab, will be a safe, secure and creative place, for artists to question, play, workshop ideas, and learn new skills on how to approach their work, as well as sharing some of their work with each other and sometimes the public.
Here are the Resident Artists below, look out for more to be added and for any future sharing of their work.
RESIDENT ARTISTS
Kat Francois
Kat Francois is an award winning poet (BBC Slam Poet Winner 2004 & World Slam Champion 2005), and a regular performer on BBC radio. She is the host and creator of WORD4WORD held monthly in the Theatre Royal Bar. Kat holds a BA Honours in Dance from the Roehampton Institute and was a member of a number of traditional African dance groups. She is also an educator using spoken word and creative writing to tackle social issues with adults and young people. She performs poetry and hosts shows regularly both nationally and internationally. Her theatre credits include Ten Poet Jam and Jean Genet's The Blacks Re-mixed at Theatre Royal Stratford East and Seven Times Me, her one woman show which sold out at the Edinburgh festival, and has also been performed at The Drum in Birmingham, Nottingham House, Exeter Pheonix Festival and Freedom of Speech Festival in Stravanger, Norway.
Nick Makoha a.k.a. UrbanSpirit
Nick is a culturally-diverse and dynamic writer and performer who specialises in poetry and the communication of stories. He has over five years experience in devising, shaping and facilitating structured educational workshops and residencies for 4 years to adult including, The London Teenage Poetry Slam, Barbican Education and the Urban Myths project in Derbyshire.
He is an ongoing advocate and mentor of young people wishing to work in the arts and media, and current part-time mentor for NESTA Ignite Project. His enthusiastic, charismatic and responsive approach to workshop facilitation includes: the creative use of books in schools and education projects as tools to encouraging creativity and self-expression in young people; encouraging participants to be actively involved in learning through reading, writing and finding their own unique voice.
FACILITATORS
Roger Robinson
Roger is a Trinidadian writer and performer who has lived in London for 20 years. He has performed worldwide and is an experienced workshop leader and lecturer on poetry. His one-man shows are: The Shadow Boxer; Letter from My Father's Brother; and Prohibition (all premiered at the British Festival of Visual Theatre at Battersea Arts Centre). He was also chosen by Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced the black-British writing canon over the past 50 years. He has received commissions from Theatre Royal Stratford East, The National Trust, London Open House and the National Portrait Gallery. His workshops have been a part of a shortlist for the Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries and were also a part of the Webby Award winning Barbican's Can I Have A Word. He has toured extensively with the British Council including Vietnam, Philippines, Argentina, India, the Czech Republic and Mozambique.
He has published a book of short fiction, Adventures in 3D (2001) and a poetry collection, Suitcase (2004). Up to 2000, Roger Robinson was programme co-coordinator of Apples and Snakes. He was one of 30 poets chosen for the New Generation Poets collection at the National Portrait Gallery.
Dawn Reid
Dawn's association with Theatre Royal Stratford East has included assisting and casting on such shows as One Dance Will Do, Aeroplane Man and two twenty-minute musicals: Windrush and Things Change. Dawn has produced festivals at the theatre; including Gateway to the Arts, a festival of shows for - and by - young people and also produced Spoke-Fest, a festival of two-weeks of spoken word, performances, workshops and a Spoken Word UK Slam Championship. Dawn has also produced Boy Blue's sold-out show The Book of Koraka; and produced and directed Club V. She has directed for Theatre Royal Stratford East, Funny Black Women on the Edge, Ade Ikoli's Diary of a Single Man, DRD's Dis is How We Do It, Speechify: Four men on Family, Kat Francois one woman show Me, Myself and 7, Da Mic Sounds Nice, Summit and Co-Directed The Harder They Come. Dawn was the Assistant Director on - Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin and Red Riding Hood, and directed Sleeping Beauty and the Snow Queen. She has also directed rehearsed readings for Brit Asia and New Voices part of the Theatre Royal's work with new writers, and rehearsed readings for Hear My Voice. She has also directed Theatre Royal's Youth Theatre in 2002 and 2004 as part of Contacting the World Youth Festival organized by Contact Theatre in Manchester. Dawn also directed Llewella Gideon's premiere of Fruit Salad at the Greenwich Theatre, and was the Associate Director for Avenue Q in the West End. Dawn won the Carlton Multicultural Achievement Award for Direction.
