GAMES • IMPROVISATION • ENSEMBLE
PLAYING FIELDS
A six-part series for adventurous adults.
Come together. For connection, creativity, and the craic.
Come as you are. Training is only sometimes a bonus.
Come and play, with Darren Yorke.
how we "work"
Playing Fields takes different shapes, depending on the players and the game plan.
Sometimes it runs monthly, as a series of day-long deep dives.
Sometimes it runs weekly, as a six ensemble-building evening sessions.
Sometimes we do it all in one week, capped off with a game of TheatreSports™.
We also work with established groups and adapt to their interests
— so chat to us about standalone workshops, a focused few days,
or a programme stretched over a longer journey. It's all to play for!
who is this for?
Players
movers & shakers
Players
For actors, performers, and improvisers who want to reconnect with play, ensemble, and instinct at the heart of their practice. Let's down tools and make a game of it again — it's all to play for!
makers
movers & shakers
Players
For creatives who work behind the scenes to bring stories to stages and screens, and for playmakers working on performances in education, community, or creative settings — fill your playbook and raise your game.
movers & shakers
movers & shakers
movers & shakers
For artists working in other disciplines (dance, circus, music, literature, visual arts), and for absolute newcomers on this scene, it’s never too late to shake things up — rediscover yourself through embodied play.
what comes next?
Playing Fields runs as a six-week course
When? Monday Evenings, starting February 16th
Where? The Pearse Centre, 27 Pearse St (Dublin 2)
€200 for the full course.
If you’re game, get in touch and we’ll take it from there.
Free Spirits
Leap, and the net shall appear.
Free Spirits levels the playing fields for players, makers, movers, and shakers from all walks of life.
Let’s begin with the idea that we already know how to play. It’s not something we need to learn here. Training is only sometimes a bonus. What we actually need is permission. And so, with Free Spirits, we give ourselves permission to play together, like children again.
We lead with familiar schoolyard games, introducing a fail-safe approach that lets fearless play gather momentum. Mixing in a few improvisation games, we’re soon making scenes in the same spirit — supported by the group, responsive to each other in the moment, and playing it forward together.
Open Minds
Don't push the river, it flows by itself.
Open Minds releases the choke-hold ego has on creative flow.
Perfectionism be damned! We need to just let it go. All of it — judgement, overthinking, the pressure to be clever, original, interesting, funny, or “good”. Leading with creative right-brain games, we sidestep the critical left-brain agenda to discover that our most brilliant ideas arrive freely when we stop trying to control them.
Playing from instinct, intuition, and impulse, we close the gap between coming up with ideas and coming out with them — easy come, easy go.
Then, playing with curiosity in the information gaps, trusting ourselves to fill them in as we go, Open Minds can move us beyond getting stuck “on the spot”, building confidence in our incidental brilliance and keeping ideas moving onward into the open unknown.
Unruly Hearts
what we resist, persists
In this civilised world that expects us to be reasonable and responsible, Unruly Hearts are a law unto themselves.
To play in this fiery field of passion, we pledge fealty to feeling first. Passion isn’t logical, and that’s the point. Through games, we lead with bold emotional offers, strong attitudes, and sudden changes of heart. As information gaps open up between feeling and justification, we learn to trust our storytelling brains to make sense of it after the fact.
Unruly Hearts sharpens our instinct for change, with or without ideas. Emotional turning points shape the stories that emerge in our scenes. It stops being about having ideas to play with, and becomes a lived-in, felt experience of play-making.
Busy Bodies
Dance first, think later.
Actions speak louder than words — let Busy Bodies do the talking.
It’s your move. And whatever move you make, intentional or accidental, becomes an offer. A shift of weight. The shivers. A pained-looking face.
An animated alternative to “Standing at Elevens” and “Talking Heads”, Busy Bodies gets physical with games that set scenes in motion, make things happen in embodied stories, and build ensemble through play.
Together, the kinetic dance that naturally happens when we interact, space-object work, and abstract ensemble movement work alongside one another — leading with the body in telling our stories.
Soul Mates
The more we share, the more we have.
Life was meant to be shared. Soul Mates offers a true exchange — between us, our characters, their stories, and the audience.
Soul Mates are kindred spirits who help something true come into focus by sharing themselves and their stories. Through games that invite openness and honesty, we play with personal impulses and emotional truths, trusting that what feels deeply individual will often land as something shared.
Scenes centre on what makes us care. Players lean into moments that matter, allowing difficult themes to surface and meeting them with compassion. Soul Mates moves beyond improv as light entertainment, asking what happens when we commit fully to one another — and let connection, not cleverness, lead the way.
Team Spirit
United we stand, divided we fall.
Team Spirit throws players straight into the heart of TheatreSports™, where there’s no “I” in theatre.
This competition puts players under pressure. Challenges come from the opposing team, and the audience keeps score. There’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, but no one goes it alone.
Team Spirit is about backing each other, taking risks, and making plays. Generosity trumps ego. Momentum beats caution. The game works when everyone commits, together. Bold choices are rewarded. Failure is visible, and when the spirit is right, failure can be its own reward.
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