workshops
I'm Darren 👋 Hello.
A Longford man, I'm a creator-performer making award-winning theatre for young audiences and facilitating Impro theatre as the playmaker behind Grand Stretch. This was never "the plan".
In 2014, fresh out of Trinity College Dublin with a BA in Drama & Theatre Studies, fierce notions, and no sense of direction, I took a risk and followed my now-husband Dave to Vancouver. Happening upon TheatreSports™ at The Improv Centre, I found a home away from home—training and performing with the team as their Education and Outreach Coordinator until 2016. Then, I wouldn't say it became my life, but I came to appreciate life through this practice.
Grand Stretch began in 2017. Rooted in Keith Johnstone's Impro and enriched by a global community of inspiring artists, our mission and method have been shaped by my own curiosities and cross-disciplinary discoveries. Distilled into a philosophy, of sorts, I facilitate "play-making" in Playing Fields and Making Senses—counterbalancing acts of spirited play and artful making.
Impro Workshops for Spirited Players
playing fields
We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. The young at heart play like children in the fields—spirited, uninhibited, making a game of it all as they go.
In six adventurous workshops, the spirit of play will carry us away, back to Playing Fields of the mind, heart, body, and soul.
Impro Workshops for Scene-Makers
making senses
We perceive and interact with the world through our senses, but the famous five only get us so far. Beyond what we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, there's more to explore from a maker's vantage point.
In six expansive workshops, we'll bring Making Senses into play—expanding on our life experiences, along the way.
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