Theatreworks recently welcomed Debbie Korley, Laura McFall and Linden Walcott-Burton to our growing team of facilitators. In addition to the impressive body of acting, voice and directorial credits between them, they also bring a wealth of experience from their work within the public and private sectors to the team.
We caught up with each of them to explore their career journeys and how their past and present professional roles inform, influence and enrich their work as facilitators for Theatreworks.
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Creativity within a structure
Debbie Korley is a believer in the power of creativity and drama as a vehicle for personal and professional development. She loves the ethos of the National Theatre team and the trust Theatreworks gives to its facilitators.
“We have a structure to work from for each session we facilitate, but everyone has their own way of delivering the content,” she explains.
It is this “creativity within a structure” that Debbie finds helps to give participants the opportunity to connect with facilitators.
It invites them to access creativity they may have lost along the way, or don’t use in their day-to-day jobs and share a part of themselves – helping make the sessions and techniques more memorable, honest and human.
In addition to her acting work onstage, Debbie has appeared in television drama series as well as voiced audiobooks, radio plays and voiceovers. These wide-ranging acting credentials together with her work directing and educating emerging talent provide her with a unique perspective that she brings to her role as a facilitator.
Debbie credits this variety with her ability to communicate with individuals from all walks of life. “Working across a wide breadth of the artistic community, I am able to connect with a range of people in a number of different ways,” she explains. “For example, I often have back and forth conversations in sessions with business leaders. We talk as one director to another – sharing tips, techniques and experience about working at a management level.”
Creating safe spaces
Laura McFall trained as an actor at the start of her career before taking a 20-year break from the theatre to pursue social work and, later, teach communications skills to fellow social workers, medical students and healthcare professionals.
Laura’s diverse experience has provided her with the opportunity to work and connect with people from a range of backgrounds. Whether she’s met them in courtrooms, prisons, hospitals, classrooms or lecture theatres, she has always recognised their need for a voice.
“It’s taken nerves, guts and right and wrong turns for any of us to get to wherever we are. Having empathy, respect and understanding for the journeys everyone has travelled is essential for reaching and communicating with anyone,” she explains.
This need to create safe spaces to allow people to communicate effectively ultimately led Laura back to her roots as an actor.
Laura’s varied career also benefits her role a Theatreworks facilitator. She shares: “I have felt terror in front of an audience, I have lived that life, I am not preaching. I have been in that rehearsal room and know what it’s like to take a risk and learn from it.”
Recognising she could weave her theatrical training together with her experiences as a social worker to deliver much-needed support, Laura now helps professionals develop these all-important skills through her teaching and coaching.
Social workers, doctors and any people-focused professions rely on communication. It is a physical thing. You have to be authentic and really in congruence with the job. This takes practice.
The authenticity of Laura’s approach encourages Theatreworks participants to follow in her footsteps – out of their comfort zones and into a space of genuine learning and experience.
Productive tools
A natural introvert, Linden Walcott-Burton realised he was good at drama in his teens. Thanks to a few teachers who pushed him, he auditioned for plays, joined the National Youth Theatre and took part in a project with Birmingham Royal Ballet focussing on whether arts can change lives.
Linden took the techniques that helped him to thrive onstage into the public sector. Having worked for the civil service and the Mayor of London as a policy officer, he regularly engaged with senior stakeholders, including ministers, deputy mayors and mayors. This gave him an understanding of the many challenges people face when expressing themselves – knowledge that he applies to his work as a Theatreworks facilitator.
“Just because you’re good at your job doesn’t mean you’re a good communicator,” he explains. “They require different skills that we need to learn.”
Linden finds that sharing his own story often helps put participants at ease when he’s facilitating.
I often tell people that I was a geeky kid with no social skills. Big glasses, braces, a big book bag; I carried all my books for the whole week with me every day, just in case. I learned and practised the skills of presenting and communicating. They did not come naturally to me. I was not born into this.
All of the things actors feel when we perform: nerves, butterflies, shaky hands, feeling sick; everyone feels these – no matter what their job title might be. It is about learning to manage those feelings and turn them into productive tools for us to use.
Linden’s recent book, The Drama Workshop Leader: A Practical Guide to Delivering Great Sessions brings together his passion and experience of helping people across sectors to communicate better. “Writing it helped give me a real understanding of what it is to be a good facilitator and what it takes to be a good communicator,” he says. “It drills down into those skills and how to apply them to help people and learn.”
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If you’re interested in learning more about Theatreworks and what we can do for your business, please get in touch: theatreworks@nationaltheatre.org.uk.