Workshops

Tony Cealy

I provide a wide range of creative workshops for adults and young people, which are full of fun, creativity, interaction and learning. With over 25 years experience of planning, delivering and evaluating projects and programs.

I can run sessions with groups from small to large at any one time. Workshops can be run with groups as small as 2 people, right up to huge specialist workshops of 500 or more participants, and many smaller sizes in between.

My workshops come in many shapes and sizes. Maybe you want to explore a difficult subject like bullying or challenge prejudice such as racism, maybe you want to tackle a curriculum subject like history in a different way or raise awareness of local and global issues such as those concerning the environment. You might want to compliment some training for your staff or peer supporters or maybe you would like me to help you with your work or group dynamics.

Whatever your workshop need is, I already have one waiting for you or can design one specially to suit your needs. You will find a few examples below.

I run workshops on a variety of social issues and subjects including:

Mental Health & Wellbeing
Youth Violence
Community Safety
Climate Change & the Environment
Cost Of Living Crisis
Refugee & Immigration
Anti-Bullying
Employment Training
Gangs
Healthy Relationships
Assertiveness
Emotional Management
Drug & Alcohol Misuse
Social & Life Skills
Citizenship Skills
Conflict Resolution
Peer Mentoring
Transitions
Invisible Theatre
Forum Theatre
Rainbows of Desire
Facilitation Training
Workshops linked to the National Curriculum
Play in a Day

I can offer a variety of workshops on any of the above topics including:

One-hour introductory interactive workshop for up to 35 people at a time
One-hour semi interactive workshop for large groups (500 people maximum)
1- ? day workshops
Residential workshops
Special workshops
Bespoke workshops

Creative Empowerment Workshops

These workshops help build our confidence and develop a positive outlook on ourselves and are available for adults and young people. Thought provoking and interactive activities that focus on locating and harnessing empowerment from within. Sessions are fun, energised and practical and include training in:

Self image
Body language
Eye contact
Assertiveness
Rights awareness
Voice control
Presenting ourselves

Sessions usually last from two-four hours in one day. Longer and more in-depth sessions and residencies may be booked if required. If you do not see what you want here, please contact me to discuss other options.

Educational Work

My educational theatre work is core to my practice. I have 5 main aims in mind in relation to this work:

Encouraging self-esteem
Building self-confidence
Respecting individuality
Promoting informed choice
Tackling health and social issues

With these as the driving force behind each of my educational productions I actively prepare young people for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences they face while growing up. By providing entertaining yet thought provoking theatre and hands on interactive workshops, I give young people the chance to make informed decisions about their lives.

I pride myself on the consistent ability to work with any age-group on any issue. Whatever the brief, I always insure that a powerful and engaging workshop experience is the final result. I am extremely aware of the ease with which young people can switch off if they are not engaged fully by what they are watching.

All of my shows and workshops complement the PSHE (Personal Social and Health Education) and SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) curriculum perfectly. Each performance is based on the National Curriculum guidelines for that particular age group and subject matter. When working with particular schools I can establish ways in which my programme can fit into the school’s individual PSHE curriculum.

Over the years, I have forged strong partnerships, successfully working alongside a wide range of organizations nationwide. These include Local Authorities, Primary Care Trusts, Health Authorities, Healthy Schools Teams, Youth Offending Services, Community Safety Teams, Drug Action Teams, Youth Services, Community Development, Met Police, NSPCC, Housing Services, Mental Health Services and Social Care.

I bring dynamism and expertise to the different fields, ensuring that participants are equipped to make positive decisions about their futures. I am committed to creating fun, interesting and dynamic work to ensure enjoyment whilst learning. I offer partnership organisations and institutions twelve years knowledge and experience in delivering successful projects, which are able to educate people in an upbeat and innovative way.

I work alongside professionals and specialists throughout the planning and devising process of each of my workshops and projects. This involves training sessions and consultation to ensure that factual and statistical information is correct. I have a strong history of partnership work and always ensure that I continue to develop good working relationships with other agencies. This enables a supportive and collaborative approach to the work programme that I deliver and in turn strengthens my work and knowledge.

Young People

I work with a wide range of young people aged between 6 and 26 years of age in the community as well as in secure settings. This has enabled me to work on a wide range of projects, from prevention schemes to longer term projects with young people identified as being higher risk. Over the past years I have developed a particular expertise in the planning and delivery of Summer Arts Colleges. I believe that all young people have the right to access creative arts work, to enjoy these experiences and discover alternative ways of operating in the world

Life Cycles

Life Cycles is a life & social skills programme designed for dual-delivery: comprising both an accredited group course and one-to-one mentoring sessions. This unique programme helps people develop everyday life skills, make good choices, and become positive contributors to society. A varied choice of ‘pick and mix’ sessions allow programme content to be tailored to the specific needs of each individual. Additionally, the ‘shared experiences’ element of the mentoring lets a person step out and try new life skills in the real world, where they can learn from their mentor.

For information about the Playas Klub project click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/aug/18/guardiansocietysupplement3

The programme explores relevant life topics, including: Managing money / budgeting, Job seeking, Healthy relationships, Roles and responsibilities, Anger, emotions and pain management, Social skills and much more.

Criminal Justice

THE ROLE OF THE ARTS WITHIN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Whether you are a Prison Governor, a Policy Maker, an Educational organisation or a Charity seeking to know more about the role of the Arts within the Criminal Justice System, I can:

Introduce you to the very specific ways the arts can help within the context of prisons and the prevention of re-offending
Give specific examples of offending behaviour and attitudes that can be addressed through targeted exercises
Outline the process of setting up and running an art project in prison – practicalities, costs, possible outcomes
Advise how to adapt an existing prison art department to include more rehabilitative tools and strategies
Offer ideas on how to raise funds to support the arts in a prison setting
Leave you with a clear idea on how to proceed in achieving your aims

onsultation_October%202019.pdf

I know the arts are an essential means of reducing reoffending. I have the expertise and experience, the skills and track record in working with those people passing through the Criminal Justice System.

Underlying all of my work is the notion that individuals have the capacity to respond in different ways to pressures from friends, families or environment. Other strategies are always available, however, it often requires the offender to use imagination and to envision alternative behaviours.

Through my games and exercises I give participants an opportunity to discover their natural abilities and talents, giving focus to learning style, vocational inclination and aptitude for different professions

I use tried and tested models of effective practice that work in engaging, motivating and providing opportunities for people to develop new skills as well as discover new ways of behaving and relating to others.

I deliver highly skilled sessions on offending behaviour treatment groupwork programmes: all underpinned by the themes of choice, change and personal responsibility

I work in four main areas:

Prevention and early intervention
Community sentences
Custodial sentences
Through-the-gate and community services for ex offenders

I present interactive drama based workshops, projects and programmes as well as staff training and consultation within the Criminal Justice System. My reputation for innovative work with offenders and youth at risk has been on-going since 1991.

I work internationally with:

participants in prison, on probation, or in mental health settings
young people who are seen to be at risk of offending and who have offended
professionals who work with these client groups

I provide a developing portfolio which includes:

issue based performances
group work inputs into a range of probation, prison, secure hospital and youth offending programmes
workshops and residencies
staff training events

Many people argue that offending behaviour is one of the most problematic issues in our communities today. An offender’s decision to resort to crime affects people and society on a day-to-day basis and brings significant emotional, physical, and financial costs to bear.

My job as a group worker practitioner in the Probation Service and Youth Offending Service is to try and halt offending behaviour and to protect the public from further crime through creative interventions and various innovative arts based projects and programmes. In doing so, I have assisted and helped change the lives of many offenders, influenced organizational change, and mentored staff and colleagues.

International Work

Tony Cealy (UK -based arts practitioner) held theatre for social change workshops with many of our township-based theatre companies. His work was deeply appreciated by the groups who found the techniques useful for their processes. He worked with groups from Lwandle, Stellenbosch, Phillipi and Nyanga, and we are hoping to have him come back to do more of this work with our members in the future!
Thank you, Tony, for volunteering your time and considerable expertise…

Theatre ASSITEJ Cape Town South Africa Yvette Hardie Director

As part of artist-in-residence Yvette Hardie’s series of events, arts practitioner Tony Cealy ran various workshops on the Theatre of the Oppressed.

https://vimeo.com/75845244

The theoretical basis for this practice is the work of the Brazilian director Augusto Boal (1931-2009), whose conception of the ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ explicitly challenges the divisions between active and passive states or subjects. In his work, Boal says we are all spect-actors – spectators and actors who shape and reflect on the world around us.

Through embodying ideas in images and minimal though useful speech, the workshop will create a transition for the group into a visual, image-producing space, Boal’s “aesthetic space”. This creates the basis for communicating through the range of human faculties and for being able to reflect on the process. Working with highly entertaining, metaphor-generating, games and exercises takes participants out of everyday situations and relationships, makes things new and strange, lets them experience each other and themselves in different ways, recognise what they share and what separates them. Boal calls this a process of “de-mechanisation”. The image can reveal and explore feelings and experiences, which remain unspoken most of the time. The process then takes the group back into daily life with a potential to apply the work to making change. Boal called this a process of making an image of reality, working with the reality of the image and then extrapolating into living the actions rehearsed in the aesthetic space.

I have successfully toured projects and programmes to Jamaica, Africa, Canada, Texas, Bolivia, Peru, Nicaragua, Brazil, Slovenia, Poland, India and Australia. I tour across the world with a variety of creative projects and programmes that use a variety of cross cultural fusion of arts and creative action methods. They are fun, flexible, adaptable and full of energy. I can tour anywhere in the world. Please contact me for more details.