It’s time to see what happens when we step through the door…
Presented by ClerkinWorks, Improbable and Shakespeare’s Globe
A course of eight improvisation workshops exploring improvisation in theatre, comedy, storytelling, devising and movement led by Creative Facilitator Angela Clerkin. Angela says “we experiment with being heroes and villains, untold and unlikely tales, and putting our own stories centre stage. Oh, and practice being confident and generous as we fuck up. It’s time to find out what happens when we step through the door...”.
TTD is for women, non-binary and trans people who are actors, improvisors, writers, drag kings, dancers, designers, directors and theatre-makers at all levels of experience.
The beginner’s level will be a fun and innovative introduction to Impro techniques and working with autobiographical material.
The intermediate course is more suited if you have previously attended TTD and/or Improbable workshops, or already have improvisation experience and want to play and expand your skill set. Sign up for the one that best fits you. Whichever one you come to, it’s best to be prepared to be surprised.
The workshops are on Sundays 10am-12:30pm (beginners) & 2-4:30pm (intermediate), beginning on 4 October and running to 22 November 2026.
All sessions are held at Shakespeare’s Globe in the Education Centre. It is a course so you sign up for the whole series rather than individual workshops. Prices have been kept as low as possible to make these workshops accessible.
THE FULL INVITATION FROM ANGELA CLERKIN
In 2018 my company, ClerkinWorks with support from Improbable, launched Through The Door. We started at Theatre Deli, moved to Shakespeare’s Globe and then online. Now we are delighted to be back at Shakespeare's Globe for a new season of Through The Door! The participants in previous years have been a mixture of actors, dancers, drag kings, writers, directors, cabaret performers and designers. I’m excited to discover who will come through the door this time.
TTD’s aims are to learn skills, practise taking space and enjoying mistakes, having fun, being ridiculous, generosity of spirit, creating a community, and experiencing agency through improvisation. I am aware of what effect lack of opportunities can have on the spirit, and how tough and isolating it can often be in the arts. Our aim to change things up, supporting those of us who have been marginalised in various ways to take centre stage and hang out there. Together. And also keeping the doors open for others to come through. I have found this approach to be transformative, benefitting everyone, challenging, enriching and changing us - and the stories we improvise.
I am a Creative Facilitator and a qualified Therapist. I started out as a cabaret performer with the Hairy Marys and have worked as a theatre maker, actor, improvisor, writer and director for many years. I am an Improbable Associate Artist and I have worked with them as a performer, co-director, co-writer, associate director, Open Space facilitator, World Cafe Host and Impro workshop facilitator.
I lead most of the workshops, Improbable produces, and we are delighted to have some amazing, highly skilled guest facilitators joining me during the course. This time we have the awesome Monica Gaga & Varshini Pichemuthu for the beginners course and for the intermediate group Pauline Mayers and Josie Lawrence! Find out more about this year’s guests below.
Sign up! It’s time to find out what happens when you dare to step through the door…
Dates
4th October 2026
11th October 2026
18th October 2026
25th October 2026
1st November 2026
8th November 2026
15th November 2026
22nd November 2026
THE TEAM
Angela Clerkin
Angela Clerkin began performing comedy & cabaret shows with The Hairy Marys. She has worked as an actor at the Barbican, National Theatre, Young Vic, Old Vic, Almeida, lots of UK Rep theatres, New York and Sydney Opera House. TV: Coronation Street, Dr Who, Humans, Holby City, EastEnders, Dalziel & Pascoe, My Family, Sugar Rush, The Office.
Recent directing credits include Moll and the Future Kings, a candle-lit Drag King cabaret at the Globe/Sam Wanamaker, and Associate Director on An Improbable Musical. Angela’s company ClerkinWorks produced 4* shows The Bear and The Secret Keeper which she wrote and co-directed and toured the UK.
Her play Be Mine toured Brazil and Portugal for 3+ years. Angela was recently a Creative Engagement Fellow at the University of Leicester, and curated the Festival of Radical Care at the Albany Theatre. She leads creative writing course for lgbtq+ people at Triangle and Albany. She recently collaborated with Box Office Bears project running Drama and Creative Writing workshops in London and Nottingham. Angela now works as an Integrative Therapist, MBACP, & Creative Facilitator.
Monica Gaga
Monica Gaga is a British-born black African queer improviser, facilitator, host and scripted actor and performer. She has been improvising for 24 years, teaching professionally for 16 years and performing professionally for 11 years.
Trained at East 15 Acting School, Monica has worked professionally across England, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada and beyond.
When she is not performing, hosting or teaching, Monica is championing diversity, inclusion and equity in improv and trying to get as many people, particularly BIPOC, involved as possible.
Monica is based in London, UK and plays/teaches internationally
Pauline Mayers
Pauline is a multi-disciplinary theatre maker, movement director and performer based in the North of England. She began her career as a Rambert-trained dancer appearing on stage, film and television. Her repertory dance company experience includes Janet Smith and Dancers, Diversions Dance, The Ensemble Group and Phoenix Dance Theatre. She also served as interim artistic director for Teeside Dance Initiative before transitioning to theatre in 2010.
Since then Pauline has developed a diverse background as a director, writer, movement director, performer and facilitator. She has collaborated with theatre and live art companies across the UK. Her movement direction and performance work includes collaborations with Selina Thompson LTD’s Twine (2024), live performance artist Paula Varjack’s Nine Sixteenths (2024) – which had a 2026 national UK tour – and Improbable Theatre on An Improbable Musical (2022). In 2017 she was Associate Director on the Leeds Playhouse’s Queen of Chapeltown, working alongside director Amy Leach.
In her own work Pauline explores themes of identity, participation, intimacy and care. Her critically acclaimed solo show What If I Told You, written and performed by Pauline, premiered at Leeds Playhouse in 2016 and toured across the UK the following year. Presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017, it was shortlisted for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award. Returning for a sold-out four-night run at Leeds Playhouse in 2018, it also featured in the inaugural programme at Brixton House, London in 2022. Lyn Gardner of The Guardian described her work as “shaking up traditional theatre and power structures to put the audience in the picture”.
Josie Lawrence
Josie Lawrence is an actor, writer and improviser. She has worked extensively in film and TV, recently in Good Omens, Humans, Halo, Funny Woman and the improvised film A Clever Woman. Radio appearances include Just a Minute, Reluctant Persuaders, Thanks a Lot Milton Jones! and The Lawrence/Sweeney Mix.
Recent theatre work includes Love Lies Bleeding (Coronet Theatre); Mother Courage (Southwark Playhouse); Oklahoma (Chichester); Edmond De Bergerac (National tour); The premier of Jonathan Harvey’s Our Lady of Blundellsands (Liverpool Everyman); The Taming of the Shrew, Faust, The Cherry Orchard (RSC); The Alchemist, Bryony Lavery’s premier of Frozen, Picasso’s Women (National), An Improbable Musical (national tour.)
Josie played the role of Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing at Manchester Royal Exchange and Benedick in the same play at Shakespeare’s Globe.
She is also known for her many appearances on the UK and US versions of Whose Line is it Anyway? and in recent years has performed the show live at The London Palladium and The Royal Albert Hall.
Varshini Pichemuthu
Originally from Singapore and now based in London, Varshini is an applied theatre practitioner, facilitator, performer and director. Her practice is rooted in the belief that play is essential to our wellbeing and that creativity is our birthright.
She has worked across the UK and internationally on participatory theatre and creative learning projects with organisations including Eastside, Theatre for a Change, Polka Theatre, Phosphoros Theatre and Seenaryo. Her work has included projects with women and girls in India, refugee communities in the UK and Lebanon, adults with learning disabilities, and an interactive radio drama addressing vaccine misinformation in Nigeria and Senegal.
Varshini is Open Space & Community Participation Producer at Improbable and a visiting lecturer at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She was formerly Co-Artistic Director of RootPrints Theatre and most recently a lead practitioner on Kiln Theatre's Arrive, Build, Create programme.
Trained and mentored by Jane Gilmer (NZ), Kamil Haque (SG) and David Glass (UK), her stage credits include Star Spangled Girl, Nagamandala, A Second Life, Blithe Spirit and The Cardboard Kitchen Project. Her poetry appears in Words: Lost and Found (Coffee Stained Press).
THE DETAILS
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Through The Door takes place on Sundays October-November 2026. You must be available to attend all of the sessions.
Sunday 4 October
Sunday 11 October
Sunday 18 October
Sunday 25 October
Sunday 1 November
Sunday 8 November
Sunday 15 November
Sunday 22 November
Beginners Group at 10:00 - 12:30 | Intermediate Group 14:00 - 16:30
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Sessions held at Shakespeare’s Globe on Southbank , London.
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Full Price £180
No/Low wage £48
The No/Low wage price point is intended for someone in receipt of income-related benefits and/or who otherwise wouldn't be able to attend due to financial barriers. Please only select this price point if this applies to you.
You will be able to select which price point applies to you as part of your application.
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There will be a section on the application form for you to let us know what you need to work best. If you would like to discuss your access requirements, or have any questions about the site or the week before you apply then please get in touch with us on varshini@improbable.co.uk.
The space is wheelchair accessible.
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There is a short application form – click here or copy this link into your browser - https://pd7miouby05.typeform.com/to/HPMPPzK4
This form will ask you;
For your contact information
Which course you would like to book (beginners/intermediate)
Which price point applies to you.
Access needs you may wish to share.
We will then ask – ‘Please tell us a bit about yourself and your practise and why you are applying to Through The Door?’
The deadline is 6 September 2026.