This training day offers artists and practitioners a chance to understand the approach Streetwise Opera has developed over the past 24 years to creating ambitious new opera with people who have experienced homelessness and other adults at risk.

Streetwise Opera is an award-winning company whose work is rooted in co-creation: weekly workshops with performers, projects in partnership with arts organisations, and sessions in frontline homelessness settings including hostels, day centres and with people currently sleeping rough.

In this collaborative Skills Lab session you’ll:

• Gain insight into how Streetwise Opera build creative work collaboratively in homeless settings
• Explore the principles and practice behind a co-creation process, drawing on recent projects including Reimagining the Classics – which revisited canonical opera through new lenses, opening up fresh perspectives and addressing some of the more problematic themes and assumptions within the form.

Opera brings together many art forms, so the session will touch on a range of approaches used in the room, including storytelling, music-making, character creation, design and wider creative collaboration. Alongside an introduction to Streetwise Opera’s work, the day will offer practical insight into how they structure workshops, draw out and develop participants’ ideas, and create a space that is artistically ambitious, inclusive and empowering.

The session is aimed at artists and practitioners interested in co-creation and arts-based social change, whether or not they have previous experience in opera or participatory practice. It will be led by Aga Serugo-Lugo, Streetwise Opera Associate Artist, and Martin Constantine, Streetwise Opera Artistic Director.

Aga Serugo-Lugo
Aga is a musician, music director, theatre-maker and facilitator who works across participatory arts, music and live performance. He is a Streetwise Opera Associate Artist and has extensive experience creating collaborative work with people from a wide range of backgrounds, bringing a playful, inclusive and imaginative approach to co-creation.

Martin Constantine
Martin is Artistic Director of Streetwise Opera, the award-winning company that creates ambitious opera with and for people who have experienced homelessness. He is a theatre and opera director, writer and educator, and leads the company’s artistic programme across London, Nottingham and Manchester, with a focus on co-creation, artistic excellence and social change.