Birmingham Hippodrome’s Young Community Drop-In Sessions have been developed by our Young Advocates.

Open to any young person aged 14+, these are workshops for those wanting to try something new or to develop their skills further, learning from the best and taking your next step into the world of creativity! 

This October’s Young Community Drop In Workshops are based around new writing in different forms linking with the performances of Birmingham based Side Eye’s production in the Patrick Studio, Off Key. We have three mega exciting workshops that will cover directing new writing, writing your first TV show pitch and writing new musicals with some of the countries leading creatives. 

Writing a pitch for TV with Camilla Whitehill
Camilla is the writer, creator, and executive producer of BIG MOOD starring Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton) & Lydia West (It’s A Sin) on Channel 4. The show won Best Comedy Drama at the British Comedy Guide Awards 2024 with the second series released earlier this year. She’s an alumnus of 4Screenwriting (2016), the Bush Theatre emerging writers group (2016), and other things lost to the innumerable gaps in her memory. She also founded and ran the Vault New Writers Programme at some point. She lives in North London with an “eccentric” amount of pets. 

Writing new musicals with Jake Brunger & Pippa Cleary
Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary have been described by The Stage newspaper as “one of the most exciting musical theatre writing teams working in the UK today”. They are the writers of two West End musicals: THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE AGED 13¾ and THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF. Their other musicals include: TREASURE ISLAND (Bristol Old Vic), RED RIDING HOOD and CHICKEN LITTLE (Singapore Repertory Theatre), PRODIGY (National Youth Music Theatre), THE GREAT BRITISH SOAP OPERA (Edinburgh Fringe, Jermyn Street Theatre) and JET SET GO! (Edinburgh Fringe, Theatre 503, Jermyn Street Theatre). They were nominated for the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical for THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE, for 4 Whatsonstage awards for THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF and they are currently nominated for the UK Theatre Award for Best Show for Children & Young People for TREASURE ISLAND. 

Directing New Writing with James Grieve
James is an award-winning theatre director. He was formerly Artistic Director of the national theatre of new plays – Paines Plough – where he developed and directed world premieres by some of the UK’s leading writers including James Graham, Mike Bartlett and Kae Tempest. His work has been seen everywhere from arenas to student union bars, opera houses to music festivals, BBC Radio to Off-Broadway. He recently launched the UK’s first purpose built Sauna Theatre and his book on theatre directing ‘Force It Into Existence’ is published by Bloomsbury in November.  

Mindful Crafting with Bobbie
Bobbie is back! This time, supporting you to create images of a piece of new writing you would like to make. Take inspiration from the other workshops you’ve taken part in or come up with something completely new – it’s up to you! This workshop will take place in a relaxed setting where you can drop in and out. 

Our Young Community Drop Ins are designed for young people to experience things they’ve never thought about or tried before and a chilled sociable environment.

As always, this event is completely FREE, there’s snacks, crafts and lots of fun!