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"Bringing issues to life and helping to explore connections between people"
is people=positive’s team of professional actors, who are also skilled facilitators and trainers and who bring to our training programmes a collective depth of work and life experience combined with substantial professional expertise.
They offer to the client a varied menu of exciting and focussed drama techniques that bring to life those behavioural and communication issues that are at the heart of person-centred training supporting effective coaching and training with the delegates. It is a team that offers be-spoke interventions and one that responds quickly and accurately to a client’s request.
Our writers also write for radio, film & theatre and therefore offer:-
1) Speed and accuracy with research
2) Experience of working closely with clients and responding to their needs
3) The ability to create engaging and relevant stories to brief, to budget, and to time.
They have backgrounds working in heavy and light industry, in business, and in the retail, service and financial sectors.
They are also experienced in working within person-centered training programmes so that the drama created is not only powerful and entertaining but challenging, inter-active and focused on the learning.
Drama engages with people’s emotions. Interactive drama engages those emotions in a direct way, challenging people to look at their own behaviour, the culture that they operate within, and then works with them to identify what needs changing and beginning the process of change.
Xplore operates on a high level of emotional engagement but combines it with skilled facilitation that draws out the learning. It is creative, dynamic, and entertaining within a rigorous and focussed training programme making it a powerful and memorable tool for learning and coaching.
Meet the Team
David Napthine
 I live in County Durham and have worked for a number of years as an actor, actor/facilitator, devisor of training programmes and writer of scenarios for drama-based training. In all of these capacities I have worked in the oil, rail, construction and engineering industries and also for local authorities, charities and health trusts. As a professional actor I have played God, Prospero, Bottom, murderers, dodgy photographers, army officers and a deranged lighthouse keeper. I have written extensively for BBC Radio Drama, theatre (including librettos and song cycles) and for site-specific productions (e.g. swimming pools, cathedrals, housing estates). I also work as a theatre director and many years ago I was the Ribena Picture of Health!
Richard Opie
After working an apprenticeship as an antique furniture restorer, Richard then trained as an actor at The Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and The National Youth Theatre, where he worked with some of Britain’s household names from stage and screen. He spent some years getting greased up and wearing tights before entering the burgeoning corporate presenter and professional role-play market. Since entering this market he has worked extensively across a wide range of industries including banking, oil and aerospace as well the public sector arenas of The Police, Post Office and City Councils. He has extensive writing and facilitation experience and is an established presenter/host on the UK corporate video and conference and seminar circuit. In his spare time he is a keen long distance walker, his finest achievement the Camino de Santiago, and cricketer. He is also an accomplished horse rider and fencer. Richard originates from Somerset though all this really means is that his fellow actors spend a lot of time saying “ooh arr” to him.
Shaun Curry
 An honours graduate Shaun has been personally designing and delivering drama based attitudinal training programmes for over 15 years. During this time he has worked for an extensive range of international companies including BP, Shell, Rolls Royce and Halliburton. His specialist area is attitudinal health and safety training and he has delivered drama based H.S.E programmes all over the world covering countries such as Indonesia, the Middle East, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Norway, the USA Trinidad plus a good few others his spell checker does not recognise. Offshore survival certified he has delivered programmes in British, Dutch, Norwegian and UAE waters. He is also a qualified clinical hypnotherapist, so watch the eyes. When not at work Shaun enjoys keeping fit and travel. He can also circular breathe on the didgeridoo for 2 minutes without passing out and can play any request on the harmonica as long as it’s ‘O Danny Boy’
Products
This list of 'tools' gives a brief soundbite to explain how they might be used inside a workshop. We have a number of case-studies and sample scripts that can be provided to assist with acquiring a more comprehensive understanding of the process and impact of how works. Please contact us directly to be linked up with one of our facilitators.
Forum Theatre
This can last between 1 hour and 3 hours depending upon the brief. A short scene is presented to the delegates who then analyse the behaviours of the characters through observation, discussion, analysis and talking to the characters. They then advise one of those characters on what appropriate behaviour the character can adopt to improve the situation and achieve a satisfactory outcome.
Sample Programme: Click on the picture to download . .
Invisible Theatre
A short, sharp intervention whereby the delegates are unaware that the character they are dealing with is an actor. For example, in Customer Service training, when delegates arrive at the training centre/hotel they are unaware that the unhelpful person greeting them is an actor. The experience of the delegates is then used to frame the analysis of what makes good customer service.
Role-plays
The delegate has to deal with an actor in role and achieve a satisfactory outcome. This can be used in any training issue from a disciplinary matter to stopping an unsafe act.
Lightning Forum
Forum theatre created by the actor/facilitators in response to issues that arise in the training room. This can happen in two ways. There might be a designated slot for Forum Theatre during the training programme but the specific nature of that intervention will be improvised by the actors as a result of what the delegates have discussed. Secondly, it might be an immediate real-time improvised response to illustrate an issue that has arisen during the programme.
Speed-baiting
This is a fast-paced trailer that leads into deeper discussion. It involves all the delegates, with real-life scenarios suggested by the delegates. It is an energiser, it facilitates group learning and is also a peer-levelling exercise.
Auctions
An energetic and entertaining exercise that sets priorities and assesses values. It can set an agenda and be a resume of learning.
Incident Investigation
A day-long course that looks at the skills of gathering evidence, interviewing people and assessing information in order to find out what caused an incident and what might need to be put in place to prevent the incident recurring.
Team-brain
This looks at how to deal with difficult people. It is a team role-play that enables effective skills coaching and peer development with delegates working in teams to provide real-time direction for the actor playing their character.
Speaking with confidence
An interactive exploration and coaching session that quickly and effectively empowers delegates to speak in public be that a tool-box talk, a safety briefing, a pitch for business etc.
FUTURE PRODUCTS:
Xplore is constantly developing new products in response to the changing business environment. Here are some of the areas we're currently bringing new products forward in:
SIMULATIONS
A classic tool for experiential learning, the simulation allows delegates to experience and resolve “what if” situations. This can either mean the delegates being themselves but being given a situation to deal with and dealing with it in their role in the company. Alternatively, it can give the delegates “the mantle of the expert” whereby they adopt a role in the simulation that is not theirs and thereby understand, and have practice in that role, and also step into someone else’s shoes.
For example:-
1) Crisis management. Have the company and its employees the ability to respond to random events and rapid market changes? This can range from a fire in the plant, the loss of key personnel, the cancellation of significant orders, a crash in the IT system etc. It can also look at how normal everyday events – unavoidable cancellation of a key meeting, delays because of traffic jams, absence, friction between people etc – can escalate if not dealt with in an appropriate way.
2) Outside threat. How do you respond to a terrorist threat, a natural event (e.g. earthquake), industrial action etc.
3) Scenario Planning. This is about looking to the future. How does a company see itself next year, 5 years time?
4) Incident Investigation This prepares people for and allows them to develop the evidence-gathering, interviewing, and analytical skills that will enable them to conduct an effective Incident Investigation and make appropriate recommendations
The simulation is an analytical tool. It does not, of itself, supply answers but it does allow the company and the employees to understand individual and systemic strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
CREATIVE THINKING IN BUSINESS
The day-to-day pressure of business, particularly in the current economic climate, prevents people thinking creatively and therefore productively, about what they and the business do. Yet it is in such times that creative thinking is required. These tailored sessions use the creative arts in a practical and focussed way to stimulate new ways of thinking and working that will add value to your business.
THE INSPIRATIONAL & UNUSUAL VENUE
The importance of space and location in training is often overlooked. We are developing drama interventions that can happen in unexpected venues make delegates look at the familiar and accepted in a new way. Business is always plagued by complacency and these interventions break that complacency and kick-start the necessary culture change.
PLAY IN A DAY
Putting on a theatrical production in a day is a powerful way of experiential learning. The delegates have to learn new skills and develop and refine established skills; they have to work to deadline; they have to work as a team; they have to be able to communicate effectively, appropriately and quickly; they have to deal with differences, take individual responsibility and abide by collective responsibility. Whilst Xplore members work with the delegates on the creation of the (public) performance they are observed by Trainers who draw out the learning points and identify development opportunities.
"Bringing issues to life and helping to explore connections between people"
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