Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr)
23rd THEATRE SUMMER CAMP 2026
“Impacts: Body and Voice in Action”
Chiliomodi, Corinthias, Greece, 27-31 August 2026
Workshop for adults
The Novel as Chorus
Facilitator: Brendon Burns
Workshop Description:
What should we keep when adapting a novel? What must we let go? This four-day workshop is for directors and teachers interested in bringing young adult literature to the stage with large casts.
Working together, we will develop an original adaptation for ensemble performance - exploring how chorus, choral narration, puppetry, and multiple protagonists can carry a story that a small cast simply cannot. We will ask what makes a novel theatrical, and discover how the epic tradition offers tools that best capture the essence of the novel.
The techniques draw on the workshop leader's stage adaptations of The Handmaid's Tale, Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Kensuke's Kingdom, Holes, Private Peaceful, Brave New World, and A Clockwork Orange. No prior experience of adaptation is required - only a love of literature and a curiosity about what happens when a story leaves the page and enters a shared space.
The specific novel we work with will be agreed in conversation with the organising team before the camp.
Brendon Burns is a theatre director, facilitator, educator, and writer based in the United Kingdom. He works with theatres, schools, and organisations on workshop design, facilitation, and participatory performance. He was Head of Department for Applied Theatre and Community Drama at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts 2010-2024, and prior to this held posts as Artistic Director of Solent Peoples Theatre, Indefinite Article and First Draft Theatre, and Associate Director at Proteus Theatre and The Haymarket. He has written and directed large-scale stage adaptations of novels for young people throughout his career, including The Handmaid's Tale, Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Kensuke's Kingdom, Holes, Private Peaceful, Brave New World, and A Clockwork Orange. These productions have been characterised by their use of large ensembles, choral staging, and devised movement, and have frequently been performed with casts of young people in educational and community theatre contexts. Alongside his directing work, Brendon is a published writer and educator. His forthcoming book Drama Games for Reimagining Society: Practising Democracy Through Performance will be published by Nick Hern Books in 2026. He writes the Philosophical Theatre Facilitator, a newsletter exploring the theory and ethics of theatre-making and facilitation. He has worked internationally and is particularly interested in the intersection of literature, democratic practice, and ensemble theatre-making.
INFO info@theatreoedu.gr / ++302106541600