Over a number of years CGO has offered bespoke shortform bilingual training programmes either in the UK or in the host country. We have worked in Korea ( commercial theatre producing), Japan (theatre producing), China (musical theatre producing), the Netherlands (musical theatre writing), and worked with conferences and conventions in Portugal, USA, Philippines, and Australia.
In 2018 we ran a small programme led by Associate Tania Azevedo for aspiring professional performers in Saudi Arabia (Dammam). After the pandemic, in 2022 we ran two much larger programmes directly for the Ministry of Culture – the first in London & Scotland for Saudi Arabian future theatre designers, and the second across Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah for the potential ‘triple threat’ Musical Theatre performers of the future. Here we worked bilingually with a UK/US faculty of directors, musical directors and movement specialists alongside UK/Arabic speaking theatremaking/interpreters.
CGO Development, the international aspect of CGO, then prepared 9 programmes for 2023 in Saudi Arabia but on 27th Feb they were cancelled. We continue to work with Saudi independent theatremakers and MENA agencies to consider how our English/Arabic training programmes can be reenvisaged. In July 2025 we completed our fourth programme with the Korean Arts Management Services (KAMS) on a training/networking mission for 10 highly experienced commercial Korean producers to London and we look forward to ongoing programmes. In 2025 we were invited by SOIL the Japanese producer network to support them in London and Edinburgh showcases.
For 2026 we will be, once again, working with Korea and Japan. For the first time we are running programmes for theatre producers in & with Malta following a meeting at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2025. In March we will be making a visit to Ukraine to meet inspiring theatremakers and producers in Kyiv and Lviv. They are continuing to delight and entertain their indominable communities through this invasion. My thanks to Brian Hook of Hartshorn Hook for leading the way in building theatre connections by visiting, and falling in love with, the Country.
CGO is delighted to be building so many links with the aspiring and early career producers of the future through the DipCP, zoom workshops, and coaching. Producers’ Persona is a way that individual producers from across the UK and across the world can connect. We are always pleased to explore possible training and connecting programmes.