Artist Bio
Rene Karen Katiisa is a Ugandan-born, Bristol-based artist, creative. After training at the BRIT School and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, she spent 25 years in the public sector, latterly as an Education Advocate for over 200 Bristol children in care. Now a full-time freelancer, she recently completed a Decolonising Disability residency at Bristol Old Vic. And performed her autobiographical solo show Sugarcane and Concrete at the Diverse Artists Network's DIASPORA! festival 2026. In July this year, Rene launched The Library Podcast, a global movement archiving the stories of working class, Black and Global Majority creatives living in Bristol, South West England and beyond.
From Memory to Stage: Turning Your Story into Performance
Tuesday 17 November 2026, 12:00pm-1:30pm
Wednesday November 2026, 6:00pm-7:30pm
VENUE
Online
Join Rene Karen Katiisa for this practical and exploratory workshop, ideal for anyone interested in developing personal, lived-experience material for the stage.
Drawing on her experience as an actor and theatre-maker, Rene will guide you through questions like:
How do we turn a memory into a piece of theatre?
What is the difference between telling your life story and creating an artistic story?
How can memory, objects, place, sound and the body become theatrical material?
How do we transform real people and experiences into characters and scenes?
How much of ourselves do we need to reveal?
How can we tell difficult stories without allowing our work to become defined by trauma?
How can Black joy, humour, imagination and cultural memory become part of the dramaturgy?
This workshop is exclusively for members of WOVEN, our network for Global Majority heritage performance artists in south west England and the Thames Valley.