I believe that theatre is a shared experience between performers and the audience, where we go on the same journey into imaginary worlds (the places inside us, the places that no longer exist, the places that do not exist yet).

Here, I invite you to consider theatre and performance not just as aesthetic forms, but as modes of being—extensions of the natural world around us. Theatre, for me, is a way of tuning our attention toward the ghostly, the forgotten, the erased. It is a form of haunting: catching glimpses of what’s been hidden and giving it form.

We will start with you: your body, your lived experience, your landscapes—then uncover seeds for making theatre that makes the imagination spark and catch fire, that connects us to each other in a shared journey into the unknown.

We will journey together to make our bodies available to intuition and imagination, we will lower our judgments on ourselves and each other, so we can play. I don’t think play is about being childish or child-like—I think it’s what we naturally do when we feel safe, empowered and curious. I also want to acknowledge that ‘performance’ (see above) is particularly complex if you live in an Othered body where performance is a form of survival, and play has often been out of reach.

My approach is experiential and philosophical, I will offer you tools to connect again and again to the beating heart of your creativity, and to connect with your body and imagination, and with your audience. I will not offer technique or aesthetic solutions (although I do believe skills and craft are important, and trust that you have your own practice to cultivate that!)

Although I will be facilitating, these will be individual journeys in which you teach yourself.

AREAS OF FOCUS

  • Personal narratives
  • Writing & devising
  • Bouffonesque and Grotesque
  • Dramaturgy (for me, this means discovering the angle between your story and its telling that will make it spark and catch fire)
  • Histories that have been marginalised or erased
  • Reifying your personal journey with your artistic journey

My work supports many kinds of people who practice art: from theatremakers, to writers, actors who are seeking to bring their personal narratives to deepen their work, and people who work with creativity and stories.

PROMISED LAND
Created and Performed by Elisabeth Gunawan

AT BROKEN BRIDGE
Performed by Jasmine Chiu
Directed and devised with Elisabeth Gunawan

ABOUT THE PRACTICE

grotesque • \groh-TESK\ • adjective. 1 : fanciful, bizarre 2 : absurdly incongruous 3 : departing markedly from the natural, the expected, or the typical.

My art and practice are deeply influenced by the grotesque. Often misunderstood as simply something ugly or exaggerated, the grotesque is a much more nuanced concept that was coined in the Renaissance Carnival but is present cross-culturally. The grotesque challenges the idea of the body as sacred, whole, and self-contained. Instead, the body is constantly transforming and disorienting—holding contradictions that expose the shifting nature of social norms and invite alternative perspectives. It’s an aesthetic that highlights the edges of what is considered acceptable or unacceptable, whether in individual bodies or in the body politic. Openings and orifices are key motifs of the grotesque, marking the thresholds between inside and outside, subject and abject, self and other.

My work derives from a decade of work as a multi-award-winning writer/performer. I have also trained as a writer (with the likes of Roy Williams and Alexander Chee), and as an actor with various practitioners under Grotowski’s lineage. Philosophically, I am most aligned with Mary Overlie’s six viewpoints and her non-hierarchical approaches to performance, but I have also been a very very bad student of Philippe Gaulier’s, but his socratic ramblings taught me profoundly about the performer and their ‘uncertain place in the universe.’

My research into the bouffon, the grosteque and the mystical has been hosted and supported by Goldsmiths University (under CHASE funding), Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice grant and the Grotowski Institute in Poland.

TESTIMONIALS

“She is a miracle worker. She took the time to hear my story. She made sure that I would talk about myself the way I wanted to, and encouraged me to take as many detours as I needed to tell my story. I won’t bore you with the process because you should experience it first hand, but she really taught me about the process. And I somehow pulled it off the day of the public showing. … I highly recommend to see anything she’s involved with and to work with her if you get the chance.” –Nadege Nguyen, actress – graduate of ALRA South

“A kind of catharsis … During the workshop I felt that I am opening myself not only for new methods but also opening my internal barriers.” –Katarzyna Siedlecka – drama therapist


“She is a sensitive and engaging artist and teacher. She encouraged me to connect with myself on a physical and spiritual level during the making process, and not get stuck on the intellectual. The way Betty guides you through the exercises is grounding and creates a safe space to explore deeply and take risks.” –Hannah Kumari, actress/theatremaker

“She takes artists through a really gentle and simple process to tell stories that are true to yourself. She draws from a variety of influences and cultures and has built a practice that is unique and beautiful.” –Nishad More, actor – graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Learn more about upcoming workshops and 1-1 sessions:

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