Amir Reza Koohestani’s masterclass invites participants to explore the performative potential of daily life by examining how ordinary events, private habits and seemingly minor interactions can be transformed into theatrical material.

This masterclass is open to theatremakers, arts students and practitioners. Successful applicants will be contacted to purchase tickets for this masterclass.

This is a companion programme to Blind Runner (31 Jul – 2 Aug 2026) at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. The Studios companion programmes are an invitation to deepen engagement with the artistic works and conversations raised in the season.

The masterclass is grounded in the idea that personal experience is not simply something to be represented on stage, but a rich and complex source for the construction of form, language and dramatic tension. By reflecting on their daily routines, environments and modes of communication, participants are encouraged to uncover the latent dramaturgies embedded in everyday existence.

A key aspect of Koohestani’s practice is the transformation of intimate, first-person material into shared theatrical language. In this masterclass, personal voice messages serve as the starting point for that process. Participants are invited to bring one or more pre-recorded voice messages on any messaging app from acquaintances or themselves, which will serve as raw material for exploration. These recordings are not intended for public playback within the group; rather, they remain private source material unless a participant voluntarily chooses to share an excerpt to illuminate the process. Through transcription, reframing, repetition and collective analysis, participants will investigate how spoken, personal language can shift from private communication into a performative structure.

The masterclass approaches everyday life not as anecdotal content, but as a field of rhythms, codes, gestures and emotional traces that can be shaped into artistic form. It proposes that performance may emerge from what already exists in life and asks how theatre can preserve the vulnerability, ambiguity and political resonance of lived experience while transforming it into narrative and presence.