Jenifer Toksvig is a theatre maker, musical theatre librettist and lyricist, director, facilitator and pedagogue, poet, artist, photographer, crafter, game designer, and advocate.

She makes everything from traditional fourth wall theatre, to audience-involved, immersive hybrid gaming/theatre, to small games run on social media platforms.

Her work under The Copenhagen Interpretation is transmedia playable theatre events across analogue, digital, and live performance platforms. (Also, little tiny games here and there.)

 

'Copenhagen' has three main aims:

- to build living, responsive ways to open up accessible story/worlds, so everyone can get involved in a way that is comfortable for them to access, within which

- to embrace all creative expression that contributes to the building, exploring, and understanding of our story/worlds, for the purpose of

- collectively deepening our connections with the story, with each other, and with ourselves in a supported environment
 

It is designed to be particularly accessible for neurodiverse audiences, especially for people with ADHD.

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Jump to: Musicals | Poetry | Theatre Forms | Participatory | Art/Book | Accompanying | Advocacy | Academia

MUSICALS

Atina, Evil Queen of the Galaxy | book & lyrics for the reshaping of Steve Brown's original book & lyrics | music by Alan Menken | Fredericia Teater, Denmark | fourth wall theatre

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The Broad Cloth | co-director, writer, co-producer | co-produced and staged with Teatro Vivo | game elements stitched in by Chloe Mashiter | audience-involved theatre/gaming hybrid specifically designed for ADHD access | presented on the ADHD-Hub platform on Zoom, culminating in live event | concurrent Discord RPG

Christmas at the (Snow) Globe | director, audience host, co-bookwriter with Sandi Toksvig | London's Globe Theatre | call-and-response and singalong fourth wall theatre | Guardian review

Sandi Toksvig's Hitler's Canary | book & lyrics | music by Alexander Rudd | Watford Palace Theatre and Fredericia Teater, Denmark | Arts Council funded | immersive theatre in trad theatre buildings

Legacy | book & lyrics | music by Cathy Shostak | director David Gilmore | musical supervisor Mark Warman | in aid of The Royal Navy & Royal Marines Children's Charity | Soho Theatre and on board HMS Victory | fourth wall and site-responsive theatre | sample songs

Terry Pratchett's Mort (the musical) | book & lyrics | music by Dominic Haslam | Manchester's Library Theatre, Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Kingston's Rose Theatre | fourth wall theatre | sample songs

The Queen of Snow | book & lyrics | music by Alexander Rudd | directed by Julia Black | Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre | fourth wall theatre | sample song

David Almond's The Savage, a youth opera | libretto | directed by Thomas Hescott | Hackney's Arcola Theatre | fourth wall theatre

Geraldine McCaughrean's The Stones Are Hatching | book & lyrics | music by Alexander Rudd | Croydon's Fairfield Halls | fourth wall theatre | sample songs

Three Folk, Cowboys & Mermaids | devised in collaboration with theatre-maker Stella Duffy and silent film accompanist / Dalcroze expert Mary Price O'Connor | Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts | surround theatre

Three Folk, The Wyld Hunt | devised in collaboration with novelist Manda Scott and sound designer Adrienne Quartly | Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts | surround theatre

Three Folk, Voices From The Beehive | devised in collaboration with novelist Joanne Harris and composer Rebecca Applin | Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts | surround theatre

Toksvig-Perkins Musicals for young performers | The Curious Quest for the Sandman's Sand | Skool & Crossbones | Shake, Ripple & Roll | Pandemonium! A Greek Myth-Adventure | The Nutcracker | bookwriter/lyricist | music by David Perkins | original productions at Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre | fourth wall theatre | published by Samuel French Ltd | more info

Treasure Island | lyrics | book by Sandi Toksvig | music by David Perkins | Leicester's Haymarket Theatre | call-and-response fourth wall theatre
 

Jump to: Musicals | Poetry | Theatre Forms | Participatory | Art/Book | Accompanying | Advocacy | Academia

POETRY

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What They Took With Them | poet, capture designer | Moving Stories in aid of UNHCR | National Theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket, House of Lords, St Paul's Cathedral, the United Nations headquarters in New York, the Good Chance Encampment on the Southbank, the LUSH 2016 Summit | live performance and film made by Facebook for UNHCR | also translated into Polish, Swedish, German, Serbian

 

Tall Storey | poet | Royal Shakespeare Company | short film in contemporary verse
 

Jump to: Musicals | Poetry | Theatre Forms | Participatory | Art/Book | Accompanying | Advocacy | Academia

THEATRE FORMS

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The Copenhagen Interpretation
designer/director | audience-involved theatre/gaming hybrid designed to accommodate neurodiversity, specifically to include those with ADHD and comorbidities.
 

Jump to: Musicals | Poetry | Theatre Forms | Participatory | Art/Book | Accompanying | Advocacy | Academia

PARTICIPATORY

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Toksvig’s | game designer, facilitator | the best restaurant you can imagine | a game of collective imagining | Twitter

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The Fairytale Library | artist, facilitator | the gathering of a personal fairytale moment, captured in a handmade book | more info

Charming | artist | random little amulets, talismans, charms with supportive messages, left lying around for people to find | themed according to location
 

Jump to: Musicals | Poetry | Theatre Forms | Participatory | Art/Book | Accompanying | Advocacy | Academia

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ART/BOOK

Birgitte Berteldatter's Brilliant Birds & Beasts | author & illustrator | interactive app book narrated by Sandi Toksvig, published by Box Of Frogs Media | instagram of original artwork

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Jump to: Musicals | Poetry | Theatre Forms | Participatory | Art/Book | Accompanying | Advocacy | Academia

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ACCOMPANYING

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As part of the process of making work, Jenifer includes capture, archival, and creative response to the work through visual art. Sometimes other people do this work, sometimes she does it on her own projects, and sometimes she does it on other people's projects. This is supporting work, which she calls Accompanying. It can include photography/video, written observations, conversation and interview with makers, participants, and/or audience members, and other forms of capture. Archives are often created, which can be private or public, and sometimes share the performance space and/or exist on social media.

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The Larder @ The Old Nuns Head | producer, facilitator | making your heartwork | archive gathered by Jenifer Toksvig

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The Larder @ The Soho | producer, facilitator | What are better ways for us to develop new musical theatre writing? | archive gathered by Ben Norton Davies

 

A Shropshire Lad | director, capture & response designer | musical written and composed by Niall Ashdown | archive & photos gathered by Ben Norton Davies |

 

Tiny Shows, Cinderella | director, producer, capture & response designer | archive gathered by Ben Norton Davies

 

The Chaosbaby Project | performer, photographer | promenade theatre devised by collective, initiated and led by Stella Duffy | capture photos by Jenifer Toksvig

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Jump to: Musicals | Poetry | Theatre Forms | Participatory | Art/Book | Accompanying | Advocacy | Academia

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ADVOCACY

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Supporting Work | Jenifer does supporting work including holding space, consultancy, mediation, advocacy, and facilitation. More info about the nature of this work can be found here.

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Unions | Writers Guild of Great Britain, co-chair, Editorial and Communications | Dramatists Guild of America | Equity | Musicians Union

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Professional Orgs | Independent Theatre Companies (ITC) | Stage Directors UK

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Tiny Shows

An alternative way for producers to connect with creatives. This event model is freely available for use under a Creative Commons license. More info here.

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Social media support groups

• The Larder (a broad creative mix of people from the UK and worldwide) | Facebook group | Twitter

• UK LGBTQ+ Theatre Makers | Facebook group

• The Gathering (for those who make community-embedded theatre) | Facebook group

• The Pear Tree (an international tribe of non-binary people, gender non-conforming people, people AFAB, and female-identifying people who write musicals) | Facebook group

• Fairy Godparenting (for those in theatre and the arts who do work specifically to support their peers) | Facebook group | WhatsApp group | more info here

 

Jump to: Musicals | Poetry | Theatre Forms | Participatory | Art/Book | Accompanying | Advocacy | Academia

ACADEMIA

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Graduate, MFA in Musical Theatre Writing (cycle X) | New York University's Tisch School of the Arts

Course co-design and co-facilitate, MA in Writing Musicals | Mountview Academy | in collaboration with Rob Hartmann

Module design and faciliate, MA in Musical Theatre | Goldsmiths | the writing module of a general musical theatre course

Elective undergrad module design and facilitate, Musical Theatre Writing | Portsmouth University

Craft Workshops | Mercury Musical Developments | The Actors Centre | LAMDA | Mountview | LIPA | Arts Educational | Guildford School of Acting | Yvonne Arnaud Theatre | The Larder

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Dramaturgy | extensively in England, Denmark, and America