Hi Everyone, Really looking forward to this Saturday's TEAM Workout in Newport. For anyone who hasn't yet come along to these days, I thought I would share my experience.   Arriving back to live in Cardiff last year, after a very long time living in Australia, one of the first NTW events I attended was a workout day in the WMC.   I am a writer/director/performer.   I am also an elder of the theatrical tribe!  I might be experienced but I knew absolutely no one in the Welsh theatre community.   So, establishing my work, back in my hometown of Cardiff was, to say the least, daunting!  One of the first NTW events I attended last year was a TEAM workout day at the WMC.   What a wonderfully, welcoming, workshop day it was.   I find one of the challenges of working on ideas is working in isolation, with no feedback or encouragement.  It is so easy to think "Rubbish" and distract oneself with something tangible, like cleaning the house!  Being with a large group of creative souls, of all ages and stages, boosted my flagging moral.   My energy soared after the warmup games and I instantly felt part of the 'gang'.  Seeing people having the courage to write up their project ideas on large sheets of butchers paper, stating what support they needed and then seeing the response they got was inspiring.   That day, I read scripts as a performer, offered some dramaturgical input and improvised ideas.   Shane Anderson wanted to workshop an idea for a live, improvised Pub Soap Opera.   A group of us  continued working on this at future workout days and persuaded Shane to keep going.  'City Road' was born and we performed in The Roath pub as part of the Made in Roath Festival.  Five days of fun, mayhem and fantastic feedback!  'City Road' will be back in 2015.  Eventually I summed up the courage to bring in ideas that I wanted to experiment with as part of a project I am currently percolating.    Some lab rats volunteered and for the first time I started to see elements that had been stuck in my head come alive on the floor.   Above all, workout days are FUN and totally non judgemental.  What a rare opportunity to take our ideas out for a gentle walk or energetic run!   See you there.  Elaine