Alice Fraser

John-Luke Roberts is an artist, writer, comedian and actor. In 2023, The Telegraph named him one of the 50 best comedians of the 21st Century.

He’s created and performed 10 critically acclaimed solo shows, which he’s taken to the Edinburgh Fringe and around the world – from Norway to Australia. As a director and dramaturg he works with a number of comics, including Myra Dubois, Josh Glanc and Deborah Frances-White.

John-Luke’s writing has featured across TV and Radio – including co-writing the sitcom Bull, and the Audio reboot of The Goodies, both with Gareth Gwynn.

His podcast Sound Heap won the BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Sketch comedy, and you can hear it on the Maximum Fun network.

https://www.johnlukeroberts.co.uk/

Tiff Stevenson is a stand-up comedian, actor and writer. Her thought provoking and engaging style have seen her consistently play to packed audiences; Tiff’s latest solo show ‘Mad Man’ was one of the best reviewed shows at the Edinburgh Festival 2015 receiving ten 4* and 5* reviews including 5 stars from the Sunday Herald, The Mirror & Funny Women. This follows on from her previous successes with Optimist, Uncomfortably Numb, Cavewoman, Dictators and Along Came a Spider. In 2015 The Times picked Tiff as one of their top 10 comics to watch at the fringe “hugely accomplished and enjoyably provocative comedian”. Sunday Herald “This is a heartfelt, hilarious, provocative, important hour of stand-up from one of the best in the business”.

https://tiffstevenson.co.uk/

Amy Brown Carver has been writing screenplays for the past ten years. Two of her feature-length scripts have been produced: HELEN’S DEAD (2023), a murder-mystery comedy, and THE LAST EXORCIST (2020), an ultra-low-budget horror movie which she has yet to watch. In 2024, she released the short film WOW!, which she wrote and directed. The film was a collaboration with Santa Monica College and is available on Youtube.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8817071/

Laura is an award-winning Australian comedian and screenwriter. Their latest hour, DESPAIR IS BENEATH US, was critically acclaimed at both MICF and the Edinburgh Fringe. Recent shows including ALBATROSS and WELL DON’T JUST STAND THERE DANCING have also played both festivals, and IF THIS IS IT and CAKE IN THE RAIN then went on to play at the Soho Theatre and tour the UK. Recent screen work includes writing on an upcoming animated series for Cheeky Little Media, as well as developing their own original sitcom with BBC Studios. Previously, Laura wrote across two series of SHAUN MICALLEF’S MAD AS HELL for ABC TV.

https://lauradaviscomedy.com/

In an airbrushed, auto-tuned era, “stunning, infectious” (Billboard) “genre-bending” (BroadwayWorld) “sticky-sweet pop star” (PAPER) Natti Vogel has to be seen up-close to be believed. Vogel’s debut, the orchestral, saucy “Serving Body” was hailed by OUT, Billboard, Huffington Post, and more as an inimitable and masterful must-listen. His viral music video, Brown Rice was a nominee for Queerty’s Best Music Video of 2018, and PAPER magazine included his song, I Don’t Want to Find the One on their list of Top 100 Songs of 2018 next to Beyoncé and Jay-Z. But Vogel’s passionate following owes itself mostly to his effervescent, addictive live performance style. International critics from Shanghai Magazine to Information Magazine in Denmark have commented on both his R&B/classical/theatre chops and a magnetic connection with the crowd, which through word of mouth alone has sold out public venues from National Sawdust to 54 Below and to packed SoHo House solo concerts on both sides of the pond. He has spent the pandemic crafting an album with a brand-new sound (coming soon) in West Hollywood, where he was awarded the city’s performer-artist grant in 2021. He made his off-West-End debut in a solo show directed by Tony-winner Frances Ruffelle and recently sold out his Joe’s Pub debut with an all-star backing chamber orchestra.

https://www.nattivogel.com/

It’s limited in number of people because I want to be able to give personal attention and intensive workshops.

This quirky chalet means an intimate and semi-remote beautiful setting rather than an impersonal hotel in a big city because that’s the kind of setting that I think can supercharge creativity.

You’re welcome to come, but some of your bodies will have to share one of the double beds.

So I grew up doing these ten day Buddhist silent meditation retreats, both sitting them and serving at them, or assisting my Mum when she was sitting or serving. It means I have a weirdly comprehensive experience of well run retreats, and although this thing will NOT be a silent meditation situation, I’ll be loosely basing a bit of the structure of the days on those.

It will be:

• Wake-up

• Breakfasts as people like

• An outdoors excursion all together; there are beautiful walks, a nearby mountain stream for swimming, etc. we’ll do something outdoors each morning and people can choose to come or to sleep in

• Morning tea

• Writing session, with prompts and exercises

• Lunch as people like

• Free writing time while I do personal 1-1 check-in sessions

• Dinner

• Readings and performance workshop

It’s an intensive writers retreat. So it’s an opportunity to get a lot better at your creative craft, have one-on-one guidance and attention, workshops with me as well as some quite fancy guest sessions AND hang out with lovely people in a weird cool story-book house in the mountains of Switzerland.

I’ll try to sum up some of the costs and variations that we put in the Google doc.

• Travel and accommodation for my children and me

• The workshops and activities I’ll be running during the week, my time factored at the low end of an industry standard rate

• Some guest-run workshop sessions

• Paying the person who will be full time doing logistics, housekeeping, purchasing, preparation and cooking of the meals that are offered

• Insurance

• Car hire so we can buy groceries at the supermarket and take people to and from the station, and for any emergencies that arise

The house is not a hotel. It’s just a big old rambling chalet with little stairways that lead to nowhere and a million cool little corners to write in, so the bedrooms are of different sizes / desirabilities. Realistically, people who are ok to share a room will be paying less than the people who want a room to themselves, or their own bathroom.