Margate LARP Sessions #2: Strangers by Nina Runa Essendrop

12-1pm: A talk with Nina Runa Essendrop at Open School East. Open to all, registration not required and everyone is welcome.

2-6pm: LARP at Cliff’s Coffee Shop, 172 Northdown Rd, Margate CT9 2QN. This event is free but ticketed. First come, first served. Get your ticket here.

Strangers is a LARP which was designed by Nina Runa Essendrop as an embodied way of speaking about forced migration and community integration. The LARP focuses on the difficulties which can arise when different cultures meet on uneven terms, one feeling ownership over a country, the other trying to both assimilate and create ways to maintain their own culture. The players communicate through movement, rather than speech, and Nina will hold a workshop as part of the LARP where we get used to this method.

LARP is originally an acronym for Live Action Role Playing, but today it’s used as a name in itself. It refers to an interactive activity where people immerse themselves in fictional worlds to experience how others might live. LARPs are played by groups of 2 or more people facilitated by a games master whose role is to ensure the players feel safe, understand the rules, roles and fiction within the LARP. Nordic LARP is a school of LARP design originating in the Nordic countries and is one which values immersion, collaboration and artistic vision.

No experience of LARP or movement-based practice is necessary to take part. Play is suited to all levels of physicality but if you have any specific needs, please contact info@openschooleast.org in advance.

Margate LARP Sessions are an informal, monthly meet-up for playtesting and discussing ideas centred around the tradition of Nordic LARP. Find out more in the Facebook group Margate LARP Sessions.

Nina Runa Essendrop is a Danish artist and LARP designer with a masters degree in Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies. She has a strong focus on movement, sensory experiences and the meaning of physical activity. Nina is an active player in the Nordic LARP community. She has designed and produced black box LARPs, freeform games, large-scale LARPs, audience-inclusive LARPs and LARP festivals and she has collaborated with artists in both Europe and New York. She has designed and run workshops, LARPs, performances and interactive theatre pieces at among others Transmediale 2016 (Berlin, Germany), Momentum: The 8th Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art (Moss, Norway), The Flea Theatre (New York, US), Dome of Visions (Århus, Denmark) and Ormston House (Limerick, Ireland).