The Journey into Place - Ecotheatre Quest

Have you ever felt unexpectedly drawn to a place?

A place that somehow felt familiar before you arrived.

A place that quietly changed the direction of your life.

Some journeys begin with a map. Others begin with a quiet longing.

For more than sixty years, people from every corner of the world have found themselves unexpectedly drawn to Findhorn. Each arrived carrying their own questions, hopes and stories. Together they have become part of a living experiment in community, spiritual practice and relationship with the natural world.

What is it that calls us to a place? Can a landscape shape who we become? Can a community help us discover more of ourselves? Can listening to the stories of others illuminate our own?

The Journey into Place is an immersive three-month ecotheatre quest into the mysterious ways our lives are shaped by the places that call us. Join participants from the community in the Quest and enjoy free time each week to shape your own experience of being here.

Guided by internationally acclaimed theatre practitioner Laura Pasetti, you’ll explore the universal themes of belonging, home, identity and calling through theatre, movement, storytelling, reflection and shared creative practice.

Drawing on authentic stories from the Findhorn archives, alongside your own lived experience, you’ll become part of an intergenerational ensemble creating an original performance to be shared in the Universal Hall, Findhorn.

What The Journey into Place offers

Over three months you will be invited into a rich process of personal and collective discovery.

Together we will:

• Explore inspiring stories of those who felt called to Findhorn across six decades.
• Discover how place shapes identity, belonging and purpose.
• Develop confidence through theatre, movement, voice and embodied presence.
• Learn to listen deeply, to yourself, to others and to the living world.
• Create an original theatrical performance rooted in authentic human experience.
• Experience the creative power of working within an intergenerational ensemble.
• Deepen your relationship with community, imagination and nature.

Throughout the programme, theatre becomes a practice of awareness, creativity and transformation.

Dive into true stories from Findhorn: Together we’ll read and work with hundreds of testimonies from people who felt called to come to Findhorn over the decades, choosing those that resonate most with us.

Explore the meaning of place: Through discussion, improvisation and writing, we’ll investigate why certain places feel like home, how landscapes and communities shape identity, and what “belonging” means in a changing world.

Create an ensemble performance: Guided by the facilitators, the group will craft a play that gives light to many individual stories while also revealing our shared human search for home and connection. Two performances will be shown in the ecovillage at the end of the TheatreQuest.

Embody different characters: You will step into the lives of people who came to Findhorn from around the globe for very different reasons, allowing their journeys to illuminate your own.

Receive acting and presence training: No previous theatre experience is needed. You’ll be guided through practical actor training: voice, body, space, listening, and ensemble work, as well as tools for emotional depth and authenticity.

The Park Ecovillage, Findhorn

The Journey into Place takes place within the unique setting of the Park Ecovillage Findhorn, a community with a long history of exploring spiritual practice, conscious relationship and co-creation with the sacred.

The Park offers a unique combination of natural beauty and simplicity. Surrounded by dunes, forest paths, the beach and bay, and the wide skies of the Moray Firth, it provides a supportive environment to slow down, reconnect and listen more closely, both inwardly and outwardly.

Accommodation

You will stay in simple, comfortable accommodation within the Park Ecovillage.

The programme is self catering offering you the freedom to create your own experience and follow your own rhythm, through individual meals sometimes or as a group.

Who is it for?

This programme is for anyone who feels drawn to explore life’s deeper questions through creativity and community.

You may be:

• Curious about theatre, storytelling or creative expression.
• At a point of transition or seeking a greater sense of belonging.
• Interested in ecology, community and the relationship between people and place.
• Looking for a sustained journey rather than a weekend workshop.
• Ready to discover what emerges through shared creative practice.

No prior theatre background is required, only a willingness to go deep, to be curious about human beings, and to collaborate in an international, intergenerational group.

The programme is designed to welcome participants aged between 25 and 40, who would like to experience living here for three months, shaped around a clear purpose.

The wider age range of the quest is 15 – 90, so you will also be in dialogue with older and younger participants from different walks of life, which adds to the richness.

The Journey into Place includes

Prior to arrival

Online intro to the Quest – 2 hours
Online intro to the archives – 2 hours

On arrival and prior to the Quest

A few days of introduction to the community, the founding practices and the natural landscape.

During the Quest

Over approximately 70 hours of guided practice you will experience:

• Weekly Tuesday evening sessions
• Five immersive Sunday workshops
• One individual mentoring session with Laura Pasetti, offering personalised guidance on your character work, your relationship to “place” and “home”, and how the themes of the quest connect to your own life path.
• Access to Findhorn’s archive of personal stories
• Ensemble theatre training
• Voice, movement and presence practice
• Reflection and creative writing
• Collaborative devising process
• Final rehearsals
• Two public performances in the Universal Hall
• Integration and next steps

Why join this Theatre Quest at Findhorn?

• Immersion in a renowned ecovillage
  You’ll experience daily life in a pioneering community that integrates spiritual practice, green technologies, eco‑housing and social innovation, known internationally as a living experiment in holistic and sustainable living.
• Time away from your usual environment
  Living and working in a different place helps you see your own story more clearly and ask: What does “home” mean to me now?
• Connection with an international community
  Findhorn is home to people from many cultures and is linked to global networks of ecovillages, so you will be surrounded by international perspectives on community and sustainability.
• Our quest is woven into two intertwined landscapes
  One of dunes, woods, and eco-housing; the other of synchronicities, coincidences, and human miracles, where people from diverse backgrounds have felt drawn to come here.

Theatre Quest Structure

27 October 2026 – 30 January 2027
Please note the pre-arrival programme starts on Saturday 24th October for an orientation into community life.

There will be a Christmas break from 23 December – 4 January where you can enjoy free time.

Weekly Sessions

Tuesday evenings
7.00 pm – 9.00 pm

Sunday Immersion Days

8 November
6 December
10 January
17 January
24 January

Final Performance Weekend

29 January — Dress rehearsal and first performance

30 January — Final performance in the Universal Hall, Findhorn

Participants will be expected to complete some preparatory work and, particularly during the first two weeks, dedicate time to consulting the archive and reading testimonies.

The working language will be English, and participants’ diverse accents and languages are welcome as part of the fabric of the piece. The invitation is to people from different countries who feel called to explore themselves through theatre, story and community.

If this calls to you, this quest offers a structured yet playful way to explore your own journey of belonging, while contributing to a collective work of art grounded in one of the world’s landmark communities.

What you take home

The experience you take home will be uniquely your own.

You may leave with a deeper sense of belonging, to yourself, to others and to the living world. Along the way, you may discover new confidence in your creative expression, a richer appreciation of the stories that shape our lives, and a renewed understanding of what it means to find your place.

Through shared creativity, embodied practice and time spent exploring the story of Findhorn, insights often emerge in unexpected ways. A conversation, a moment in nature, stepping into another person’s story or discovering your own voice within the ensemble can open new perspectives that continue to unfold long after the programme has ended.

The Journey into Place offers an opportunity to slow down, listen deeply and become part of a creative community exploring the universal human search for home, belonging and meaning.

Sometimes the place we are searching for is not somewhere we arrive. It is something we discover within ourselves, through our relationships with others and our connection with the living world.