SUMMER PHYSICAL THEATER INSTITUTE 2012

Focusing on the Actor as Creator, this four week full-time program is based on key elements of the Lecoq pedagogy in approaching the creation of original and physically-told narratives. The four weeks are taught by a world-class faculty and take the student on a voyage built around three areas:

• The Playful Actor: Using Clown and le jeu to find pleasure on stage in order to be free from physical and psychological doubt.
• The Physical Actor: Studying the Neutral Mask to gain a greater control over the body in movement, and bringing a dynamic quality to the actor's presence on stage.
• The Actor/Creator: Creating original theater through an understanding of character, dramatic motor, rhythmic mount and the dynamic of text.

All classes will run alongside each other and during the second half there will be considerable 'studio time' for participants to start to use the tools they have gained in creating an original piece of theater that will be presented to a small invited audience.

Your clown is unique and specific to you, he is the regretless and enthusiastic expression of your comic nature, and he cannot be crafted but must be discovered. And once he is discovered he will weasel his way into every performance you give, bringing newfound abandon, specificity and playfulness.

In this class we will begin by strengthening the muscles necessary to prepare the performer to discover this clown. Through physically oriented exercises, games and improvisations we will begin to use the whole body in performance and find a unity of psychological and physical intention. We will encourage the impulse to seek the pleasure and playful spirit of performance and find expression on a grand scale. We will learn how to enter the comic world without tricks or text and in complicity with the audience, find hilarity. Ultimately, there will be the creation of something(s) funny and beautiful that serves the clown rather than forcing the clown to serve a formula that we devise with our big and powerful brains.

This workshop will use the pedagogy developed by Christopher Bayes (Head of Physical Acting at Yale School of Drama) from the work begun by Jacques Lecoq in his Paris School. This technique focuses on helping the performer to become more physically alive, grandly expressive and ferociously honest on the stage; qualities they can translate to theatrical performance of all kinds. It is less focused on developing the skills associated with circus clowns.

This workshop addresses the role of Director in an ensemble setting. A seeming contradiction, how does a director inspire joint ownership of the generation of new material and at the same time maintain creative autonomy in order to sculpt the final product? We will look at the tools of devising where the traditional boundaries between actor/director director/writer are blurred and where the ensemble enriches the creation of original material, giving rise to a joint vision.

Throughout the workshop students will work in small groups to create original material, alternately wearing the hat of director, writer and actor. We will look at the ideas of theme, structured improvisation, creation and use of space, character, narrative arc and mise en scene.

Questions asked include:

• How can you best provoke and inspire actors to serve your vision?
• What exercises will best illuminate the themes you are exploring?
• What games and approaches can help create trust, playfulness and inspiration within the group?
• How do you "quiet your brain" while material is being created and surrender momentarily to the actor's instinctive impulse—knowing that your chance to organize and edit will come?
• How do we create trust and creative equality in the room while still adhering to the guiding role of director?
• What are the stages of ensemble creation? — Provocation, Development and Organizing

The study of Neutral Mask will challenge the actor to use their entire body in expressing themselves on stage. Working with the mask enables the performer to discover essential gesture and an economy of movement, as well as create a foundation and reference point for character. Through a series of improvisational and technical exercises the actor confronts their physical habits in order to move past the 'daily' body and enter the theatrical realm. The mask has no opinion but is alive and desires to engage, requiring the actor to undo their knowledge and bring their senses to bear in re-discovering the world around them. The study of the Neutral Mask is vital for actors wanting to gain a greater control over their body in movement, develop their imagination and bring a dynamic quality to their presence on stage.

"Adrienne Kapstein is an engaging, supportive, and spot-on teacher. Her Neutral Mask Intensive was simply fantastic. I look forward to studying more with the Movement Theatre Studio."
—Bill Bowers, Actor and Mime

More Information

For more information, please Contact MTS.