Summer Workshops 2008 in Blue Lake

Summer Workshops 2008
in Blue Lake 

in Blue lake , California
Grand Guignol: June 16 - 20
Maskmaking and Performance: June 17 - 28
The Physical Theatre Intensive:  July 1 - 26
Rasaboxes Training Intensive: August 5 - 16


For information on how to apply: info@dellarte.com or call 707-668-5663 

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in Blue Lake, California:
Nestled among the majestic Redwoods and rugged beauty of California's North Coast, Blue Lake is a small town located approximately 280 miles north of San Francisco on Highway 101. Humboldt County is an outdoor enthusiast's ideal setting - home to wild rivers, untouched beaches and ancient forests unlike anywhere else in the world.Most Blue Lake Workshops run in conjunction with the Dell'Arte Mad River Festival featuring  an explosive month of theatre and music from around the world and down the block. This year's festival runs June 21-July 26, 2008


Grand Guignol
June 16-20
with Michael Fields and Tyler Olsen
9:30 am-12:30 pm, 2- 4:30 pm daily | $400 | All Levels   
Once the most popular entertainment in Europe, Grand Guignol is an exciting theatre form that begat current thriller and horror films. Rarely taught, this "theatre of laughter and terror" explores our fascination with the macabre, playing with the violation of society's taboos. Grand Guignol is wildly physical, intensely psychological, and filled with gruesome special effects. Explore both the physical performance styles and skills at the heart of the form, as well as the special effects (often closely held secrets) that so terrified the Grand Guignol audiences that a medical doctor was on hand for every performance to treat those who passed out from shock! The workshop will culminate in a late-night presentation of horror. Fee includes materials.

Mask Making and Mask Performance 
June 17 - 28
with Dell'Arte Instructor Bruce Marrs
9:30 am-12:30 pm, 2-5 pm | $700 | All levels

A workshop for teachers, actors and artisans looking to make professional quality theatre performance masks, investigate the craft of bringing those masks to life, and sustain that life in a theatre environment. Participants will make plaster positives resulting in at least two full faced and/or 3/4 faced character masks. Participants will work in hundreds of theatre masks spanning many different styles, and leave with a solid sense of mask performance.  Six hours a day, 10 days, in two studios. Check out Bruce Marrs' masks at www.marzillamask.com. 

The Physical Theatre Intensive: 
Effort, Risk, Momentum, Joy

July 1 – 26
with Ronlin Foreman, Joe Krienke, Laura Munoz, Joan Schirle, Stephanie Thompson 
9:30am – 12:30pm, 2-4pm+ lab / $1500  /all levels 

EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT: Discount of $100 available if total cost of workshop is paid in full by April 25, 2008.
 

An engaging month-long intensive based on the methodology of the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre, a renowned 34-year-old program that trains actors to command the time and space of the stage. The skillful, dynamic and easeful use of a performer's body and voice is at the core of our curriculum. 

The work of the actor-creator arises out of silence, darkness and empty space, moving into ensemble play and the actor's ability to devise original work for the stage. This training aims towards the creation of visceral, actor-centered theatre that crosses stylistic boundaries and informs classic as well as contemporary, original as well as adapted.

The Physical Theatre Intensive is appropriate for actors, dancers, directors, teachers and designers.

The questions for this workshop: what is the powerful presence of the actor in the dimension of the theatre? How does energy become action? How does the creative actor link text, movement, voice and character in a dynamic unity? How does physical training carry into the act of making theatre, in rehearsal and the creation of work?

 

"Action must always precede analysis. The first step predetermines the ones to follow. Having made the first eccentric motion at your birth, you can now look around. Birth is a matter of territory; identity comes later, through action. Self-awareness in space and time equals presence. (Self-consciousness leads to immobility and is the enemy of presence.) From presence, one can develop the ability to represent."                             Carlo Mazzone-Clementi Dell'Arte Founder

Week 1 : The Instinct for Play

 Physical/vocal conditioning work, acrobatics and contact improvisation (no previous acrobatic experience is required; students will be guided to move forward from their own level, whether beginner or advanced movers), movement, exploring of the play of forms and elements in nature.

               Week 2: The Powerful Presence

 The Actor in the Space; movement as observed in the human being and in objects created by humans; ensemble movement, explorations in space, time, rhythms, music and visual forms; FM Alexander Technique.

              Week 3: The Embodied Voice

The moving actor speaks; the speaking actor moves ; vocal power, vocal ease; exploration of vocal and physical dynamics; the study of dynamics as applied to the work of the stage.

             Week 4 :The Dynamic Theatre (or The Actor-Creator)

Devising:The creation of pieces, how to give structure to a work. students explore devising processes in which text, movement and staging are generated by small ensembles of actor-creators; The generation of theatre pieces through a movement base;. the dynamics of the theatrical experience.

 

Classes meet Tuesday through Saturday; 5 hours of daily class work + lab hours

 

RasaBoxes Training Retreat
August 5 – 16
With Paula Murray Cole
9am – 1pm, 3 – 7pm / $550 / All levels

 

What are the RasaBoxes?

Devised by Richard Schechner, the RasaBoxes exercises are based on ideas and practices drawn from several sources: the classical Indian treatise on performance called the Natyasastra, contemporary scientific studies on emotion and Antonin Artaud's challenge that the actor be "an athlete of the emotions".

The RasaBoxes exercises comprise a psychophysical, sensation-based approach that begins with finding form for nine basic emotional-energetic archetypes through the use of body and the breath. The work then leads to sound and movement exercises, relating to objects and others, language and text, music, mask and song exercises.

The exercises train participants to work holistically with mind, body, sensation and emotion to produce work that is viscerally engaging in a wide range of performance contexts: from the subtlety of film acting to the boldness of commedia dell' arte, from the most naturalistic theatre to pure dance, music and movement.

The exercises are based on an improvisational rather than codified approach, but do offer performers specific tools and techniques for finding truthful, present, fully embodied emotional specificity through direct physical engagement. The approach integrates rather than separates acting, movement and voice, engaging the whole performer in one approach.

RasaBoxes Training Retreat

This workshop is an intensive training program in the RasaBoxes work taught by Paula Murray Cole and others. Rigorous daily training includes hatha yoga, extensive breath and voice and movement work. We will work with various somato-sensory techniques and principles including those derived from pranayama exercises, bioenergetics and the work of Richard Schechner, Michael Chekhov, Laban/Bartenieff, Kristen Linklater, Lecoq and others. Participants will develop solo and ensemble generated performance compositions based on the RasaBoxes material.

The workshops are designed to accommodate a range of skill levels and interests of both professionals and students including actors, directors, performance artists, musicians, choreographers, playwrights and drama, movement, and dance teachers and/or therapists.