All of our courses can be delivered as one off master classes, short intensive programmes or as rolling weekly sessions delivered over the course of a term or full academic year.
- The Neutral Mask
'Behind every mask there is a neutral mask supporting all others.' Jacques Lecoq
The neutral mask helps the actor to develop an open, calm and fully alive presence on stage. Through themed improvisations, participants will explore a non-psychological state of balance and calm that precedes character. In working under the mask, the actor’s body is challenged to drop artificial and habitual gestures and to communicate through direct physical action. The participants will explore the rhythms, dynamics and demands that belong to the theatre territories of tragedy, comedy and drama.
- Movement Analysis
‘Body movement is a violin, a piano and sometimes a cloud. ' Etienne Decroux
The exploration of movement through analysis and play is at the heart of all our work. This programme provides in depth body-work for the training actor and performer. Through the study of set movement phrases, participants will gain a deeper awareness of their body in motion. They will explore the body’s ability to affect the space around them and the profound connections between motion and emotion. The performer is challenged to ground themselves and connect the core to the extremes of the body. The work will also help to improve over all flexibility and the integration of the breath into performance.
- Playfulness & Improvisation
‘Only the game, the pleasure and the untruths open the gates of the
imagination.'
Philippe Gaulier
This programme of workshops liberates the actor's
creative potential providing practical techniques to develop a sense of play
and foster personal creativity.
Participants
will explore the principles underlying successful improvisation. They will then
apply these techniques in individual, paired and group improvisations beginning
with silent play and progressing to spoken situational themes. As well as
developing a sense of theatrical play, participants will explore how to develop
emerging themes, structure a dramatic build and find satisfying endings.
- The Tragic Space
'If tragedy reaches its proper intensity, the deepest of silences is produced in the audience – it is a silence you can taste on the tongue.’ Peter Brook
Using texts from classical and modern tragedies, this
programme explores the challenges and beauty and power of chorus work. These
workshops provide a modern approach to choral movement and a physical way to
engage with choral text. Participants
will investigate how to create dynamic choral movement and voice so as to
create a tragic space. They will also explore the role of the chorus leader and
the position of the individual hero/heroine in relation to the chorus.
- The Physical Storyteller
The Physical Theatre
Storyteller workshops use ensemble movement techniques, music as narrative support
and object work to explore two approaches to physical
storytelling in two very different theatrical spaces.
Big Stories - Little Spaces
How to tell an action packed large scale story in a very small space? How to put 7 performers onto to a small platform that acts as a stage? In working playfully with the constraints of space, participants will learn to bring their stories to life and create their own image-based theatrical language.
The Epic Drama
How to tell an emotionally charged story in a big theatrical space? Working with a given theme, the group will devise an epic drama through structured improvisations. These workshops focus on the role of the poetic chorus, as well as techniques to approach time and space in ensemble storytelling and the use of music as a narrative support.