2018 Event Details
Devising Work
Annie G. Levy (+ Local Core Facilitator)
This workshop is a practical, on-your-feet introduction to collaborative and devised theatre making. Devising theatre is the process of creating theatre in a collaborative manner. Though particular roles may be assigned – writer/s, director/s, actor/s, designer/s – the creation of the piece, whether wholly original or adapted, happens with the artists working together in the rehearsal room, informing each others’ processes. Students will be introduced to a variety of processes in ensemble-theatre-making including adaptation, found text, Viewpoints and Composition, improvisation, working with counterpoint and creating solo performance, as well as methods of offering critical feedback on works-in-progress. The workshop will culminate in mini-presentations of new work exploring mythology and ritual of the participants' choosing.
Venue: Urban Abbey
Workshop Time:
Saturday July 28th - 9:30am-11:00am (Pre-Register)
Unearthing Myth
Laura Tesman and Jocelyn Y Chang (+Core Local Facilitator)
Participants will be lead through a discussion of their perceptions/ideas/images of a local myth or legend. A number of exercises intended to open a creative channel and reveal these deeper meanings through physicality, vocality and sound (sound effects, melody, etc.) will be used; and then small groups will be guided to take these various discoveries and create their own short versions of the myth.
Venue: Urban Abbey
Workshop Time:
Thursday July 26th - 4-5:30pm (Pre-Register)
The Personal on Stage: Writing Your Own Story
Evan T. Cumming (+ Local Core Facilitator)
The most interesting and engaging onstage stories are ones that connect to something true because they are specific and personal for the writer. Playwrights from Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller to Paula Vogel and Sam Hunter, monologists like Eve Ensler, Lisa Kron, Eric Bogosian & John Leguizamo create work that comes directly from their personal stories and experiences. Led by NYC-based director and playwright Evan T Cummings, this workshop will offer participants some tools for taking moments from their personal histories and experiences and drafting them in dramatic form. Established writers or those interested in trying playwriting for the first time are all welcome. Participants will read and discuss examples of personal writing from established playwrights, will work through writing exercises designed to explore the dramatic moments in our own lives, then will take the first steps of writing a scene or monologue based on something personally connected to their lives or experiences which will then be shared with the group. Each person will leave with the start of a play, or piece of theatre, that is both a dramatic piece of fiction for the stage and also connects to something personal in their own story.
Venue: Urban Abbey
Workshop Time:
Friday July 27th - 4-5:30pm (Pre-Register)
Biographical Journey in Movement
Chang Nai Wen (+ Local Core Facilitator)
Participants will choose a moment in their lives that they want to revisit and then Nai Wen will guide them through capturing that story
through movement.
Without words, the truth of the moment will emerge.
Venue: Urban Abbey
Workshop Time:
Sunday July 29th - 9:30am-11am (Pre-Register)
Contemporary Dance Workshop
Heidi Strauss (+ Local Core Facilitator)
This workshop is an interactive exploration of movement in relationship to our physical relationships with space and each other. After a warm-up that touches on a few practical movement fundamentals, we will play with tasks related to consequence & reaction, directionality in the body, and the use of sensation to generate physical memory. These playful tasks will be done in duet and group scenarios and will allow us to notice when we listen in movement, and when we lead.
Venue: The Findlandia Club
Workshop Time:
Saturday July 28th - 9:30am-11:00am (Pre-Register)
FLOW
Jocelyn Y Chang (+ Local Core Facilitator)
This workshop combines oriental practice with meditation in acting training.
It helps actors to focus on group energy and to concentrate on what happens on the stage. Through this practice they will become more aware of stage synchronicity with others and it helps directors that work in a devised context make work easily.
Venue: Urban Abbey
Workshop Time:
Saturday July 28th - 4pm-5:30pm (Pre-Register)
Theatre of the Oppressed Workshop
Evan Tsitsias (+ Local Core Facilitator)
Evan Tsitsias had the opportunity to work with Augusto Boal and learn Boal's techniques that use theatre as means of promoting social and political change. This workshop will be an exploration of Boal’s techniques.
Venue: Urban Abbey
Workshop Time:
Sunday July 29th - 11am-12:30pm (Pre-Register)
Embodying Action
Laura Tesman (+ Local Core Facilitator)
In this workshop, participants develop a physical “score” based on a series of cue words. We begin by examining micro-actions, the potential of the simplest of physical actions for telling a story. We continue by exploring balance, oppositions, tension and scale in the creation of a series of repeatable physical actions. Participants then “riff” off of one another in duets/trios and then as a full circle, round-robin improvisation.
Venue: Urban Abbey
Workshop Time:
Sunday July 29th - 4pm-5:30pm (Pre-Register)