OPEN TO YOUTH AGES 12+ AND ADULTS!
UPDATE: The Physical Actor Winter Workshop Intensive will run for ONE DAY on Sunday, January 8th from 9:00 - 4:00 pm. Tuition: $100 Payment Plans & Sliding Scale Available, Please contact us for more information.
A Movement Intensive focusing on Suzuki & Viewpoints Techniques. Tailored for those students who are new to both techniques or who have had brief exposure to the training. Several of the basic Suzuki forms will be taught and speaking will be introduced. We will systematically work through the Viewpoints progression culminating in open Viewpoints sessions. The basic principles movement will be taught and all two techniques will be applied to a short composition at the end of the weekend.
Suzuki Method
Encouraging the actor’s awareness of their body, voice, and presence on stage, the Suzuki Method of actor training gives the actor a form of physical training that other acting methods cannot. The Suzuki Method of Actor Training was created by Tadashi Suzuki with the Suzuki Company of Toga and further taught and refined in the United States by the SITI Company of New York. The aim of this form of training is to renew the actor’s understanding of what the human body is, as well as discovering what their own individual body is capable of becoming. The training draws from traditional Japanese and Greek theater, martial arts, and dance. Close attention to the actor’s center of gravity and its relationship to other points in space are fundamental throughout the training. Use of specific forms, footwork, and breathing forces the actor to find a deeper understanding of what it means to live within a moment onstage.
Viewpoints
Developed by Mary Overlie and Anne Bogart, Viewpoints refers to a system of improvisation created by the deconstruction of physical performance. With roots in post-modern dance, the Viewpoints are a way of categorizing and re-evaluating the basic issues that performers work with: time and space. Originally known as the Six Viewpoints, this system has since been expanded through exploration by Anne Bogart and the SITI Company. Viewpoints training helps groups of actors find immediacy, clarity, and focus to work as an ensemble. This form of physical improvisation training allows actors to expand their senses and reconnect to their bodies’ full awareness while giving the ensemble a new understanding of their relationship to the audience, the stage, and to each other.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Hailing from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Charlottesville Virginia, Donal is exploring the world through travel and teaching. He has been involved with many roles in the theatre as an actor, dancer, director, tech person, and as a producer. His first role was in an actor generated piece about Lewis & Clark's westward expedition. It was in this production he was introduced to Suzuki and Viewpoints. A few years later he went to study with Anne Bogart and the SITI company to explore more in this training. He has been inspired by many teachers who were authentic and grounded in their movement for the stage.
With a background in dance, hatha yoga, design, equestrian and theatre, Donal's approach to movement is one that honors the need for individual self-expression with the aim of improving the actor's authentic stage presence. In Seattle, he is also often found sharing tea, dancing, writing, searching out coffee shops, eating, and project-making.