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The Stanislavsky System of Actor Training and its International Development in the Last 100 Years
No full textA speech given on the Stanislavsky System of Actor Training and its International Development in the Last 100 Years given by Professor Tcherkasski, Head of the Acting Studio, St. Petersburg Theater Arts Academy
Directors and the Spanish Stage
No full textIn its evaluation of the performing arts scene in the first decade of the twenty-first century, the Catalan daily newspaper 'La Vangiardia' opted for the headline 'El teatro de los directores' (directors' theatre). While its list of the top fifteen theatre pieces includes a range of international directors who have revolutionised stage practice since the early 1990s - including Romeo Castellucci, Kristin Lupa, Declan Donnellan, Robert Lapage, Frank Castorf and Thomas Ostermeier - it is worth noting the appearance of four Spanish directors on this list: Sergi Belle, Calixto Bieito, Mario Gas and Àlex Rigola. In addition, La Fura dels Baus and Els Comediants were named in Roger Alier's note on the ten most important operatic stagings of the decade. The conclusions were decisive. The director, once seen to be on the peripheries of Spanish theatre-making, is now, arguably, its most powerful agent, branding the theatrical product with a signature aesthetic. Mise-en-scène can no longer be judged the mere illustration or interpretation of a play text but rather the means towards creating a theatrical experience that may dispense with dramatic text in its engagement with varied cultural forms and/or pressing political and social issues. As the international trajectories of the figures and companies names above indicate, the director has become a commodity in the exchange of cultural entrepreneur and creative artist, he - directorial practice in Spain (to a greater extent than the United Kingdom, USA or France) remains dominated by male figures - has taken on board pedagogic and ambassadorial roles and championed the state's support of the arts through contentious political and social times. The director emerged during the mid-nineteenth century as Spain was shifting towards a textually centred theatre (driven by commercial packaging of plays through both performance and lucrative print-runs, as José Luis González Subías details in Chapter 11, pp. 232-43). While the presentation of a play text may have governed the practice of early directors, mise-en-scéne has now evolved into a form of authorship, a mode of creation and interpretation rather than the mere harnessing of stage resources towards the 'service' of a text
Of Lofts, Evidence and Mobile Times: The School Play as a Site of Memory
No full textHow do we remember past arts events? What forms of tangible evidence exist to demonstrate such memories and what meanings can be taken from the archiving of artefacts in contemporary times? The research discussed in this article showed that a school production taking place 20 years ago is remembered as a significant event in the lives of its participants with physical objects associated with the production stored and preserved by most of the original company members. What is the role or function of this memorabilia in their lives? How can the hoarding of such evidence be interpreted? In pursuing these questions, I interrogate emotional responses to objects from the past by way of a visit to a loft and ask why material artefacts from the past appear to retain such importance, particularly for those acclimatised to a virtual age. An interpretation of this evidence-demonstration is offered in the final sections of the article that we archive and store certain moments of our histories to counterbalance an increased mobility. These collections perhaps represent sites of memory in lives characterised by movement
Grace
No full textGrace follows a dozen interconnected lives in the emotion-filled hours after nuclear war breaks out. Grace follows Rodney as he takes what he wants, and Sam deals with the consequences. Her mother, Paula, struggles to be there for her, while Charles and Vanessa spend the night bickering. April is too far from home. Jamal drives off a homeless man. Barry fights his way onto the streets. Bob misses his long-departed wife, and Jack and Danny just come up short.
Director: Keir Burrows
Screenwriter: Keir Burrows
Producer: Samantha Baines, Amanda Brennan, Keir Burrows, Dieudonnée Burrows
Editor: Keir Burrows
Cinematographer: Gerry Vasbenter
Executive Producer: Amanda Brennan
Composer: Edwin Sykes
Assistant Director: Colin Waitt
Cast: Noah Maxwell Clarke, Yaiza Figueroa, Charlotte Victoria, Adrian Tauss, Jessica Perchard, Yiltan Ahmet, Sam Mannering, Michael Eriera, Holly Clark, Phillip Todd, Michael Morgan-Gyekye, Nigel Alle
Stilled
No full textInspired by the scientific process of X-ray crystallography, Stilled is a durational dance (performed for between 3 and 12 hours) and an exhibition of pinhole photographs.
The dance is performed not only for a human audience, but also for an audience of pinhole cameras. During the performance, these cameras take long-exposure photographs of the movements taking place, which are developed and then displayed as part of the event. In Stilled, the audience witnesses the performance taking place, and they see the strange, often abstract images that bear witness to earlier improvisations.
Stilled is a meditation on the nature of perception: of taking time to become visible, taking time to be present, taking time to look, and taking time to see. Stilled features live, improvised music by Jamie McCarthy and live lighting designed and controlled by Hansjorg Schmidt. Audiences are free to come and go throughout the duration of the piece.
Stilled is a durational dance piece for 3 dancers, which is performed for anything between 3 and 12 hours. It has a live electroacoustic music score and a live lighting design, both of which are improvised in response to and as stimuli for the improvised movement within the piece itself.
Ali Beale - Production manager & design
Sam Butler - Darkroom processing
Theo Clinkard - Performing company
Laura Cubitt - Performing company
Robin Dingemans - Performing company
Valentina Formenti - Performing company
David Harradine - Direction, design & photography
Sachi Kimura - Performing company
Jamie McCarthy - Music
Matthew Morris - Performing company
Hansjorg Schmidt - Lighting Design
Petra Soor - Performing company
Charles Webber - Lighting & music cove
Capel: The Lights Are On
No full textCapel: the Lights are On was performed by Cyrff Ystwyth three times on the site of the vestry, disused chapel and graveyard in Bronant, Ceredigion, Wales, in June, 2012.
Lying on the wet and cold ground the performers enact postures of prayer and devotion. The relationship between them and the standing audience reminds us of our vulnerability. In addition, the inhospitable nature of the environment means that the actions of the performers become an offering for the audience. In this abandoned place in difficult weather conditions, there is complicity generated between performer and audience through their shared experience.
The hymns that were created in the studio now take place in front of the audience. The choreography is exactly as Adrian instructed in the beginning. The sound employed in this clip is significant, in that the hymns are iconic of the sharing behaviour of worship through song which used to happen in this now abandoned place. The hymns suggest the chapel as a living site in contrast to the reality of its abandoned present.
The women perform choreography from previous sequences but this time close to the ground. The incongruous mix of their fine clothes and the tarmac, the wind and the sounds from the road resonate with a sense of devotion to a place, hybridity of experience and finally as they close the gates and return to the chapel, notions of memory, practices of tradition and culture collide with the knowledge that the chapel is closed. The performance acts in this context suggest how a place can be re-visioned, showing what it has been in relation to what it is. Traces of the past are brought into the present and all participants in this experience are offered a new way of thinking about and experiencing this place
Shared Utopias? Alan Lyddiard, Lev Dodin and the Northern Stage Ensemble
No full textFrom Komisarjevsky in the 1920s, to Cheek by Jowl’s Russian ‘sister company’ almost a century later, Russian actor training has had a unique influence on modern British theatre. Russians in Britain, edited by Jonathan Pitches, is the first work of its type to identify a relationship between both countries’ theatrical traditions as continuous as it is complex.
Unravelling new strands of transmission and translation linking the great Russian émigré practitioners to the second and third generation artists who responded to their ideas, Russians in Britain takes in:
Komisarjevsky and the British theatre establishment.
Stanislavsky in the British conservatoire.
Meyerhold in the academy.
Michael Chekhov in the private studio.
Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop and the Northern Stage Ensemble.
Katie Mitchell, Declan Donnellan and Michael Boyd.
Charting a hitherto untold story with historical and contemporary implications, these nine essays present a compelling alternative history of theatrical practice in the UK
The Matrix, Group Processes and Psychotherapy
No full textThere is a paucity of published work on how group process informs the teaching and practice of dramatherapy. This article investigates ideas on groups and group therapy from the fields of analytical psychology and group analysis, and goes on to develop these in the context and practice of dramatherapy. First, the phenomenon of regression in groups from Foulkesian and Jungian perspectives is addressed,
highlighting contrasting theories on the potential and pitfalls of group experience. The idea of the ‘matrix’ as a multi-layered intersubjective field in the group (Foulkes) and/or the entirety of the unconscious (Jung) is explored, offering a background for discussion on the nature of interpersonal and intrapsychic connections. Sesame drama and movement therapy is referred to as an approach which introduces cultural
symbols through fairy tale and myth, and offers the chance to explore these through dramatherapy methods. The moment when a group creates a ‘montage’ from images from a story offers an example of a ‘constellation’ of the group matrix, which can lead to different modes of expression. The article finishes by returning to broader questions of group therapy as set out by Jung, and examining these in light of the ritual enactment of myth
A Beautiful Death
No full textCAST
Charlotte Victoria: Lou
Alison Edmundston: Mother
Yaiza Figueroa: Mara
Michael Gyekye: Simon
Markoesa Hamer: Annie
Charlotte Kitchman: Lou
Adam Rojko Vega: Pau