PHYSICAL THEATRE
DATES
Fall & Spring Semester Description
This program is an introduction to the world of physical theatre and offers participants the opportunity to learn from world-renowned masters of their craft.
In the spirit of the actor-creator, this semester provides ensemble-based physical theatre training with an intense focus on movement/body work, vocal techniques and Italian language. Students will learn new approaches to performance through their encounter with Commedia dell’Arte, interwoven with mask-making and other related performance topics.
Students will be guest artists in residence during a working excursion to either Venice or Naples, participating in a professional-level workshop with Accademia faculty. Students will have the opportunity to see professional performances, as well as present their own work generated during the semester both in-house and locally, as assessed by the faculty.
Throughout the semester students will reflect on the nature of their class work through a philosophical lens in the academic seminar the Philosophy of Art and Performance.
SEMESTER COURSES
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
TART I15 Commedia dell’Arte
From the sixteenth to the late eighteenth century the itinerant performers of the Commedia dell’arte developed a style of acting and performance that was to have a tremendous impact on the development of the European theatre. In the twentieth century this style was rediscovered and once again influenced such movements as the expressionist theatre, theatre of the absurd and the futurist’s experiments, as well as individual artists such as Meyerhold, Gordon Craig, Samuel Beckett, Lecoq, Mnouchkine and many others. A study of the traditional techniques developed by Commedia provides modern actors with a vastly expanded artistic repertoire from which to develop a personal style.
This acting class will develop the practical use of the masks of the stock characters of the Commedia dell’arte. Through work on gesture, voice and movement within a specific socio/historical context, students will explore the characteristics of Arlechino, Zanni, Brighella, Pantalone, Colombina and others, with the intention of developing the student’s own personal version of the character.
The class format will be based on intensive studio work with daily exercises designed to develop the masked character. Students will work on improvisational techniques through work on various scenari and lazzi. Scene study in the form of short scenes, or canovacci, takes place in the final phase of the work.
The application of Commedia masks in comic traditions from Goldoni through Gozzi to Molière and Marivaux may also be a feature of this course, depending on faculty.
In addition to the intensive studio component, this course will include a mask-making workshop. Students will sculpt a clay version of one of the stock Commedia masks, making a mold from this that serves as a “negative” for the fabrication of a mask in latex and fiberglass. The student then completes the mask through applying layers of finishing coating and finally paints and highlights its dramatic potential.
Informal class presentations of studies and scenes are a regular part of the class schedule. At their discretion, faculty may present students’ work before a wider public at the Accademia or a local venue.
TART I20 Voice and Performance
This course is designed for the student who is engaged in the specific demands of physical theatre and masked performance. The student actor will be led through a carefully guided but very thorough vocal and physical warm-up, right up to performance. A series of rigorous exercises and improvisations will stimulate the students’ integration of voice, body and imagination and will extend the boundaries of vocal potential to explore the monstrous, the grotesque and the ridiculous. Students will develop greater range, flexibility, sustaining power and emotional presence through concentrating on the sung sound and systematically challenging their boundaries in terms of pitch and quality.
This approach to the vocal and verbal training of the actor is derived from the work of Alfred Wolfsohn and Roy Hart in England, and works to broaden the parameters of what is possible for the human voice, thus offering a protean raw material for the investigation of character and voice in physical theatre and mask work.
This vocabulary of vocal and verbal skills will serve us for the challenge of vocal presence in Commedia dell’arte. Not only must the actor mold his physical expression to the mask, but also they need to find the vocal quality that fits with the character of the mask. This course provides the foundation for creating a specific vocal design for mask work.
A choice of textual support, including monologues, short scenes and some Greek choruses and extracts from Shakespeare will provide the material for small-scale studies and presentations both in class and to a wider public within the school.
TART I35 Extended Performance Topics: Theatre
Designed as an introduction to the methods and aims of physical theatre, this course is a selection of movement and acting options that reflect the inter-disciplinary thrust of the program. Depending on visiting faculty and on-going developments in the program, students will be exposed to techniques that integrally connect to the core substance of the training.
During the first month of the semester the course includes concentrated physical training designed to prepare students for the intensive needs of commedia and mask work. Subsequent segments concentrate on specific physical and acting skills with an emphasis on ensemble playing.
This course will focus on four principal areas of training:
• Movement skills, including acrobatics, contact improvisation and group dynamics
• Ensemble-building
• Personal and small group improvisation and composition
• Contemporary mask workshop
PHIL I20 Philosophy of Art and Performance
The many paradoxes of the modern world, perhaps first clearly articulated by Rousseau, continue to provide a backdrop to all of our social activity: greater personal freedoms incased in a world of greater social regimentation, increased diversity of choice amidst an inexorable drive toward homogenization, increasing production of wealth along with the dramatic growth of poverty, vastly expanded communications providing the tools to increased isolation and so on.
These paradoxes often go unnoticed as they appear a natural part of life, but these phenomena had an historical development that in turn profoundly affected individual perception. Through an exploration of the development of mass production, the fragmentation and specialization of life and work, the development of the information age, the commodification of culture, the compression of time and space, the disassociation of the body and the aesthetic shifts that have accompanied these developments, this class will philosophically analyze the significance of each. We will think about art—about its nature and its important place in human life.
To facilitate this, the course brings together the writings of philosophers and the work of artists from a variety of domains. The goal is not to intellectualize art but to understand the intelligence that goes into it, to enrich our experiences of art, and to foster our own creative sensibilities. We will consider famous writings on art by thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Schiller, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Breton, Artaud, Eisenstein, Debord, Baudrillard, Foucault and others in relation to important works of literature, theatre, painting, music, architecture and film.
A philosophical analysis with help the artist situate both the work of art and the actual work of the artist in a broader framework where the role of social mediation between the artist, the work of art and the reception of the work is revealed. Likewise, the potential role of the artist and work of art as social mediation can emerge as a stimulus to the creative impulse itself.
The class format will be based on lectures and seminar-style discussions where each student will present a critical summary of at least one of the readings. A portion of the class, when possible, will include a critical examination of the student’s own experience in a particular workshop and may include Butoh dance, clown training for actors or other special workshops or master classes in which students participate.
ITAL I10 or I11 Italian Language
This course introduces the student to basic Italian in such a way that, from the beginning, he or she will be able to understand simple, everyday Italian, both spoken and written. The provided textbook and workbook contains readings and exercises that reinforce the grammar studied in each lesson. The readings in the text will provide a point of departure for conversation—which will be an essential component of each class. The course will cover aspects of Italian culture and society, as well.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SUMMER ARTS PROGRAM 2010 Description
Accademia dell’Arte invites you to participate in an exceptional study abroad experience that celebrates the collaborative nature of the arts.
The Summer Arts Program gives students an opportunity to experience a taste of conservatory-style immersion in the areas of digital filmmaking, theatre or dance. Each day begins with all students participating in Scott Putman’s Elemental Body Alignment System warm-up (see below) followed by morning and afternoon studio time with outstanding teachers who will structure collaborative components that encourage students to link theoretical work with the immediate creative application in a truly interdisciplinary approach.
Students will live, eat and study in the spectacular Villa Godiola, a sixteenth century Renaissance structure overlooking the hills of Tuscany and the city of Arezzo.
EBAS (Elemental Body Alignment System)
This class is a series of stretching and strengthening exercises designed to integrate the body while increasing flexibility, range of motion and core strength. The focus of EBAS is to understand basic principles of initiating and anchoring movements from the pelvis while finding efficient and effective alignment through experimental anatomy.
This system empowers the learner to develop a consciousness for integrating and articulating body parts while translating the information to various techniques such as yoga and dance. When combined with other movement modalities, EBAS helps the student find a deeper understanding of the body and its kinetic awareness.
COURSE:
XTREME PHYSICAL THEATRE (THE ACTOR/FAST FORWARD) 6 CREDITS
comprised of tart i30 applied skills: theatre (3 credits)
tart i35 extended performance topics: theatre (3 credits)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is an intensive workshop dealing with the authenticity of the actor and applying that authenticity to the service of devising new work. Using play as the foundation of study, students will delve into preparing the physical instrument, articulation of both body and idea, rhythm in all aspects, outrageous ridiculousness and much more.
At the same time students will utilize these techniques, adding principles of dynamics, juxtaposition and composition to create new solo and ensemble work to be showcased in a final presentation.
Instructor: Daniel Stein, Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium
see bio under guest faculty
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UCI SUMMER SESSION I 2010 Program Description
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH UNIVERISTY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
Each summer, Accademia dell’Arte hosts the University of California, Irvine Summer Session in Italy. Students must enroll directly through UCI for this program. For more information and application, please visit the UCI website at: www.summer.uci.edu/travelstudy/italy.
COURSE: Intermediate Acting (Comprised of Comm I and II)
Commedia dell´Arte I
Drama 130A (4 units, 50+ contact hours)
Commedia dell´Arte II
Drama 130B (4 units, 50+ contact hours)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Study advanced drama techniques through Commedia dell´Arte, a style drawn from the Italian theatre that demands an intensive physical engagament and presence from the performer. These courses are highly intensive programs for students who have a concentration in acting and are looking for conservatory-style training in physical theatre, including the use of mask, mime techniques, clowning, improvisation, and ensemble theatre techniques.
Instructor: Michele Bottini
see bio under guest faculty
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DATES
- Every Fall & Spring Semester
Fall 2010
September 4 – December 2
Fall Break: October 16 – October 24
Spring 2011
January 31 – April 30
Spring Break: March 12 – March 20
Fall Break: October 16 – October 24
Spring 2011
January 31 – April 30
Spring Break: March 12 – March 20
- Summer Arts Program 2010
MAY 24 – JULY 4
- Summer UCI I 2010
JULY 19 – AUGUST 21
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Fall & Spring Semester Description
This program is an introduction to the world of physical theatre and offers participants the opportunity to learn from world-renowned masters of their craft.
In the spirit of the actor-creator, this semester provides ensemble-based physical theatre training with an intense focus on movement/body work, vocal techniques and Italian language. Students will learn new approaches to performance through their encounter with Commedia dell’Arte, interwoven with mask-making and other related performance topics.
Students will be guest artists in residence during a working excursion to either Venice or Naples, participating in a professional-level workshop with Accademia faculty. Students will have the opportunity to see professional performances, as well as present their own work generated during the semester both in-house and locally, as assessed by the faculty.
Throughout the semester students will reflect on the nature of their class work through a philosophical lens in the academic seminar the Philosophy of Art and Performance.
SEMESTER COURSES
- COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE 3 CREDITS
- VOICE + PERFORMANCE 3 CREDITS
- EXTENDED PERFORMANCE TOPICS 3 CREDITS
- THE PHILOSOPHY OF ART + PERFORMANCE 3 CREDITS
- ITALIAN LANGUAGE I OR II 3 CREDITS
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
TART I15 Commedia dell’Arte
From the sixteenth to the late eighteenth century the itinerant performers of the Commedia dell’arte developed a style of acting and performance that was to have a tremendous impact on the development of the European theatre. In the twentieth century this style was rediscovered and once again influenced such movements as the expressionist theatre, theatre of the absurd and the futurist’s experiments, as well as individual artists such as Meyerhold, Gordon Craig, Samuel Beckett, Lecoq, Mnouchkine and many others. A study of the traditional techniques developed by Commedia provides modern actors with a vastly expanded artistic repertoire from which to develop a personal style.
This acting class will develop the practical use of the masks of the stock characters of the Commedia dell’arte. Through work on gesture, voice and movement within a specific socio/historical context, students will explore the characteristics of Arlechino, Zanni, Brighella, Pantalone, Colombina and others, with the intention of developing the student’s own personal version of the character.
The class format will be based on intensive studio work with daily exercises designed to develop the masked character. Students will work on improvisational techniques through work on various scenari and lazzi. Scene study in the form of short scenes, or canovacci, takes place in the final phase of the work.
The application of Commedia masks in comic traditions from Goldoni through Gozzi to Molière and Marivaux may also be a feature of this course, depending on faculty.
In addition to the intensive studio component, this course will include a mask-making workshop. Students will sculpt a clay version of one of the stock Commedia masks, making a mold from this that serves as a “negative” for the fabrication of a mask in latex and fiberglass. The student then completes the mask through applying layers of finishing coating and finally paints and highlights its dramatic potential.
Informal class presentations of studies and scenes are a regular part of the class schedule. At their discretion, faculty may present students’ work before a wider public at the Accademia or a local venue.
TART I20 Voice and Performance
This course is designed for the student who is engaged in the specific demands of physical theatre and masked performance. The student actor will be led through a carefully guided but very thorough vocal and physical warm-up, right up to performance. A series of rigorous exercises and improvisations will stimulate the students’ integration of voice, body and imagination and will extend the boundaries of vocal potential to explore the monstrous, the grotesque and the ridiculous. Students will develop greater range, flexibility, sustaining power and emotional presence through concentrating on the sung sound and systematically challenging their boundaries in terms of pitch and quality.
This approach to the vocal and verbal training of the actor is derived from the work of Alfred Wolfsohn and Roy Hart in England, and works to broaden the parameters of what is possible for the human voice, thus offering a protean raw material for the investigation of character and voice in physical theatre and mask work.
This vocabulary of vocal and verbal skills will serve us for the challenge of vocal presence in Commedia dell’arte. Not only must the actor mold his physical expression to the mask, but also they need to find the vocal quality that fits with the character of the mask. This course provides the foundation for creating a specific vocal design for mask work.
A choice of textual support, including monologues, short scenes and some Greek choruses and extracts from Shakespeare will provide the material for small-scale studies and presentations both in class and to a wider public within the school.
TART I35 Extended Performance Topics: Theatre
Designed as an introduction to the methods and aims of physical theatre, this course is a selection of movement and acting options that reflect the inter-disciplinary thrust of the program. Depending on visiting faculty and on-going developments in the program, students will be exposed to techniques that integrally connect to the core substance of the training.
During the first month of the semester the course includes concentrated physical training designed to prepare students for the intensive needs of commedia and mask work. Subsequent segments concentrate on specific physical and acting skills with an emphasis on ensemble playing.
This course will focus on four principal areas of training:
• Movement skills, including acrobatics, contact improvisation and group dynamics
• Ensemble-building
• Personal and small group improvisation and composition
• Contemporary mask workshop
PHIL I20 Philosophy of Art and Performance
The many paradoxes of the modern world, perhaps first clearly articulated by Rousseau, continue to provide a backdrop to all of our social activity: greater personal freedoms incased in a world of greater social regimentation, increased diversity of choice amidst an inexorable drive toward homogenization, increasing production of wealth along with the dramatic growth of poverty, vastly expanded communications providing the tools to increased isolation and so on.
These paradoxes often go unnoticed as they appear a natural part of life, but these phenomena had an historical development that in turn profoundly affected individual perception. Through an exploration of the development of mass production, the fragmentation and specialization of life and work, the development of the information age, the commodification of culture, the compression of time and space, the disassociation of the body and the aesthetic shifts that have accompanied these developments, this class will philosophically analyze the significance of each. We will think about art—about its nature and its important place in human life.
To facilitate this, the course brings together the writings of philosophers and the work of artists from a variety of domains. The goal is not to intellectualize art but to understand the intelligence that goes into it, to enrich our experiences of art, and to foster our own creative sensibilities. We will consider famous writings on art by thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Schiller, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Breton, Artaud, Eisenstein, Debord, Baudrillard, Foucault and others in relation to important works of literature, theatre, painting, music, architecture and film.
A philosophical analysis with help the artist situate both the work of art and the actual work of the artist in a broader framework where the role of social mediation between the artist, the work of art and the reception of the work is revealed. Likewise, the potential role of the artist and work of art as social mediation can emerge as a stimulus to the creative impulse itself.
The class format will be based on lectures and seminar-style discussions where each student will present a critical summary of at least one of the readings. A portion of the class, when possible, will include a critical examination of the student’s own experience in a particular workshop and may include Butoh dance, clown training for actors or other special workshops or master classes in which students participate.
ITAL I10 or I11 Italian Language
This course introduces the student to basic Italian in such a way that, from the beginning, he or she will be able to understand simple, everyday Italian, both spoken and written. The provided textbook and workbook contains readings and exercises that reinforce the grammar studied in each lesson. The readings in the text will provide a point of departure for conversation—which will be an essential component of each class. The course will cover aspects of Italian culture and society, as well.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SUMMER ARTS PROGRAM 2010 Description
Accademia dell’Arte invites you to participate in an exceptional study abroad experience that celebrates the collaborative nature of the arts.
The Summer Arts Program gives students an opportunity to experience a taste of conservatory-style immersion in the areas of digital filmmaking, theatre or dance. Each day begins with all students participating in Scott Putman’s Elemental Body Alignment System warm-up (see below) followed by morning and afternoon studio time with outstanding teachers who will structure collaborative components that encourage students to link theoretical work with the immediate creative application in a truly interdisciplinary approach.
Students will live, eat and study in the spectacular Villa Godiola, a sixteenth century Renaissance structure overlooking the hills of Tuscany and the city of Arezzo.
EBAS (Elemental Body Alignment System)
This class is a series of stretching and strengthening exercises designed to integrate the body while increasing flexibility, range of motion and core strength. The focus of EBAS is to understand basic principles of initiating and anchoring movements from the pelvis while finding efficient and effective alignment through experimental anatomy.
This system empowers the learner to develop a consciousness for integrating and articulating body parts while translating the information to various techniques such as yoga and dance. When combined with other movement modalities, EBAS helps the student find a deeper understanding of the body and its kinetic awareness.
COURSE:
XTREME PHYSICAL THEATRE (THE ACTOR/FAST FORWARD) 6 CREDITS
comprised of tart i30 applied skills: theatre (3 credits)
tart i35 extended performance topics: theatre (3 credits)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is an intensive workshop dealing with the authenticity of the actor and applying that authenticity to the service of devising new work. Using play as the foundation of study, students will delve into preparing the physical instrument, articulation of both body and idea, rhythm in all aspects, outrageous ridiculousness and much more.
At the same time students will utilize these techniques, adding principles of dynamics, juxtaposition and composition to create new solo and ensemble work to be showcased in a final presentation.
Instructor: Daniel Stein, Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium
see bio under guest faculty
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UCI SUMMER SESSION I 2010 Program Description
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH UNIVERISTY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
Each summer, Accademia dell’Arte hosts the University of California, Irvine Summer Session in Italy. Students must enroll directly through UCI for this program. For more information and application, please visit the UCI website at: www.summer.uci.edu/travelstudy/italy.
COURSE: Intermediate Acting (Comprised of Comm I and II)
Commedia dell´Arte I
Drama 130A (4 units, 50+ contact hours)
Commedia dell´Arte II
Drama 130B (4 units, 50+ contact hours)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Study advanced drama techniques through Commedia dell´Arte, a style drawn from the Italian theatre that demands an intensive physical engagament and presence from the performer. These courses are highly intensive programs for students who have a concentration in acting and are looking for conservatory-style training in physical theatre, including the use of mask, mime techniques, clowning, improvisation, and ensemble theatre techniques.
Instructor: Michele Bottini
see bio under guest faculty
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
News
- Jul 19, 2010 | Welcome UCI Summer Session 2010 Students!
Today is the arrival day for students participating in the University of California, Irvine Summer Session at Accademia dell'Arte. Fifty students will be studying either art history, creative dra... - Jun 15, 2010 | Annual ADA Symposium Coming Up!
We are very excited for the upcoming Accademia dell'Arte Symposium from June 27 - July 4, 2010! The symposium brings together the Accademia's core faculty for one week to present workshops to US fa... - May 11, 2010 | MFA Student to Perform at International Children's Festival
Accademia dell'Arte MFA student Ben Sota will perform at the Pittsburgh International Children's Festival, a five-day annual event now in its 24th year. The festival begins May 12, and features perfor...