Week two

How to document this work?
Would images be enough?
I am looking at  Monika Pagneux and a book based on her scrapbook called, Inside Outside which holds an apt quote:
"The gesture is a silent language that writes in space and its writing is the same as a literary writing."
Reading this I can justify "research" which is what is happening all the time in actor training. It does lead the actor to new insights.

Looking at my scrap book it is full of articles about the environment and the great peril the natural world is in. Tonight trump will decide whether or not he will adhere to the Paris Climate summit agreements...
So much of what I ask the students to do once they begin their observation is to look at their subject in the real, not only in footage. The observation which happens regularly and over a period of time is precious and the stuff of gold for the patient observer. The thought that one day we may be the only species left is too chilling.
Perhaps what I am documenting is an approach to developing a character and in doing so will be a documentation of what we gain by observing species other than ourselves. And as I write so much of human kind is hell bent on destroying those others.
 
I have been listening to a taped conversation with Catherine from 2005. Her voice does not change. When we spoke last week it was the same voice; as direct, as clear, as sharp and as french as ever!
How revelatory her teaching was.

Giraffes watching.
Climate Change March, London 2015
 

The process of documenting Transformation and Imaginative Improvisation (T&II)

After the phone meeting with inspiring Theatre maker Peta Lily,
http://www.petalily.com/
I am beginning today, to describe the process I am embarked upon:
How I am moving towards making a short documentary of my work.

She and I talked about the innovative processes we each have been able to develop and teach, she - The Dark Clown and me - Transformation and Imaginative Improvisation.
 I also talked about the importance of honouring the fragile lineage of which I am part.

Transformation and Imaginative Improvisation has its roots in work conceived by Jacques Copeau (1879-1949). In England, Copeau’s influence came through his nephew Michel Saint -Denis who, with George Devine and Glen Byam Shaw started Old Vic School after the Second World War. Michel Saint-Denis and John Blatchley developed Copeau’s work into a series of exercises. Cathérine Clouzot taught and developed this work with her husband John Blatchley and after his death, alone. My actor training (at Arts Ed), brought me into first contact with her and her body of work. Some years later, Cathérine invited me to become her apprentice. When she felt I was ready, she promptly stepped away from teaching. I have been doing it ever since!
 If for no other reason but that I am the sole inheritor of this approach to actor training in the UK, I must document the work.

"It takes years to become conscious of what you already believe and to be capable of putting it into question, because so much of what we believe our body to be has been learned very early on. And it affects how we choose to act and stand and sit later on- the subtleties of stance have to do with what we believe" 

Taken from Body:Language #6 The Transformative Body: Guy with Dana Caspersen,
6 December 2010,Lilian Baylis Studio,Sadler's Wells London. 

Looking ahead...

...to Transformation and Imaginative Improvisation development in the months ahead.

"Her crest feathers rise,she leans back, tummy feathers fluffed, shoulders dropped, toes very tight on the glove. Her demeanour switches from everything scares me to I see it all: I own all this and more."
(Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk, 2014, p 178)

RCS Troilus and Cressida at the Globe Jaunary 2017

I have had the great pleasure of working through January with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's MA Classical and Contemporary Text actors and directors in training at the Globe.

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=Royal+Conservatoire+of+Scotland+MA+acting


This partnership of RCS with the Globe is a great example of how a focused four weeks of Actor training with directors, voice, movement, singing and dance professionals in the extraordinary theatre that is the Globe, can illuminate the play,(Troilus and Cressida), by giving the developing actors and directors specific tools to better use themselves in order to tell the audience the story.  

Inside WAAPA - Enriching Experiences

An exciting look at some of the many highly creative and corageous achievements The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts is engaged in.

Scroll down to pages 6 and 7 to read about some of the visiting artists who have worked there recently.


 http://www.waapa.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/721382/InsideWAAPA_Issue_45_Web.pdf

Osa Rainforest at Colourscape -cross artform music-theatre

Find this immersive, interactive piece by composer Laura Bowler and actor Sam Redway at the Colourscape Music Festival on Clapham Common this weekend.

 "Physical theatre performers alongside award winning Ligeti Qartet and flautist Helen Vidovich re-create the sounds and movement of the rainforest".
http://www.eyemusic.org.uk/Downloads/ClaphamBrochure.pdf

Below is the link to my updated playlist with some Costa Rican wildlife as focus.


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzPUj8ahmgnjMKm701dqWjw/playlists

Visiting Artists Programe- WAAPA Summer 2016

http://www.artshub.com.au/education/news-article/sponsored-content/arts-education/emma-clark-gratton/in-hugh-jackmans-footsteps-251740

I was proud to be one of the Visiting Artists invited to WAAPA this summer as a part of their Visiting Artists Programme.