Instructor: Janice Orlandi –
Held in-person:
Fall 2024: Movement Marathon Cross Training
“A rigorous exploration of Movement Techniques for the Actor.”
A Movement practice that integrates “cross training” in the guiding principles and affinities between Michael Chekhov, Williamson’s Physical Process of Acting, Viewpoints and Rasaboxes.
The Chekhov approach brings the psychology of the character into the body through movement and gesture, creating an enriched and active inner life, making the creation of a character an imaginative, organic and playful process. Imaging exercises, creative visualization, and incorporation are explored towards the goal of developing an honest and complete physical character. The class will cover the basic concepts which form the foundation of Michael Chekhov’s approach, awakening the connection between the actor’s inner life and expressive body, and how to develop character. We will explore exercises outlined in Michael Chekhov’s book “To the Actor” the Guiding principles and concepts of the Chekhov Technique.
We will also explore the Viewpoints and Composition Devising as developed by Mary Overlie. SYSTEMS is a mnemonic device for the Six Elements of The Viewpoints: Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement, and Story. You will work as an ensemble with the Six Viewpoints and Nine variations with reference to the practice of presence work with kinesthetic and sensory awareness through both Chekhov and Viewpoints practices.
Williamson Technique is a psychophysical technique designed to explore, develop, and expand the actor’s process oriented “Tool Kit.” We apply Williamson Technique to Uta Hagen’s Character Conditions exercise, focusing on how the body processes experience through the five senses into sensation and behavior, while you are involved in the circumstances and relationships of the imaginary world or the event. We explore the physical process of creating a character with “conditions” such as cold, hot or sleepy, and “Altered States” or impediments such as drunk or drugged. With applications to dramatic texts from theater or film that require or imply a character with a physical condition, impediment or altered state, we explore archetypal essences, qualities and atmospheres for activating the body in space.