Gennady Bogdanov

Gennady Nikolaevich Bogdanov graduated as an actor from Russian University of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in 1972. In the same year he joined the company of the Theatre of the Satire of Moscow where he worked as an actor for 20 years. At the same theatre, he became the student of Master Nikolai Kustov (actor and instructor of Theatrical Biomechanics, that worked with Meyerhold till 1938).

Inheritor of the tradition of the Theatrical Biomechanics of Meyerhold, a basis of his work in the theatre, Master Bogdanov has decided to dedicate his artistic life to Theatrical Biomechanics. Consequently, he has worked at the Russian University of Theatre Arts, first as a professor and then as a founder and director of International School of Theatrical Biomechanics.

Starting from 1990, Master Bogdanov has dedicated his life to the propagation of Theatrical Biomechanics all over the world through demonstrations, conferences and workshops (Austria, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Wales, Germany, England, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, etc).

Since 1991, he has collaborated with the Mime Centrum of Berlin and with the Drama School Ernst Busch.

Since 1996, he has collaborated with ISTA (International School of Theatre Anthropology) directed by Eugenio Barba, with “Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards Workcentre” of Wrozlaw and Pontedera.

As a director, he has worked in Italy, USA, Germany, France, England and Russia.

In Italy, he has started teaching Theatrical Biomechanics of Meyerhold since 1991, working with (among others): Academy of Dramatic Art “Silvio d’Amico”, the Teatro Tascabile of Bergamo, CUT of Perugia and Milan, the “La Sapienza” University of Rome, the University of Siena\Arezzo and the Experimental School of the Actor of Pordenone.

Since 2004, he is founder and pedagogical director of the International Centre of Theatrical Biomechanics of Perugia.

Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940)

Meyerhold was an actor, director, also a creator of a method for actors, the biomechanics, a rich physical training that opens the possibilities of actor’s play and scenic direction. After studying at the School of Dramatic and Musical Arts of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, he was invited to join the troupe of the Moscow Art Theater and worked there between 1897 and 1902, under the direction of Constantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. He then embarked on his own research.

Afterwards, he moved farther and farther away from the Naturalistic Theater or Theater of Mood, whose fundamental principle was that of the exact representation of life.

In Russia, Meyerhold was the initiator of the awareness of the importance of the body in the work of the actor.  Where, until then, the emotion took up too much space. This interest in the body led his research into a mechanical/organic universe rather than a search for emotion.

WORKSHOP: Introduction to Meyerhold’s Biomechanics

During the workshop, we will explore the physical techniques of Biomechanics, a fine art system of play created by Meyerhold that provides the actor the necessary tools to re-educate his reflexes; collaborating to move away from his daily and mechanical movements; to build characters through a psychophysical approach; to play in a state of deeper concentration and thus master the scenic play.

WORKSHOP PROGRAM

• Warm up
• Work on rhythm – the “inner musicality”
• Work on the principles of Biomechanics, according to Meyerhold, natural and fundamental elements of the gesture, such as:
• Otkaz (the refusal): a counter-movement that serves both to prepare the action and to give the signal to the stage partner indicating that the actor is ready to react.
• Pacil (sending): the simultaneous commitment to the action and the action itself.
• Tormos (the brake): the constraint that the actor must simultaneously exercise with the force ahead of the pacil in order to maintain control.
• Totcbka (a point in space, the point at the end of the body sentence) or stoïca (posture). They indicate the culmination of an action at a specific point in space.

Lluis Graells

Actor, director and theatre professor. Graduated in Direction and Dramaturgy at the l’Institut del Teatre of Barcelone. He worked with Pawel Rouba and Andrzej Leparski in mime and Pantomime, mask with Andrzej Leparski, Don Jordan y Roy Bosier, and Commedia dell’Arte with Carlo Boso and Ferruccio Soleri. After having participated as an actor and director in numerous productions such as Brecht, Molière, Goldoni, to name a few, he has taught Commedia dell’Arte for over 20 years at National and Regional Conservatories in Spain.

The Body and the Masked Character of Commedia dell’Arte

During the workshop, we will explore the masked characters of the Commedia Dell’Arte through the study of their walks, voices, and energies: Arlequin, Colombine, Dottore, Pantalon, Capitan, Zanni, Brighela. Each of these characters will be the object of a personalized work of each student. In this fixed form, in the “interior”, lies a large creative space that will be uncovered and will permit each actor to create his Arlequin, his Capitan, her Colombine…

Each day, improvisation will take its special place. We will study the codes of acting specific to the Commedia and to the mask, as well as the construction of the storylines. These participants will create the intrigues and mysteries by relying on the physical form and the social functions of their masked characters, based on their proper imagination and their relations tied to the characters.

WORKSHOP PROGRAM

• Semi-mask: movement techniques, lecture and study • Fixed Type, Type/Countertype, Style, Attributes
• Corporeal Schema of the Character and the Physical Transformation of the Actor
• Technical Limitations as a Source of Creation
• Improvisations as show

William Fisher

William Fisher was a student and assistant of Etienne Decroux from 1980-1983. He has continued to devise work while working in academia. He has held appointments and taught workshops at the Marcel Marceau School, California Institute of the Arts, University of California in Irvine, UNC Chapel Hill, MKFM Pula, CDU / Imaginary Academy Grožnijan, Croatian Academy of Drama Arts, Zagreb and Theatre Academy London.  For 19 years, William was head of the Theatre Performance Program and then Director of the School of Theater at Ohio University. He is currently Professor of Theatre at Butler University where he teaches performance, directing and devised theatre.

His essay, Struggle and Irony / Ashes and Flames was included in Words on Decroux, edited by Thomas Leabhart, 1994. In 1998, William began training with Anne Bogart and SITI Company and maintains a relationship to that work and company.

Founder and artistic director of Zeta Collective in San Francisco and Los Angeles 1985-1991, William’s  work as a director has been presented at Zeta Collective, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), The Dubrovnik Festival, The Vienna Theatre Festival, and Kampnagel (Hamburg).  He was 2009 Fulbright Fellow at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in the Theatre Department Theory and Practice Program. In August of 2017 William returned to the Borgarleikhúsið (City Theatre, Reykjavik) to direct a staged reading of Small Lives / Big Dreams by SITI Company. He is translating and preparing the text into French for production.

Solo Training / Ensemble Playing.

Open for practitioners of any experience level.  This intensive workshop will build on a base of foundational Decroux technique (solfege, walks, counterweights).  We will examine the intersection of the working lexicons of Dramatic Corporeal Mime and Viewpoints training the relationship between whole body listening /responsiveness and purposeful behavior in training and practice, the dynamic opposition between control and spontaneity, and structured improvisational processes for instant ensemble and collective composition for the stage.   The use of short text may be incorporated into the workshop.

Thomas Leabhart

Student of Etienne Decroux from 1968 – 1972, served as his teaching assistant and translator. In addition to his regular teaching at Pomona College in California, Leabhart often gives workshops in Europe and Japan, and collaborated with Eugenio Barba in ISTA (International School of Theatre Anthropology) for more than a decade. He performs and teaches regularly in France, and has performed and taught workshops at the Museum of Design in Zurich, The Austrian Theatre Museum in Vienna, the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, the American Center in Montevideo, Movement Theatre International in Philadelphia, and many other venues. Editor of Mime Journal, he has authored more than thirty articles and Modern and Post Modern Mime (Macmillan in London and St. Martin’s Press, NYC, 1989) and Etienne Decroux, Routledge Performance Practitioners (Routledge Press 2007).

The Corporeal Mime of Etienne Decroux

Developed by Etienne Decroux, Corporeal Mime stems from the theatrical experiments of the early 20th century (Appia, Craig, and Copeau). Its objective is to place drama inside the moving body, rather than to substitute gesture for speech as in pantomime. Both sculptor and statue, the mime must apply to movement the principles that are at the heart of drama: pause, hesitation, weight, resistance, and surprise.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS: FROM THE ORDINARY TO THE EXTRAORDINARY

Etienne Decroux asked his students to create new compositions, arranging ordinary movements—rotations, inclinations, and translations—into extraordinary combinations, phrasing quotidian movements in unexpected and captivating ways.

Our workshop  guides the actor from first simple articulations through a creative process that finishes with a short composition.

WORKSHOP WILL INCLUDE

• Warm up / Movement Explorations
• Corporeal Mime Technique: scales, counterweights, dynamo-rhythm, figures of style, walks
• Improvisations
• New compositions
• Tea Time:  Stories and Metaphors