Practical Workshop on Intentional Action: Improvisation with Structural Elements
led by Mario Biagini
Associate Director of the
Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards
Since Stanislavsky, we can understand behavior as a complex phenomenon based on the dynamic relationship we have with the world around us. This relationship exists through actions, contacts, intentions, spoken or sung words and associations. A practical understanding of the complex and yet simple nature of action can be seen as the core of the actor’s practice.
How does one approach it and access it organically? How to let this stream of behavior develop, grow and extend? What is the relation between composition and structure on one side and spontaneity and organic flow on the other?
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The objective of the workshop is to utilize the tools of the actor’s craft to search for intentionally articulated organic behavior. We will explore essential elements of the actor’s craft such as organicity, relation, contact, impulse, intention, action, and reaction as the students explore the fundamental difference between movement and action. Under the direction of Mario Biagini, who closely worked with Grotowski from 1986 till Grotowski’s death in 1999, the workshop participants will work on “acting propositions.” Biagini will guide students in experiencing first-hand the basic aspects of the practical research at the Workcenter.
In advance of the workshop, each participant is asked to prepare a 3-minute “acting proposition,” based on either a song or a short text from any genre, including plays, poetry, and prose. Alternatively, participants can also choose to utilize both a song and a text, inside the same “acting proposition.” The “acting proposition” should be a repeatable draft, with a beginning, a development and an end: a short performance with its own inner dramaturgy. These “acting propositions” will be further worked upon and developed during the workshop.
Feel free to bring significant objects or clothes needed for the “acting propositions”.
The workshop will be held over two weekends at Brooklyn College
Feburary 21 & 22, 10-4pm
Feburary 28 & March 1, 10-4pm
Price is $300 for 1 weekend or $540 for both weekends
If you have any questions, please email
seedgroupnyc@gmail.com
For more information on the Open Program and the Workcenter, please visit theworkcenter.org or facebook.com/openprogram.
