The Path of Actions - summer session

THE PATH OF ACTIONS
Residential Theatre Workshop
led by Valerio Peroni and Alice Occhiali

“The path of actions” is a residential theatre workshop with a pedagogical and performative aim.
The workshop will be divided into two parts:
In the first, participants will train and create materials in the working room and in the second, they will adapt the work to open spaces. The second part will also include training in close contact with nature and the adaptation of creative materials to places such as woods, seaside, fields, etc.
The aim is to transform unconventional spaces in stages where participants can interact with natural scenography.

PRESENTATION OF THE WORKSHOP
The workshop will be divided into two sections:
In the first section participants will train and create materials in the working room and in the second section they will adapt the work to open spaces.
The second section will be characterised of a training in close contact with nature and the adaptation of creative materials to places such as woods, beaches, fields, etc.
The aim is to transform unconventional spaces into stages where participants can interact with natural scenography.

Focal point of the workshop is the actor’s dramaturgy in its various phases: from training to creation of characters.
The workshop will focus on the study of scenic action: Physical, vocal and inner.
The aim is to provide the tools to properly approach the use of the “pre-expressive” moment of the training as a steppingstone towards the “expressive” dimension that presides over the creation of scenic material.

Each participant will create his/her own character through improvisation and physical composition (rhythms, dynamic qualities, use of objects and scores (sequences) of actions).
The character will be linked to the creative theme “Elsewhere”.
Establishing a bridge with the training, participants will create scores of actions, giving life to small scenes that in the second section of the workshop will be adapted from the working room to natural open spaces such as woods, beaches, fields, etc.

THE DAILY WORK WILL BE DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS
- First part- “PRE-EXPRESSIVE” MOMENT
This part includes psycho-physical training of the actor both in groups and as individual exercises inspired by the work of masters of the 20th century theatrical tradition (Konstantin Stanislavskij, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Michael Chekhov, Jacques Lecoq, Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba).
The work will focus on the study of scenic action: physical, vocal and inner.
Attention will be given especially to the physical action and the study of its three parameters (speed, volume, and intensity).
Every participant will be solicited and helped to express her/himself, through various theatre techniques with a physical approach. Through both individual and group exercises the actors will develop both their attentiveness and stage presence, rediscovering and exploring new creative possibilities of their own bodies, voices and imagination.

- Second part - “EXPRESSIVE” MOMENT
In the “expressive” moment the work will focus on the theme “Elsewhere” as a creative starting point. The creation of characters will be linked to the theme through elaboration of scores (sequences of actions) related to a text and props.
Participants will choose a monologue linked somehow to the theme proposed. The monologue can be taken from plays from the dramaturgical repertoire or from a poetic text of any author to their own liking.
With all these creative materials, helped and directed by the pedagogues, participants will give life to their own original staging, taking care of each detail, from the creation and composition of the scenic space to the choice of costume and objects used by the character.

THEME OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS
The creative material will be inspired by the concepts expressed in the book “The Poetic of Space” written by the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. This writing shows how our perceptions of houses and other shelters shapes our thoughts, memories, and dreams.
It’s a book full of psychological and philosophical reflections on the concept of “house” in relation to a poetic imaginary that everyone has related to this topic.
Particularly significant are the images of “the childhood’s house” that represent the past, and “the dream house” that represent the future. It’s in the tension between these two worlds, connected to memories and dreams, that the characters of “Elsewhere” moves.
When we say:

“I’m speaking now, but your mind is elsewhere,” or “He comes from elsewhere”, then what does that mean? Where is this “elsewhere”? If we must describe it in words, how will that be?

“Elsewhere”, from Latin “Aliter Ubi”, literally means “different where”, a poetic space where memories and dreams melt together. Participants will be giving life to characters entrapped and suspended in their own personal “Elsewhere”.

In the creative process the idea is to build this world called “Elsewhere”, translating in images all these points of reflection, and giving to the actors the possibility to travel in a world full of archetypes and familiar suggestions. The actors will put these images in motion using their bodies and voices in relation with space, objects and music, thus finding a strong connection to the most intimate thoughts and memories of human beings.
Watching from outside it will be like observing curiously from a window the entire life lived by the unique human beings chosen to inhabit the “Elsewhere”.

All summer Masterclasses

The Dance of Intentions

Feats of Performing

Act How - Exchange, Learn, Act (English session)

Act How - Intercambiar, Aprender, Actuar (en español)