The Path of Actions - Winter Session

The Path of Actions is a residential theatre workshop with a pedagogical and performative aim, led by Alice Occhiali and Valerio Peroni.

Presentation of the workshop

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 in a short group work in progress presentation.

Theme of the creative proces

The creative materials will be inspired by the theme of the “Elsewhere”.

“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, giving to the actors the possibility to move inside that space full of archetypes and familiar suggestions. 

They will put their own personal images in motion using their bodies and voices in relation with space, objects and music, 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”.

The daily work is 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.