Acting on Impulse; Physical Storytelling

Tuesdays, July 14th & 21st  |  7:00 - 9:30pm

"Impulse and action are concurrent: the body vanishes, burns, and the spectator sees only a series of visible impulses. Ours then is a via negativa - not a collection of skills but an eradication of blocks."

- Jerzy Grotowski

What happens when we let our physical impulses run free, when we set the analytical mind on the back burner and move and create spontaneously? As children we play with imagery easily and without inhibitions. As we grow older, we tend to become more restrained and self-conscious. However, our bodies are still packed full of stories, emotions, memories, ideas; the fabric of our identities. Through physical exercises and forms we can access that dormant energy and creative materials that lie within and let them out to play. 

This class will explore various physical theater techniques to generate stories and ideas as the basis for performance or as tools for creative process. Methods will include Viewpoints, Grotowski’s plastiques and corporals, improvisation, clowning, Linklater vocal techniques and Monica's own brand of developing solo material. Through energetic physical exercises students will play with character, movement, sound and imagination, and rely on the genius of impulse to set free new discoveries. 

Over the course of two 2.5-hour sessions participants will begin to explore original material individually  as well as improvise with the ensemble and be introduced to some of the principles and history of physical theater with a focus on the work of Jerzy Grotowski.  

$150