Stones have been known to move
- A ten day residential workshop.
We work through our bodies to see our habits and the structures of our thoughts.
We alter our habits and thoughts, and so transform our bodies.
Blockages become visible, then dissolve.
Impulses flow more easily – inside us and between us.
Action. Reaction.
Concentration.
Change.
There’s nothing miraculous – it’s disciplined, focussed rigourous work. The work does not change who we are, it makes us more truly ourselves.
The Workshop
Ten days of immersive psychophysical performance training – intensive personal physical challenges explored within the supportive context of a developing Ensemble. Isolated in a rural retreat in the South of France, we will train ourselves and forge links with others. We will pursue the unquenchable joy of making extraordinary moments of art with an Ensemble of extraordinary artists.
We will keep working, pushing beyond what is easy towards what frightens us.
We will stop resisting ourselves. We will drive ourselves, not from fear, but by pursuing our pleasure. We are here to find pleasure – the deep joy that comes from transcending what we thought we could do and finding we are much more than we dared believe.
Each day we will train together physically and vocally. The training will combine fixed and improvised structures to develop our capacity as individual physical performers and as contributors to an emerging ensemble. We will explore core principles which will help us know ourselves better, break down the blockages that stand between us and our spontaneity. We will each grow as individual-with-other.
Alongside the training, we will also explore aspects of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, transferring the principles of the training into the excavation and performing of one of the world’s most extraordinary texts. Macbeth is a story of power, of human extremes, of the supernatural, of lost innocence, of soured sexuality. We will see what happens if an extraordinary ensemble confronts an extraordinary text in an extraordinary setting.
We’ll work for between 7 and 10 hours each day. Much of the work will be in the beautiful studio space at Au Brana, but, French Spring weather permitting, there are gardens and fields and forests to turn into our personal performance realm.
There will be excellent eating and drinking and conversation. There will be time for reflection and meditation. We can discuss the practicalities of training, the theories that underpin training or the pragmatics of sustaining training in a world that doesn’t often offer us the space we need.
It will be a period of time for you to dedicate to your growth as a committed, passionate artist.
I don’t know exactly how the workshop will grow – all workshops respond to the realities of the people who are there. However it will feel something like this:
Days 1- 3: Hard, long training. Ensemble. Improvisation. Task. Principles, Concentration. Energy. Voice. The Bodymind. Discovery of self-with-other.
Days 4 –7: More training. The voice and body as a unit. The body and mind as a unit. The ensemble as a unit. Finding the confidence to take the lead and allow yourself to be led. What is the world of Macbeth? How can we inhabit it and draw an audience into our evocation of it?
Days 8 – 10: More training. Each day we spiral deeper into ourselves and give more of ourselves to others, to the space we work in, to the invisible energy that is Ensemble. In small and large groups we apply ourselves to the specifics of the text – a ghostly banquet, visits from the world of the dead, a barren marriage. We’ll make the barn, the garden, fields, forest our playground and we will be amazed by what, with discipline and skill, we can make and shatter together. Stones have been known to move and trees to speak.
Afterwards: A set of principles and understandings that will serve you whatever your chosen style of performance or skill-base. A great sense of how you serve, and are served by, others. A knowledge that, being with others, a single sound or glance or touch can rip apart the world we think we know. You will take away deep familiarity with the people who shared this journey with you, people I hope you will choose to work with again whenever the chance arises.
None of this will happen by accident, it will happen because through our skill and concentration we will make it happen.
The Workshop Leader
John Britton has been developing his approach to psychophysical training of performers for the last 15 years. It is drawn from his own experience as performer, improviser and director and brings together influences from the European Laboratory Tradition (Grotowksi, Meyerhold, Barba, Staniewski) and improvisational methods that emerged from the American Dance Scene in the 1950s and 60s (especially as developed by Al Wunder).
John Britton has taught at ESMAE (Portugal), CPR (UK), Legs On The Wall (Australia), ADA Studios (Berlin), Dartington College (UK), National Institute of Circus Arts (Australia), National University of Mexico (Mexico City), National Student Drama Festival (Ensemble Leader 2005), IUGTE Conference (Slovenia), Central School of Speech and Drama (UK) and The Swedish Ballet Academy (Stockholm - November ’08) as well as at numerous Universities and Conservatoria in the UK and Australia.
Since 2004 he has been Senior Lecturer in Performance at Huddersfield University where he is Course Leader and Chief Trainer on the MA Ensemble Physical Theatre, Training & Performance.
John will be assisted by Eilon Morris. Eilon is an actor and percussionist who has been training with John and others for the last ten years. He recently graduated, with Distinction from the MA Ensemble Physical Theatre: Training & Performance at Huddersfield University with his final project ‘Rhein’ subsequently performing at London’s Royal Festival Hall as part of the London Literature Festival.
The Venue
Au Brana is between Toulouse and Bordeaux in the rural South of France.
The centre of the work is the converted barn at Au Brana, an inspirational rough walled, wooden floored training studio that will provoke your best work from you.
Attached to the studio, the old stables have been converted into comfortable sleeping accommodation for workshop participants. The accommodation is dormitory style, but with partitions between each of the sleeping areas, allowing for personal space and privacy. Au Brana is situated in open country, quite a long way from anywhere and, if the French Spring weather is nice to us, we will take over the garden, fields and forests of the area during our stay there.
All food and accommodation will be provided and is included in the cost of the workshop.
You can find more details about Au Brana at www.aubrana.com
Dates
You will arrive before 6pm on Tuesday April 7th 2009. Food and an introduction will be provided that night.
We will start work on the morning of Wednesday April 8th and work every day until Friday April 17th. We’ll leave Au Brana on Saturday April 18th.
Cost
The workshop costs £600. This covers 11 nights accommodation and food, ten days of intensive studio work. Participants will be responsible for making their own travel arrangements (though it will be possible to pick people up from local train/bus stations).
Applications
It is extremely important to me that this workshop delivers a rich and challenging experience to all participants. To ensure this I ask you, if you are interested in applying for one of the 12 available places, to send me a brief outline of your career/training to date (a CV will do) and a short statement of what you would like to gain from attending this workshop. This process helps me ensure that no one attends the workshop who is really looking for something else, and that there is a range and depth of experiences within the workshop that will contribute to the overall experience of all participants.
If you are someone I’ve worked with before, could you remind me where (and possibly even send a photograph!)
I will not ask for any payment from you until I have confirmed that I am able to offer you a place on the ‘Stones’ workshop.
Please send applications by email to quidditytheatre@yahoo.com.au or by mail to:
543 Titanic Mills
Low Westwood Lane
Huddersfield
West Yorkshire
HD7 5UN
UK
More Information
If you would like more information, please feel free to contact me:
