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Story Telling at UNATTI

2/5/2015

As part of the drama class , the girls at the UNATTI home decided they would like to create some of their story books for the stage. They started with well know children stories, such as Three Little Pigs and Cinderella. These were done well , but we were more interested in them creating stories from their Nepalese folklore. With a little encouragement they came up with some beautiful stories.

What was more impressive was watching them work together. As there were about 14 , I divided them into two groups and they had about 40 minutes to recreate the story. The older girls in the group tended to take the leadership role , deciding how it should be done, but always giving the younger ones a go, never leaving them out. I stayed out of it as much I could, I encouraged them to project their voices and taught them a little about staging. That is it. I let their imaginations fly and the results were impressive.

At this stage they have performed the stories for each other their house mothers and Anne and myself. The next step is for them to perform for their wider community.

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Neutral Mask and Clowning Workshop

2/5/2015

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I have long wanted to run some workshops for and with Sreejith Ramamn who is an assistant professor at the School of Drama in Calicut University, at their Thrissur campus in Kerala. I first met him when I was teaching at TTRP where he was one of the students in 2007.

Sreejith has been teaching at University of Calicut at their School of Drama which is based in Thrissur, considered to be the cultural capital of Kerala.

When Anne was invited to give a paper in Cochin Kerala, forty- five minutes away from Thrissur, I saw the opportunity to offer a workshop

The workshop was organised by Sreejith’s friend and colleague Manu Jose, an energetic and enthusiastic freelance as an actor teacher director and story-teller in Kerala. Kerala has a strong film and theatre industry,all produced in the local language Malayalam. He has created SODA, a small organisation called to promote workshops and classes for practicing performing artists.

We decided to run the workshop in neutral mask and clowning running for 4 days from 10am to 4pm. He opened the workshop of up to actors, students and any one interested in theatre. and we got 15 participants form all over Kerala and beyond. All with varying degrees of experience from established stage and scene actors to students. There was a young actor who had come all the way from New Delhi where he was studying at the National School of Drama . English was the common language with Manu translating in Malayalam when required

The sessions were held in a large drab building known as the auditorium. It had a concrete floor and poor lighting. This did not dampen the enthusiasm of everyone involved. They eagerly grappled with the concepts of the neutral mask, making interesting observations on the way. Some made the very shrewd observation compared it to the techniques of Michael Chekhov. I have rarely heard such interesting observations in a workshop situation. They understood the idea that the neutral mask was not about hiding behind a mask , but revealing oneself through the mask
As we had only four days the mask was a stepping stone to the red nose, {the smallest mask in the world of Lecoq
I spent the earlier past of this workshops, again, stopping people trying to be funny. It is the same in every workshop. Participants trying to hard. After a while most of the students understood the concept, even id they were unable to practice it yet.

The older actors were probably the better at it. They had long given up trying to impress and were willing to look silly in front of others. The best moment came from the least experienced in the class.She made an improvisational offer that was so innocent in its silliness, the entire class fell about laughing.

I wuld like to thank Sreejith for persisting with the idea that I should come and to Manu Jose for organising it all .

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Workshops in Schools In India and Nepal

2/3/2015

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While running workshops in vulnerable communities we have been asked to work in the local schools. They have been in Jainabad Gujarat, a village near the salt pans, in and around the brick kilns in the Kathmandu Valley, as well as a school in Bhaktapur. These schools provide children with a basic education to about year eight. They have very few resources and the classrooms, are very basic with bare walls and very old desks facing a blackboard. They remind us something out of a Charles Dickens novel.

As they have no, or very little access or understanding of the performing and visual arts, we have often started the program with an impromptu performance, that I begin when putting on my clown nose. It tends to happen at a school assembly where we are first introduced. As the students do not know who we are and what we are doing there, It is a great way to break the ice.

I improvise around a few themes, around a “park-bench”. Simple routines such trying to read some else’s newspaper or falling asleep on someone’s shoulder. I am always trying to sense the student would be willing to perform with me, looking out for that individual who may have the desire to have a go on stage. There is always someone. The students love watching one of their own. After a while I encourage them to perform with each other, and I step back and watch. When a teacher accepts an invitation to perform, with a student as happened in Jainabad, it is pure joy for the audience.

At the community school in the brick kilns, UEMS, the organisation we were working with, are trying to raise awareness of basic hygiene, washing hands, and brushing teeth. I was asked to perform on this theme. The first student who performed with me was hilarious, and totally took over the stage. It was then very easy to find other students to get up and perform. It is rare for students to come up with their own ideas, but in this tiny school in the back blocks of the Kathmandu Valley, we found some raw talent

The girls take more time to perform, but we always insist that they have a chance at getting up in front of others, and make sure the boys give them space to do so. At this school there were two girls that were particularly good. They managed not to copy what I did, but made an improvisation of their own.

This is always a great way to start in the schools, and the students become excited at what could happen next in the workshops. It shows to the students that learning fun.

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Story Telling at UNATTI

Neutral Mask and Clowning Workshop

Workshops in Schools In India and Nepal

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Neutral Mask
larval masks
Bone MarrowTheatre
Jacques Lecoq
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Basel
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Carnival
Nadine Dimitrievitch

Story Telling at UNATTI

Neutral Mask and Clowning Workshop

Workshops in Schools In India and Nepal

Author

Archives

Categories​Neutral Masklarval masks Bone MarrowTheatreJacques LecoqPhysical Theatre Basel Switzerland CarnivalNadine Dimitrievitch

Categories

Neutral Mask
larval masks
Bone MarrowTheatre
Jacques Lecoq
Physical Theatre
Basel
Switzerland
Carnival
Nadine Dimitrievitch