DramaMasterClasses Michael Seibel

Place: Iceland

Date: 2nd – 7th Mai 2013

Hours: Thursday - Tuesday  from 16pm - 21pm

Information: 

http://dramamasterclassseibel.blogspot.com

Contact: masterclassseibel@gmail.com

Language: English - Translation in Icelandic if necessary

Content:

Acting - a phenomenological approach on theatre

General Thoughts:

The encounter with the Theatre is an open invitation, which requires mental emotional and physical readiness on the other, the new and the different.
Any involvement with the theatre is a process of understanding, description but also performing that, which is changing and transforming each time. A process that is drafting answers to fundamental questions relating to a theatrical approach, drama performance and stage presence in general. Play, directing, acting and aesthetics are issues that must be answered in every age.

In my own theatre research and quest the encounter with the theatre led me to the formulation of a different approach, which I call phenomenological.
This phenomenological theatre approach, as I understand and define it, in order to capture the current theatre reality as well as its different perspective, is based on new concepts and methods. These very concepts and methods will be the issues of the seminar I will present as follows.

1^st Day: The phenomenological theatre approach

In general, phenomenology refers to the learning of that which appears. Learning of the phenomena according to “Husserl” is as a method of description and presentation of "being" a thing in the way it appears by itself.

With the term 'phenomenological approach’ I mean a combination of Focusing, Person-Centered Approach and Choreology, as I convey these concepts in the theatre field.

• Person - centered Approach:
The person-centered approach basically comes from the area of humanitarian psychology. The basic principles can be applied and transferred into other areas, like philosophy, theology, sociology, social anthropology and of course art.
In the center of this approach lies the concept of the Person. Its main tool which is the relationship is based on three fundamental conditions, empathy, unconditional regard as well as congruence - Self-knowledge.
A structured relationship by these circumstances and with the main concern of the understanding of the other (the theatrical text, the role of fellow-actor, the public ...) can be seen by the actor as a useful tool in attempting to approach the theatre role in a different way.

• Focusing:
Focusing, is a specific way to approach a situation, a person, a problem, a theatre role, any question or concern that is important to us.
The difference from other methods is the attempt to focus in what we call "body intelligence" that can give us a different kind of knowledge beyond the intellectual and emotional.
Through very specific steps, Focusing leads us back to a forgotten knowledge that exists within us, within our body but usually ignored or not even taken into account. So the body for the actor ceases to be only a simple tool, a throughput machine or a medium of expression but becomes an inexhaustible source of inspiration and creativity.

• Choreology:
Choreology is the science that examines, analyzes and records the movement of the human body. The Father of Choreology is R. von Laban, who worked on the analysis of body movement and function rather than the psychological part.
Using his method in acting training, we are able to be aware of our body, to know it better as well as to extend its capabilities and so gaining a kinesiology code.

During the 1^st day the participants will learn about these 3 methods and techniques related to transfer these concepts into the theatre.


2^nd Day: The concept of the here and now as the main power of the actor in the creative process


The fact is that life happens always in the here and now. Past and future are thought games and have no connection to real life. Like life, so the theatre happens always in the here and now. What the viewer lives in the here and now during the performance can only be experienced consciously by him, if the actor uses this here and now as a main power in both the creative process as well as the reproduction of it on stage.
During the 2^nd day the participants will have the opportunity to realize the power of the here and now and to learn step by step to exploit this power for the creative and reproductive process.

3^rd Day: The nature of the body. Dealing with the body as the main tool of the actor through Terlusollogy

The Terlusollogy is teaching consciously lived polarity. Two specific effects (sun and moon) in the nature of the Earth (Terra = earth) form the basis of this polarity. The polarity is determined by the position of the moon (Luna = moon) and the Sun (Sol = sun) in relation to the earth. This polarity is experienced and can be scientifically proven in many ways.

The basis of all these observations is the polarity of breath. The external astronomic order at birth leads to a significant entry in the respiratory center in the brain throughout the duration of our lives. So we differentiate between the type of inhalation or lunar breathing type and type of exhalation or solar breathing type. Both, inhalation as well as exhalation can be supported by everyday behaviors such as sitting, standing, walking, lying down and nutrition. So it seems natural to bring forward that someone has a special body behavior according to his type of breathing.
During the 3^rd day, participants will learn to use body and voice in accordance to their body nature. This knowledge is very important to the development of their physical and vocal skills.

4^th Day: Improvisation: Free spirit and imagination, unconditional observation, conscious spontaneity and body memory as fundamental tools for the communicative process of the actor between himself and his animated and inanimate partners on stage

Creativity is characterized by the interplay of free sprit - imagination and spontaneity as well as their stabilization as an expression that is visible and hearable through the actor’s body. The stabilization of expression through the actor’s body lies first in the conscious process of a silent observation. This observation is an implied condition for the realization of any kind of expression through the body. The sense of a move enables us to repeat this movement, something which constitutes once again the condition of storing it in the body. Recalling that stored in the body movement is the basis for reproducing the same movement in the acting process.

During the 4^th day the participants will learn how to practice these fundamental creative processes and will become able to activate these processes independently.


5^th Day: Status through the power of now

As the person in everyday life, so the actor constantly changes behaviors depending on the requirements of the theatrical character, of the space and the objects on stage.

Here comes the games status.
First, what means the word status; Let's describe it as "the interplay of sovereignty and subjugation of social constraints and their reactions.

The aim of the seminar will therefore be based on different improvisation exercises, discovering to the actor first of all his personal and his social status and afterwards the status of theatre roles as well as their inversion. It means to understand the impact of voice, posture, movement and space on the issue of status.

To become aware of the above through the power of now, will help us concerning a plain presence of the actor on stage. The actor senses the performance and action of his partner, thus avoiding blockages in the creative flow of his stage presence.
This particular method of teaching improvisation through the here and now,

is based on the re-discovery by an adult intellectual imagination and creative power.

Aim of the 5^th day is to open foundational paths, so that logic stops to dominate. In this way we welcome the concept of here and now, as well as the free spirit. Both lead the actor beyond logic.

6^th Day: Conclusion and review