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CPR EVENTS: SPRING WORKSHOPS - José Torres Tama (USA) and Ira Seidenstein (Australia), DIRECTORS FORUM, GIVING VOICE |
Techniques for Performance Art /The Multidisciplinary ArsenalJosé Torres Tama (USA) Thursday 28th May 1.30 – 4.30pm Centre for Performance Research, The Foundry, Parry Williams Building, Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth, SY23 3AJ Price: £15 José Torres Tama will engage workshop participants in an interactive exchange exploring creative strategies such as movement, improvisation, visual rituals, conceptual activity, incantations and multiple voices used in performance practices. The “creative arsenal” of film, recorded narratives/music, and projections to develop multidisciplinary work will also be explored. Participants are encouraged to bring in monologues, poems, or their own conceptual ideas to develop in the workshop process. This intensive workshop is aimed at performers, directors, dancers, teachers – anyone who is interested in creating multidisciplinary work. José Torres Tama is an interdisciplinary artist fusing multiple genres with fervour and craft. Working in spoken word poetry, sound art, installation, visual, and performance art, he explores the effects of media on race relations, the “American Dream” mythology, and the Latino immigrant experience. His performances thrive on a fusion of bilingual texts, movement and rituals, and exaggerated personae—creating spectacles that are visually dynamic and politically charged. He has worked in the New Orleans arts community for twenty years, and since 1995, he has toured nationally and internationally to present his solo performances, workshops, and academic lectures on performance art as a tool for social change. As an arts educator, his “Youth Performance Projects” with marginalized Latino and African American teens employ performance art as a creative strategy to cultivate young voices. These projects have been profiled on National Public Radio, and praised as empowering examples of how community arts projects can transform young lives. He has also worked with men recovering from drug addiction and the stigma of incarceration in performance projects designed as tools for creative redemption and reinvention of the self. Torres Tama treads that dangerously vague turf of performance art gracefully...with dexterity and daring. -The Village Voice At 6pm José Torres Tama will follow the workshop with a Research Seminar on Performance Art as a Tool for Social Change. This “live art” experience / multimedia performed analysis will explore the role of the performance artist as a social provocateur. The artist discusses performance art practices as creative strategies that aspire to initiate dialogue concerning issues of race, gender, gentrification, homelessness, and the AIDS crisis. Torres Tama cites the work of performance artists who have focused a creative eye on the difficult issues affecting our national communities, and audiences are encouraged to participate in a discussion of art that dares to cross into political territory as a tool for social change. Aberystwyth is the final stop of José’s UK tour and the last chance to catch… The Cone of Uncertainty: New Orleans after Katrina Written and Performed by José Torres Tama Emily Davies Studio, Parry Williams Building, Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth Wednesday 27th May, 7.30pm Price: £7 (£5 Concessions) New Orleans performance artist José Torres Tama managed to escape the social chaos that submerged the city after Hurricane Katrina on a stolen school bus, which was operating a rescue mission of Creole families. In “The Cone of Uncertainty” he tells his survival story and explores the criminal negligence of federal officials, and the apocalyptic abandonment of a people who were made to beg for help and water in front of national TV cameras. He also comments on larger issues concerning race and class in the U.S., the historical context of the storm, and the displacement of thousands of Latinos, whose traumatic stories were mostly ignored by the mainstream press. Combining personal stories, storm film footage, and a variety of characters he inhabits deftly, Torres Tama offers a “live art” performance solo that is politically provocative, visually engaging, and profoundly moving. Torres Tama is both a versatile writer who can be lyrically evocative as well as bitingly humorous, and an impressive performer. -The Philadelphia Inquirer “The Cone of Uncertainty” is supported by the National Association Latino Arts & Culture, Ford Foundation initiative and the Louisiana Division of the Arts. For more information or to book please contact CPR: Phone: 01970 622 133 Email: cprwww@aber.ac.uk Web: www.thecpr.org.uk i.Q. - Ira's Quantum Theatre Workshop Ira Seidenstein (Australia) Saturday 30th & Sunday 31st May 2009 10am – 4pm Centre for Performance Research, The Foundry, Parry Williams Building, Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth, SY23 3AJ Price: £70 waged (£35 unwaged) Aimed at performers, dancers, directors, musicians and teachers, this weekend workshop will inspire you to reinvigorate your own vision and performance practice. Director, clown and actor, Ira Seidenstein will introduce the principles of Quantum Theatre known as i.Q. This unique and highly practical approach acknowledges the body-mind-spirit aspects of acting and performance and aims to explore universal principles for acting and theatre regardless of method, to assists the actor to locate the links between Stanislavsky, Suzuki, and Shakespeare via the anatomy. The workshop will focus on the body, text, improvisation, as well as principles of creation, editing and choreographing and will include i.Q’s ‘Core Mechanics’, the ‘Creative Twist’, and the ‘Theatre Ritual’. Quantum Theatre: Slapstick to Shakespeare is an economical way to reinvigorate ones own theatre practice by using universal principles. Quantum Theatre is organic and logical. It incorporates a breadth of ideas, techniques and cultural inheritance that contemporary theatre possesses. The Quantum Theatre exercises leave space for an actor to use any of their previous trainings or experience. Quantum Theatre uses only a few exercises and practice templates. These potent exercises carry essential practical ideas that are completely adaptable to the unique needs of individuals, theatre trainings, and theatre companies. Ira Seidenstein's work has been actively combining creativity and healing for over thirty-years and his practical body-mind-spirit approach to acting Ira-Quantum i.e. Quantum Theatre: Slapstick to Shakespeare was established 1993 after 20-years practical research. Ira’s formal training and education is in both Visual & Performing Arts as well as Education; Ira’s extensive training includes the methods of Stanislavsky, Lecoq, and Suzuki and in various movement techniques such as acrobatics, ballet, yoga, chi gong, tai chi and contemporary dance, and Iyengar yoga. Ira has worked in over 100 productions including with Cirque du Soleil, Australia's national Shakespeare company, San Diego Repertory Theatre and numerous independent companies. He has coached performers at the highest level including Olympic gymnasts, ballet dancers, circus artistes, and classical actors. The Directors’ Forum The Six Senses of the Director Being a director is not a solo occupation – so most of my life is spent in a room with artists who are a lot more interesting than I am” Peter Sellars: Theatre and Opera Director Whilst the role of a theatre director is essentially collaborative, the co-ordinating centrality of the role nevertheless makes it a singular, responsible, and therefore sometimes an isolated one, with attendant possible issues of insecurity. Across its many manifestations, the role requires the acquisition of a set of diverse tools for the trade, techniques, methods and knowledge/s, many of which are often acquired empirically ‘on the job’ and ‘in the moment’ through primarily ‘hermetic’ processes of making and rehearsal. Opportunities for exchange, development and training are primarily geared to the needs of the ‘emergent’ director and opportunities for exchange of the wealth of knowledge and experience of ‘mid-career’ directors and development opportunities are therefore rare. The Arts Council of Wales have awarded CPR a project grant to host and curate a ‘Directors’ Forum’ that will bring together a broad spectrum of Wales-based, as well as UK and international theatre directors to work intensively across a nine day period, sharing and learning methods, approaches and skills through a variety of innovative formats to enable an examination of professional practice; revealing techniques, craft and compositional strategies which are often not articulated with little opportunity to share in a collegial spirit of collaboration. The Forum will take place at CPR’s base in Aberystwyth from 18th to 27th September and participation can be across the whole or part of the nine days. Please register your interest in the project by email to cprwww@aber.ac.uk and a full programme of events will be sent to you as soon as it is available. |
| The Centre for Performance Research web site: www.thecpr.org.uk |
| e-mail: cprwww@aber.ac.uk |
Wednesday, April 8, 2009 |
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