Motherboard Productions and the Brisbane Powerhouse present

TIME, SPACE and THE BODY: A Masterclass for Performing Artists

Performance makers are invited to re-energise their craft with this 7-day intensive from New York theatre specialists Barney O’Hanlon (SITI Company) and Laura Sheedy (The PIT).

Motherboard Productions is thrilled to bring theatre specialists Barney O’Hanlon and Laura Sheedy from New York City  to Brisbane for an extraordinary training opportunity for theatre makers, performance artists, dancers, directors and choreographers.  This 7-day physical training intensive will focus on the Viewpoints Training and Composition, enabling artists to work together spontaneously and intuitively, to create work quickly and inventively.

After a sold-out training program at The Queens Street Studios in Sydney, this workshop now comes to Brisbane, to provide artists with a tool belt of approaches to making exceptional performance work.

This workshop will culminate in a public showing as part of the 2012 World Theatre Festival in February. Places are limited.

Intensive Dates:

Saturday 21^st January | 10am – 5pm
Sunday 22^nd January | 10am – 5pm
Monday 23^rd January | 10am – 5pm
Tuesday 24^th January | 10am – 5pm
Wednesday 25^th January | OFF
Thursday 26^th January | 10am – 5pm
Friday 27^th January | 10am – 5pm
Saturday 28^th January | 10am – 5pm

On the Saturday 25^th February a 6:00pm, the Brisbane Powerhouse has invited us to open our doors to present to the public as part of the 2012 World Theatre Festival. Participants will exhibit the some of the training methodologies the intensive will cover, along with presentations of small works created by the participants.

COSTS:

Early Bird Registration:  $550 (booked and paid by the 11^th January, 2012)
Registration:  $680 (If booked after the 11^th January, 2012)

World Theatre Festival presentation is included in workshop fees and will be presented to the general public free of charge.

Bookings

Brisbane Powerhouse Website

Enquiries

(e) hello@motherboardproductions.com.au
(p) +61 423 882 988

Barney O’Hanlon (Actor/Choreographer)

Barney has been a SITI Company member since 1994 and has also been collaborating with Anne Bogart since 1986. International: Dublin Theatre Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Prague Quadrennial, MC93 Bobigny, France, Bonn Biennial, Festival Iberoamericano, Bogota, Kaleideskop Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford on Avon. New York: BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, PS 122, Dance Theatre Workshop, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera. Regional: American Repertory Theater, Trinity Rep., Alley Theater, Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Steppenwolf, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Rep, Portland Stage, UCLA Performing Arts, Walker and Wexner Arts Centers, the Krannert Art Center, Austin’s Rude Mechs (with Deborah Hay) and numerous Humana Festivals. Other: Los Angeles Opera, Opera Omaha, Prince Music Theater. Barney has taught and continues to teach at New York University, Columbia University as well at numerous other educational and arts institutions around the globe.

Laura Sheedy (Performer/Director)

Laura is a performer and director, from Melbourne, based in New York. She holds a BA Hons from La Trobe University and UC Santa Cruz. In 1998 Laura co-founded The Other Tongue as performing in Face2Face (Melb. Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 1999) and Speaking in Thongs (Melb. Comedy Festival, 2000). In 2001 she co-founded physical clown duo A Scam and a Strongman, (A Scam and a Strongman, Spoilt and Short Straw (Melb. Comedy Festival and the Melbourne Fringe Festival Green Room Award nomination). Laura has trained with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company in New York since 2000 (Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant 200). In 2006, she created her solo show Undercover (Melb. Fringe Festival and directed The Adventures of Captain Frodo and Hard to Swallow (Adelaide Fringe, Melb. Comedy Festival). Laura has been a directorial advisor to such companies and shows as Circus Oz, La Clique, Dos and Duos and Suitcase Royale.  In 2009, Laura directed both Amy G and Kurt Braunohler’s solo shows and began co-hosting a new variety show, Back To School, in Brooklyn with Adrienne Truscott. Laura is currently the curator of the Invisible Circus Artist Residency Program in Nth Blenheim, NY.

INTENSIVE CONTENT

Viewpoints

Viewpoints is a technique of training and improvisation that articulates the two dominant elements that performers and directors deal with on stage – time and space. Viewpoints started in the dance world and were developed for the theatre by Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, of which Barney O’Hanlon is an original member. It is now an incredibly influential force in contemporary theatre practice.

Laura and Barney have dedicated their theatre practice to stretching the boundaries of the Viewpoints technique and remain amongst the world’s most prolific teachers of this form.  Participants will gain a wide perspective on this training through the immersion of the viewpoints with other frames of conceptual thinking and moving.

Conscious Movement/Open Movement

This portion of the intensive is an opportunity to explore your personal movement  – your body’s dance. Participants will engage with choreographic explorations, movement principles based around body-mind-centering (BMC) and the origins and potentials of movement in order to bring the brain to the body to find out what movement innately lies within us – creating an articulate body for the stage.

Dynamic Staging and Compositions

These sessions will teach the dynamics of staging using the skills and ideas taught in the Viewpoints component of the workshop. Participants will be guided through a series of exercises that will point to ways of making bold, interesting and dynamic choices on stage, for the performer, director and choreographer. These sessions will be an in-depth look at the relationships between performers, time, space and architecture.

Creating Work

In the second half of the intensive, participants will work alongside Barney and Laura to create performance pieces using a combination of Composition exercises with a pre-established over-arching theme. Creation will be fast paced and dynamic and a great opportunity to experience the ways in which all elements of the Viewpoints technique can be integrated into performance making.

The Composition Content

The Composition element of the workshop will focus on the theme entitled Communication Over Distance.

It will be a collaboration between the participants, Barney, Laura and the music and ideas of composer Kate Neal.

This is a theme that Barney, Laura and Kate are interested in working on and developing into a larger body of work.

Previous explorations of this theme can be seen on Kate Neal’s website (www.kateneal.com – What Hath and Semaphore).

We will be exploring a broad range of ideas, meanings, methods and instances of communicating over distance. These include Morse code, semaphore, hand written letters, mixed tapes and Facebook status updates.

Images by www.arunasphotography.com.au