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UNITED KINGDOM WORKSHOPS
2006-2008: Playback Theatre Training in the UK
For full brochure to be posted to you please email your
name & address to:
ukplaybackschool@gmail.com
1: Course Description
2: About the Trainers
1: Course Description
For
Beginners:
Core Training
with Anna Chesner & Veronica Needa
2007: Jan 12-14, 26-28
(Fri eve, Sat/Sun all day) - Two weekends at the Cawley Centre of Maudsley
Hospital, London SE5 8AZ
&
Core
Training
with
Orla Mackeagney & Veronica Needa
2007: Mar
30-Apr 3 (Fri to Tue) - 5 days at Queen’s University, Belfast BT7 1NN
This 5 day
training provides a thorough foundation in playback theatre. As well as basic
skills and performance forms, students will be learning principles,
applications, and the history & geography of playback theatre. In the rich
atmosphere and dynamics of the playback experience, there will be opportunities
to try out the roles of conductor, musician as well as actor. Throughout,
students will be telling their own stories and transforming them into theatre in
an atmosphere of fun and fellowship. The course is designed for newcomers and
those wishing to have a thorough review of the basics. Once you have done Core
Training, many other workshops are open to you.
Prerequisite: None
Selected
Topics:
The Bouffon
for Playback Actors
with Heather Robb
2006: Nov
3-6 (Fri-Mon) – 4 days at Findhorn Village Hall, Moray IV36 3YF
Of Medieval
origins, the bouffons are the misshapen, leprous section of society who speak
for all those discarded on the scrapheap in the name of 'progress'. Using
padding and costumes to help us caricature our own morphology and a joyfully
energetic style based on parody, playback actors in ensemble will find a
theatrical response to the subject of human folly, greed, hypocrisy and
....exclusion. The stretch should be exhilarating, funny, cathartic and
political all at the same time, and also create a greater sensitivity on the
Playback stage of all those standing on the edge of society and who have
uncomfortable, unspeakable things to say to those in the mainstream.
Prerequisite: Core Training
The Nuts
& Bolts of Conducting
with
Rea Dennis
2007: Jan
4-7 (Thu-Sun) – 4 days at Holycombe, Whichford, Warwickshire CV36 5PH
We will look
at the multiple roles of the conductor: as guide in the playback theatre event
as well as in company life. There will be opportunities to experience the
fundamentals of conducting. How do we frame questions appropriately? What can
we do to build rapport with different kinds of tellers and with the audience as
a whole? And how can we create a strong framework to support our personal
practice? Together we build an ensemble to perform our own stories, all the
while supporting each other as conductors - learning how to work within the
ritual potency of the playback form.
Prerequisite: Core Training
The
Articulate Body
with Hannah Fox
2007: Apr
10-13 (Tue-Fri) – 4 days at Queens University, Belfast
This course
will focus on making innovative and deliberate choices on stage, building
ensemble, and opening the body to be in full service to a story. We will work
extensively with the playback chorus form and use various approaches, including
theatre director Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints, to expand our capacity to extract
beauty, poignancy, and universal meaning as physical actors on the stage.
Prerequisite: Core Training
Ritual in the Heart of the Story
with
Aviva Apel-Rosenthal
2007: Nov
1-4 (Thu-Sun) – 4 days at The Lumbutts Centre, Todmorden, Lancashire OL14 6JE
This
workshop will focus on creating and performing rituals that enable us to
experience the power of transformation, healing, and artistic satisfaction in
playback theatre. We will examine concepts such as distancing, big (royal)
moments, emotional container, catharsis, insight and transformation. We will pay
attention to the rituals of beginnings, endings and transition moments in the
story and in the playback performance event. We will develop our sense of ritual
to enrich our work with both entertainment and deep meaning. We hope to end up
with some new forms to take home with us, and a full heart with valued
experience and practical ideas.
Prerequisite: Core Training
Playback Music and Song – Empowering the Actor/Musician
with Di Adderley and Felicity North
2007: Nov
2-4 (Fri-Sun) – 3 days at The Lumbutts Centre, Todmorden, Lancashire OL14 6JE
Music and song
can so simply deepen the aesthetic experience of a playback performance, as well
as shaping and underlining the ritual of our work. This workshop offers a unique
opportunity to work with two facilitators - one a professional musician, the
other a professional actor. How can we enable actors to take on the role of
musician more fully and confidently? How can we support musicians to fulfil more
powerfully the playback process? This workshop is for actors as well as
musicians. Come play, sing and make music… bliss!
Prerequisite: Core Training
Psychodrama for Playbackers
with Anna Chesner
2008: Jan
3-6 (Thu-Sun) – 4 days at The Chalice Well, Glastonbury BA6 8DD
(tbc)
This
workshop will provide an opportunity to explore, through psychodrama, the
relationship between individual, group and community. We will become more aware
of socio-psychological processes, and the roles we play. How does your inner
world enhance or impede your performance and conducting work? Psychodrama can
also help us with our task of holding and managing difficult emotions in our
tellers and their stories; in our audiences, ourselves, and in our company life.
We need the ability to do this without fear if we are to allow and honour deep
stories. Let’s come together in a spirit of spontaneity and creativity; and
encounter psychodrama experientially, exploring its powerfully supportive
relationship with playback theatre.
Prerequisite: Core Training
Advanced Level Courses:
Playback
Theatre Practice
with Veronica Needa & Jo Salas
2008: Mar
25-Apr 5 (Tue-Sat, Tue-Sat) - 10 days at Shambala Retreat Centre, Findhorn Bay,
Moray IV36 3YY (tbc)
This course
emphasizes practice, practice, practice and gives you ten days to do it. For
students involved in playback theatre on an ongoing basis and ready to commit to
learning advanced skills, this course is the third level of study after Core
Training and Selected Topics. Students will learn how to:
--fulfill
self-chosen roles
--use
effective language
--find the
heart of the story as conductor
--warm up an
audience or group
--deal with
conflict and strong emotions
We will look at
how difference (cultural, racial, economic) and context affects willingness to
tell. In addition, you will obtain vital information on starting a company and
the scope of playback theatre in the world. Working and discovering together,
you’ll build lasting supportive bonds with fellow-practitioners from several
countries.
Prerequisite: Core Training, two Selected Topics, and practical experience with
Playback Theatre. Note: Practice participants will be asked to write a short
reflective journal on an aspect of their playback work prior to coming on the
course. Please apply listing your training and practical experience.
(2007: August 20th-24th - A foundation training in playback theatre will also be offered at the Lumbutts Centre, Todmorden, in the north of England by Di Adderley as part of the MPV/SAM International Sociodrama & Playback Theatre Summer School. This course will be recognised by SPT (UK) as equivalent to Core Training. Check www.mpv-sam.com for more info or contact Di directly at diane@adderley.demon.co.uk)
2: About the Trainers
Di Adderley
was a professional actor and musician for 20 years before retraining as a
psychodramatist,
sociodramatist and organisational trainer. She co-founded
Playback Theatre Manchester in 1992 and joined York Playback in the same year.
Since then she has been conductor, actor and musician in many performances and
led workshops across the UK and in Eire, Germany, Norway and Turkey. She was a
member of the organising committee for the 1999 International Playback Theatre
Conference in York, England.
www.playbacktheatremanchester.co.uk & www.mpv-sam.com
Aviva Apel-Rosenthal
is
the founder, conductor and artistic director of Israel Tel-Aviv Playback Theatre
since
1991, and currently Vice-President of the International Playback Theatre
Network. She has been an actress, theatre director, and group facilitator for
many years. An international playback theatre trainer, she is also guest tutor
in Tel Aviv and Haifa universities in Israel, teaching courses in Playback
Theatre. She has a BA in Theatre Studies, an MA in Gender and Arts Studies, and
Diploma in Arts therapy.
www.playbacktheatre.co.il
&
www.playbacknet.org
Anna Chesner is
registered as a Senior Trainer in Psychodrama with the BPA. She is also a Group
Analyst and
Dramatherapist. She has been involved in professional training,
coaching and consulting for 20 years, and is widely published in the field of
action methods. She is co-director of Playback AME in London, and has training
and mentoring links with a number of playback companies in Europe.
www.playbackame.co.uk & http://www.londoncentreforpsychodrama.org/
Rea Dennis is an
Australian theatre practitioner now based in Cardiff, Wales. Involved with
playback for 15
years, she is a long-standing member of the Brisbane Playback
Theatre Company. Her playback teachers have been Francis Batten, Bev Hosking,
Christian Penny, Mary Good, Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas. Rea’s coaching style
focuses on the dynamics of the performer-ensemble interaction and on the
audience-performer relationship and is informed by a social justice values
framework. She currently teaches drama and performance at the University of
Glamorgan.
Hannah Fox is a
professor of dance and theatre in Manhattanville College in NY, USA. She is
artistic director of
Big Apple Playback Theatre and founder of Eugene Playback
Theatre. Since 1996, Hannah has worked with young women devising original
scripts around personal stories and is the editor of Akimbo: Scenes and
Monologues of the Young Women’s Theatre Collective.
Orla McKeagney has
been teaching drama and directing theatre in community and theatrical settings
throughout Northern Ireland for the last 15 years. In 1998 she founded Playback
Theatre Belfast and currently conducts and performs with this group in community
and business settings. Orla has recently completed her training as a Psychodrama
Psychotherapist.
V
eronica
Needa is a professional
theatre practitioner who has been actively involved in playback theatre since 1991. Now teaching playback internationally and faculty member of the School of
Playback Theatre, she is based in London, co-director of Playback AME, and
founder of True Heart Theatre which specializes in playback theatre for the
Chinese community in the UK. Also a storyteller performer, she has created a
solo show - FACE - performed in English and Cantonese, which explores issues of
identity and belonging.
http://www.playbackame.co.uk & www.trueheart.org.uk