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Training for the Total Actor workshops

DIRECTED BY MARIA LEXA

Sun & Moon Ensemble periodically offers workshops on the Training of the Total Actor. The teaching builds on each individual's development, and the workshops explore physical techniques, voice, energy work, character study, humor, individual & collective improvisation, performing with masks, and creating original texts.
People of all experience levels are welcome.

 

Tools of the trade workshops

Sun & Moon Ensemble collaborates with mask makers, carvers, costumers, textile artists, and other professional craftsmen to create the puppets and masks used in our productions. We arrange workshops with these artists so that students can learn the art of making masks and puppets as well as performing with them. Check our web site for future workshops and collaborations with these artists.

Collaboration with Educational Institutions

Sun & Moon Ensemble has launched its teaching career in the San Francisco schools through an exciting collaboration with SOTA (High School for the Arts).

In the spring of 2006, Maria Lexa taught an intensive workshop in giant puppet making with a group of theatre tech and design students at SOTA. The result was two stunning 10 ft. high puppets representing the sea god and sea goddess. As their artistic contribution to SOTA’s graduation ceremony on June13, two students from the theatre tech and design department performed in the puppets, and led the procession of graduates into the auditorium.

The puppets made a great impression on everyone present, and we look forward to further successful collaborations between Sun & Moon Ensemble and SOTA.

Sun & Moon Ensemble is available for teaching projects with schools and educational institutions on all levels.

Training for the Total Actor: our philosophy

Training for the total actor begins with the performer's instrument: one’s own body and voice. The body is trained not just for its own sake, but to express the spirit, emotions, and imagination of the individual. Much of the training focuses on physical and vocal mastery and precision. At the same time, the actor learns to free the imagination and find the organic flow of body and soul together in the creative process. All this is accomplished in an intensive dialogue between the master teacher or director with the actors. Performing with masks, puppets, and shadow play is simply an extension of this basic process. Likewise, musicians and even lighting and costume designers can enter into the dialogue. In this process, performances are created from original material on a theme.

The collective energy is important for this kind of theatre. In this respect, it resembles another art form-- jazz. In both forms, performers need to be strong as individual artists, at the same time unleashing the collective energy of the group, creating something, which goes beyond each individual. The artists learn to do this spontaneously, becoming master improvisers. Improvisation is an important tool for building strong technique, for developing characters, for creating dialogue and scenic composition, and for summoning the collective spirit of the group. In our work, improvisation is sometimes used directly in performance, but most often, as a tool for creating material, which is then transposed into tightly choreographed scenes.

The theatrical language for the total actor is oriented towards heightened physical and vocal expression to fulfill our vision of performance. Although the theatre we create is highly contemporary, it has its roots in ritual and the practice of tribal societies, where theatre, dance, music, mask play, puppets, and comedy are all interwoven in an organic whole. Children as well as the oldest people attend the performances. They are many-layered in their content and meaning, so that each spectator will find his or her own content there. This kind of theatre can be deep as well as entertaining. It is more often stylized and archetypal rather than naturalistic and psychological. It leads us into a world of extraordinary experiences-- the stories of heroes and gods, myth and magic, as well as down to earth humor, social commentary, and spiritual insight.

 
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