workshops

Big Art Group, New York

Workshop date: Saturday 11th January 2003
Time: 10 am to 5 pm
Free public theatre event: Saturday 11th, Arthouse, 5pm
Fee: € 50

Big Art Group, New York is a trangressive performance company founded in 1998 by Caden Manson. The company was founded to aggressively attack the boundaries of theatre through experimentation with structure, medium and process: developing ridiculous, uninhibited and vicious new works. Hailed as one of New York's most innovative and exciting companies, their work is at once giddy, jarring and clever. The performance Shelf Life, which they bring to the symposium this year, is based on a form developed by Manson and the company that conflates performance, TV and cinema; 'Real Time Film'.
There are 20 places available on this workshop.

Semper Fi, Dublin

Workshop dates: Thursday 2nd to Tuesday 7th January, 2003
Time: 10 am to 5 pm each day
Free public theatre event: Tuesday 7th, Arthouse, 1pm
Fee: €130

Semper Fi was formed in 1999. They hope to be at once creative and clever, making significant and profound theatre out of unexpected tales and dangerous texts. They further hope to energise the process of making theatre and art by challenging fellow artists to work in new and potentially demanding ways. By removing the safety net of established parameters, Semper Fi hopes to make theatre bold; at times spontaneous and fun, others dark and disturbing. Their show, Ladies and Gents, which played in the public toilets on St. Stephen's Green, was one of the hits of this year's Fringe Festival.
The workshop will be based on extracts from Heiner Müller's Slaughter.
There are 15 places available.

Loose Canon, Dublin

(workshop will take place in Ringsend Community Centre)
Workshop dates: Thursday 2nd to Wednesday 8th January, 2003
Time: 10 am to 5 pm each day
Free public theatre event: Wednesday 8th, Arthouse, 1pm
Fee: €160

Loose Canon Theatre Company is unique in Ireland, both in its company structure, and in its approach to theatre. At its core, Loose Canon is a full ensemble of actors who work exclusively for the organisation, guided by a full time director who also works exclusively for the company.
This group trains daily, all year round, using a process which was instituted two years ago to fully realise the actors' potential. This process is unique to Loose Canon, but has been strongly influenced by the performance research of practitioners such as Stanislavski, Grotowski, Meyerhold and Eugenio Barba.
Loose Canon's theatre is anti-illusion. There is no attempt to "become" the characters, there is no pretence. The actors react with authenticity, the spectator is present at something which is neither a recital nor a presentation - without effort they are elevated to the role of witnesses, witnessing authentic actions and reactions, unfolding in the here and now.
There are 15 places available on this workshop. The exact nature of the public presentation will be decided during the worskhop week.

Corcadorca, Cork

Workshop dates: Thursday 2nd to Thursday 9th January, 2003
Time: 10 am to 5 pm each day
Free Public Theatre Event: Thursday 9th, Arthouse, 1pm
Fee: €160

Pat Kiernan and Enda Walsh set up Corcadorca in 1991. The company has more than twenty productions to its credit. Corcadorca's production of "Disco Pigs", which toured worldwide in '97-'98, won a number of awards including The Scotland on Sunday Critics Award at the Edinburgh Festival '97, The Steward Parker Award and George Devine Awards. It also received the award for Best Overall Production at the Dublin Theatre Festival Fringe 1996. Corcadorca's production of "The Trial of Jesus" was an outdoor theatre piece for Cork's Millennium celebration.
Pat Kiernan will be working in collaboration with a young writer to lead this workshop. There are 15 places available.

Bedrock Productions, Dublin

Workshop dates: Thursday 2nd to Friday 10th January, 2003
Time: 10 am to 5 pm each day
Free Public Theatre Event: Friday 10th, Arthouse, 1pm
Fee: FREE - Workshop in only available to professional dancers

Bedrock was set up in Dublin in 1993 to produce provocative and visionary plays by writers from Europe and America. Since then, the company has produced many Irish premieres by writers as diverse as Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Heiner Müller and Bernard-Marie Koltès. They have also commissioned new work by some of the best young writers in Dublin including Mark O'Rowe, Alex Johnston, Gavin Kostick and Ken Harmon. Bedrock set up Dublin Fringe Festival in 1995, and co-ordinated it until 1996.
Jimmy Fay, the director of Bedrock will work with 6 to 8 trained dancers for this workshop.

Dood Paard Theatre Company, Amsterdam

Workshop date: Friday 10th January 2003
Time: 10 am to 5 pm
Free public theatre event: Arthouse, Friday 10th January, 5pm
Fee: € 50
Dood Paard is a prolific company that in past years has built up an impressive repertoire, including works by Aischylos, Euripides, Ovidius, Shakespeare, Beckett, Albee, Handke and Rijnders. Resident playwright Oscar van Woensel and Rob de Graaf write new material specially for the group.
Dood Paard's method of working is a collective process, there is no director - actors collaborate with technicians and designers in trying out stage formulas. The limits of theatrical possibility are explored and emotional extremes are studied. Universal themes are tackled with a characteristic lightness and exuberant energy that show humor to be one of the group's most important weapons, alternated with irony and bitterness.
The actors toy with their roles, interpreting them very freely, to the extent that distinctions between different characters sometimes become blurred. At a certain point, the text may sound autobiographical - improvised on the spot, while later the actor may present the same character as a stereotype, a puppet speaking in quotations. These switches are invariably unpredictable and ambiguous.
Dood Paard is a company that is not afraid to take risks and court danger, creating captivating and challenging theatre on the way.
There are 20 places available on this workshop.