Company

Split Knuckles' Approach to Theatre Creation

Saturday, April 9, 2011
6 hour workshop, 10-5 pm (1 hour lunch between 1-2 pm)
Please join us at The Tank Theater 354 W. 45th Street between 8th and 9th.

Based on our hit show Endurance, and inspired by the teachings of Jacques Lecoq, Split Knuckle introduces you to our unique approach for devising new work. Through physical exploration of imagery, characters, props, space, movement, and text, we will take you through an inventive, collaborative process for storytelling. We provide everything. Open to all levels of theatre practitioners--actors, directors, playwrights, dancers, and singers. Min 10/ Max 20. Brought to you by popular demand--register early!

Instructors | Seth Bloom and Jason Bohon
Come Get Your Knuckle's Bloody with Split Knuckle Theatre!
$65 bucks!

The Neutral Mask allows us to uncover universal truths of the body and storytelling. This full face mask does not permit speech. The performer must discover the dramatic action of the body: how passion travels through us as human beings. The Neutral Mask demands that you truly live in your environment and expand your awareness of what surrounds you. It is a mask that reveals what is truly human about all of us and what we share in common. The Neutral Mask has a strong base in the natural world and shows us our own personal neuroses so that we can become aware of who we are Only with a strong grounding in who we are may we honestly and convincingly take on the life of other characters. Working with the Neutral Mask helps to:

• Develop a free, open and expressive body
• Allow passion to enter the body in a dynamic way
• Uncover universal human gestures
• Heighten a sense of spatial awareness
• Create a malleable and transformative body to construct the physical life of a character

Actors and performers need to be great alchemists, and there is no greater resource for the study of transformation than the world of Elements and Animals. Many art forms reference animal or elemental states in relation to their creation. In life we often describe people in these ways: someone is "full of fire" or "cold as ice;" has "the heart of a lion" is "as " a She wolf". In this workshop we physicalize and take on the characteristics of these forms to help us to give a basis and departure point for creating the physicality and psychology of character.
This workshop will help you to:

• Develop bold, physical and emotional characters
• Teach how to charge characters and engage the space between them
• Create dynamic bodies and spaces on stage
• Develop voices and presences for different characters

A Clown Workshop exploring the smallest mask in the world. We are all born funny. We come into the world with something unique, something off-balance. It's what drives our loved ones mad or makes them fall in love with us. It is the most intimate part of ourselves; it is why we get back up when we fall down. It's what makes us most human. It's what makes us poetic: physically, emotionally, spiritually, ecumenically. It is the Clown. The question is not "do we each have a clown?" or "can you find your clown?" The question is how much of yourself are you willing to reveal today--and celebrate in a very big way? Throughout history, the Clown has played a vital role in our communities. Cross-culturally, the Clown has been looked to in order to reveal what is most human about us all and to allow us to laugh about it. In these workshops, actors will explore what is most human about themselves--revealing it and celebrating it This workshop will help to:

• Develop a strong sense of humor and play
• Reveal what is uniquely stupid and funny about you
• Explore the boundaries of the actor's comfort zone
• Celebrate the glory of failure and the rebound therein

Masks have been used throughout the history of man. In theater training we use them to amplify and focus the body and the state of Play and to awaken our theatrical ancestors.

The Larval Mask comes from the ancient Carnival of Basel Switzerland this mask teaches us sensitivity, the art of listening and playfulness with your whole body.

The Character Mask does not speak and yet is a strong state of being. This allows us to focus on movements and predominant style of our time, which we call psychological realism

Comedia Del Arte
These magical half masks of the 17th and 18th century are the Mazirati of the Mask world. They demand great Comic timing and exploring the darker side of the Human sprit. These masks teach the skills of great improvisation and introduce the actor to major characters that repeat over and over again in the great texts of history.

Knock Em' Dead! Through physical exploration of imagery, characters, props, space, movement, and text, we will take you through an inventive, collaborative process for storytelling. We provide everything. Open to all levels of theatre practitioners--actors, directors, playwrights, dancers, and singers.