DAI Wins $350,000 ArtPlace Grant
May 20, 2013

ArtPlace America announces today the award of a $350,000 grant to Dell’Arte International for the Mad River Industrial Art Park. This project was chosen from over 1,200 applications as
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DAI School Gets NAST Reaccreditation
May 4, 2013

The National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) Commission on Accreditation voted to continue DAI School's accreditation in good standing until 2020. NAST also granted its approval
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Prize of Hope to Christian Lollike
April 29, 2013

The 2013 Prize of Hope will be presented to Danish playwright/director Christian Lollike on May 19 at Aasen in North Jutland, Denmark. The Prize is presented annually in a bi-continental
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DISCO PARTY BENEFIT FOR DAI
April 16, 2013

Blue Lake's Logger Bar will hold a disco dance party Friday night, April 19th to benefit Dell'Arte. $1 of every drink bought goes to DAI. The 9 PM party follows the performance of "A Harvest
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SCHIRLE TO TEACH AT CLOWN CONSERVATORY
April 15, 2013

Founding Artistic Director Joan Schirle will be in residence at the San Francisco Clown Conservatory from April 22 - 26, teaching Bouffon in collaboration with SFCC faculty member (and
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	Walking the Talk Devised Theatre: No Guts, No Glory Movement Training for the Actor Interview with alumni Alan Ware Schirle's Sixteen S’s Alexander Technique and The Performer
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Schirle's Sixteen S’s

Home >School of Physical Theatre >Articles by Joan Schirle >Schirle's Sixteen S’s

“SCHIRLE’S SIXTEEN S’S”

16 principles of Mask Performance

by Joan Schirle, Director Dell’Arte Int’l School
copyright 1994

SPIRIT

of the mask--
reveal it.

SELECT

Out of 20 gestures, use only the one or two essential to the character

SIZE

Size of gesture, energy, commitment, and play, are extra-ordinary,and ...

SPECIFY

Be absolutely clear about your object of focus, your actions, your intentions...

SPEED

...must be appropriate to the rhythm of the mask. Mask-time is different.

STOP

Stops focus and reveal the mask.

STILLNESS

There is great power in the stillness of the mask; it needn’t move constantly.

S E P A R A T E

Head from body, beat from beat, traveling movements from gestures...all that.

SEE

The mask always sees something and ...

SURPRISE

Use changes of direction of energy to show ‘anything can happen!’

SHOW

...it always shows us what it sees.

SUSTAIN

The hardest: to sustain the life of your character through all its actions and reactions, and through transitions.

START

Start each idea through the mask first; the mask leads the movement.

SURROUND

The mask is only a fragment, a corner of a larger picture to be framed with costume.

SUPPORT

The body and the level of play must support the mask

SURRENDER

to the mask. Allow yourself to be ‘inhabited’ by the SPIRIT OF THE MASK.

copyright Joan Schirle 1994
Dell’Arte International
School of Physical Theatre
www.dellarte.com