With Roger Ellis and Adi Cabral
***Registration closes Friday, June 4 at 5pm PDT***
As artists, we are often taught to explore within the framework of the methodologies laid out before us. What was Stella Adler’s process as an actor? How did Mary Overlie develop their craft? What is Suzan-Lori Parks’ process for developing new work? In “Performing Beyond the Binary,” participants will cultivate their own process for creating material by engaging in trauma-informed, identity-conscious approaches to creative investigation. Over the course of four weeks, participants will develop expressive connections outside of prior methodologies, create narrative structures out of internal chaos, and compile the spectrum of their performative selves. These four weeks will culminate in a shared performance for an invited audience.
Fee: Sliding Scale, $175-300
Financial assistance available for BIPOC and trans/GNC-identifying artists. (contact elizabeth@dellarte.com)
Roger Ellis (they-them) is a director-producer of tech-forward performance projects. Ellis’ COVID-era works include AntigoneNOW, which was featured in the 27th CairoInternational Festival for Experimental Theatre, Nikki Lynette’s afrogoth musical web series Get Out Alive, and [re: CLICK] devised in response to Click by Jacqueline Goldfinger. Ellis has worked in Atlanta, NYC, Chicago, and Southern California with companies such as Sacramento Music Circus, Horizon Theatre Company, Tuacahn Center for the Arts, San Diego Repertory, and Gallery Players Brooklyn. Ellis is co-author of a forthcoming edited volume entitled Performance Beyond the Binary with collaborator Margaret Laurena Kemp. Ellis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre at Northwestern University. www.Rogerellis.com
Adi Cabral (they/them) is a voice and dialect coach, actor, director, and intimacy choreographer/coordinator. Cabral has worked professionally at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities (CO), the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (MO), New Repertory Theatre (MA), Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival (NV), and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting (NY). Adi is a certified teacher of Knight-Thompson Speechwork and Fitzmaurice Voicework, a certified Master Reiki Healer and Teacher, 2021 cohort member of Intimacy Coordinators of Color, and 200hr Yoga Teacher in training. They currently serve as Assistant Professor of Voice and Movement at the University of Nevada, Reno where their research focuses on training methods for the LGBTQ+ Identified actor. Cabral is the coauthor of the text Here’s How to Teach Voice and Communication Skills to Transgender Womenand is serving this season as the Voice Coach for TEDxCambridge. For more information, please visit www.adriano-cabral.com.
Virtual Playground: a clown class
Thursdays, June 24-July 16
5pm-7:30pm PDT
With Shannan Calcutt
Play big, risk gloriously and fail better. This class was workshopped and designed to be experienced virtually. It's time to bring the playground into your own home where all the props, toys, and costumes you often wish for in the studio are suddenly at your disposal. Participants must explain to housemates ahead of time that they will be noisy, move throughout the house and be free of inhibitions. It’s recess for grownups! A chance to play, get moving, let loose, be silly and make genuine connections with other fabulous fools. Common side effects include (but are not limited to) feeling more alive, awake, joyful, connected, playful, confident, hopeful, present and creative.
Fee:$300
Scholarships available for TGNC and BIPOC/Global Majority artists (contact elizabeth@dellarte.com)
Shannan Calcutt is one of the world’s leading instructors in clown and play. A multi-award winning performer and instructor, she has conducted workshops worldwide. She is a regular instructor at Cirque du Soleil, Celebration Barn Theater and Vegas Theatre Hub. Her critically-acclaimed solo shows won dozens of 5-star reviews and were broadcast on CBC Radio and Canada’s Bravo! network. CBC declared her “a national treasure.” Calcutt performed for millions of spectators as a lead clown in Cirque du Soleil’s sensual sensation Zumanity. She is also a comic act designer and acting coach for Cirque du Soleil as well as Berlin’s Friedrichstadt-Palast, the world’s biggest theatre stage. She has a MFA in Writing for Dramatic Media (UNLV), a BFA in Performance (UVic) and is a graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. Shannan is fluent in English and sarcasm. More about Shannan here: www.shannancalcutt.com
Embodied Testimonio
6/17, 6/19, 6/24, 6/26
10-11:30am
Con Elizabeth Colón Nelson and Dr Erika Abad
This workshop will offer an opportunity to develop a “Testimonio” based on food and memory. It will utilize historical understanding of the testimonio, have the opportunity to craft a testimonio with published author, Dr Erika Abad, and bring into the process a physical and gestural language guided by Elizabeth Colón Nelson.This is a partnership with Vegas Theater Company, Womxn of Color Arts Festival and Dell’Arte International.
Fee:$300
Scholarships available for Black Indigenous and Womxn in the Global Majority (contact elizabeth@dellarte.com)
Dr.Erika Abad received her Ph.D. from Washington State University. Prior to joining IDP/GSS, Dr. Abad was Chicago-based oral historian for the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College. Beyond Puerto Rican, Latinx, and Gender Studies, she is a well-published essayist, poet, and fiction writer, most recently writing a poem and creative reflection to the Pulse-Orlando tragedy. She is also a regular writer for Women in Higher Education. Dr. Erika Abad is currently an Assistant Professor-in-Residence in Gender and Sexuality Studies in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at UNLV.
Elizabeth Colón Nelson is the daughter of Carmen Gloria and granddaughter of Ana Rosa. She is a clown, a teacher, a writer, a gatherer, a mother. Born in Atlanta and raised Puerto Rican, her life, art and teaching are a reflection of that lived experience: a loud hot messy evolving mezcla. Elizabeth is faculty chair at Dell’Arte International where she received an MFA in ensemble based physical theater. She was most recently seen performing in Spiegelworld’s ABSINTHE at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Elizabeth is the visionary and co-founder of Womxn of Color Arts Festival, in Las Vegas. Her newest project, Seat at the Table, unites poetry, performance art, and conversations of identity, colonization and globalization through Puerto Rican cuisine.
Nava Rasa: an interconnected physical and emotional journey
7/5-7/9 9am-11am PDT
With Veenadari Lakshika Jayakody and Kasun Chathuranga Ukwaththa
This five day workshop will explore a holistic embodied physical and emotional journey for the actor through Nava Rasas and Koodiyattam Dance. Led by Veenadari Lakshika Jayakody and Kasun Chathuranga Ukwaththa, two South Asian Sri Lankan artists, this workshop will give an introduction to Nava Rasas shaped by the instructors unique cultural knowledge and experience. Participants will delve into Nava Rasas practices that break down binaries and encourage connection between the physical, vocal and emotional development of character for the physical performer.
The Nava Rasa is a concept that comes in Natya Shashtra by Bharathamuni in BC2000.
The rasa is a “taste”. There are 8 Rasas that Bharathamuni introduced: adbhuta (surprise, wonder), sringara (love, eros), bhayanaka (fear, shame), bibhatsa (disgust, revolt), vira (courage, the heroic), hasya (laughter, the comic), karuna (sadness, compassion), and raudra (rage). Abhinawaguptha introduced santa (peace, bliss). Santa is “clear light,” Therefore, we have 9 rasas altogether now. The exercise of Rasabox allowed the actor to explore the physical and emotional capacities. It calls “an athlete of the emotions.” In this workshop we will be exploring the step by step emotional journey of a character and an artist. As well as this would be a healing for some of us. We will play with our past memories, future hopes, and current situations we all have. We will be giving the participants a brief introduction to Ravarasa and Rasabox(In 1990 Richard Schechner developed another concept known as Rasaboxes).
Fee: Sliding Scale, $175-300
Scholarships available for Black Indigenous and Womxn in the Global Majority (contact elizabeth@dellarte.com)
Veenadari Lakshika Jayakody is an Ensemble-Based Physical Theater Devising Artist, Actor-Creator, Educator, Dancer, Choreographer, Mask player and a Clown who has been worked in theatre and film since 2009 as well as created her original work. She has worked in her productions in Sri Lanka, the United States and India. Including her original work- Once upon a time I was addicted to you (Dell’Arte International, USA); The touring show, Return to Oz ( Dell’Arte Company, USA); Commedia show, Ruzante ( Dell’Arte company, USA); Musical Theatre Ramayanaya (Tower Hall Theatre Foundation. SL); Bindunu Piyapath (short film-LPU Campuses, India), and Face it (short film, ASIA’S largest Film making Challenge.India)
Veenadari has an MFA equivalent in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater, where she trained in devising, adaptations, and original theatre. She is a BPA theatre and television special degree holder from Lovely Professional University, India. She has trained in South Asian and Western actor training methods and styles, such as Navarasa Training, Balinese male and female dance, Sri Lankan upcountry traditional dance, Commedia Dell’Arte, Clown, Acrobatics, and Mask performance.
She worked as a volunteer in Community-Based Arts Projects with The Wiyot Tribe (North America) The Club Triangle ( North American queer club) The Raven Project (youth-led youth community), and Bhakti Senang Hati Foundation (Bali).
Currently, Veenadari is working at Stages Theatre Group in Sri Lanka.
Kasun Chathuranga Ukwaththa
Viewpoints and Pleasure Activism: A Physical Dialogue with Audre Lorde’s “The Erotic as Power” and Mary Overlie’s Original Anarchist
Saturdays in July and August; dates tba
With: Estella Garcia, Elizabeth Colón Nelson, and Sophia Treanor
“the feminine, the horizontal, the YES of liberatory pleasure”
This is a space for research. This is a space for liberation. This a space for women and those outside the binary to center intuition, rhythms of yearning and satisfaction, and sense of ancestral memory. This is the space where a dialogue between adrienne maree brown’s “Pleasure Activism” and Mary Overlie’s “The 6 Viewpoints” happens in our body.
This is an opportunity to embarace the practices of the Original Anarchist and of Audre Lorde’s “The Erotic as Power”.
This workshop will work through practices of the 6 Viewpoints focusing on the original anarchist while discovering and exploring power in the full somatic yes. As a collective and as individuals, we will observe the natural elements as our guide in deconstructing dominant narratives. We will seek to find new pathways towards decolonizing our imaginations and the movements of our body. We will lean on somatic practice of deep listening to the unheard (or unamplified) voice within as we support the new story that will arise from the collective.
In this time we will expand into physical, vocal, and other artistic practices that encourage a right relationship with our environment and our bodies. We welcome you into this investigation with us.
**This workshop is only for those who identify as women, femmes, and or those outside of the binary.
*** We have reached out directly to adrienne maree brown’s team and have received approval to incorporate Pleasure Activism into our workshop. 10% of the proceeds will be donated back to Emergent Strategy Learning Institute.
Fee: Sliding Scale, $175-300
Scholarships available for Black Indigenous and Womxn in the Global Majority (contact elizabeth@dellarte.com)
A Los Angeles born native, Estela Garcia is an actress, director, movement coach, deviser, community engagement specialist, mask maker/performer, and teacher. She received her MFA from Dell'Arte in ensemble based physical theatre and was a pupil of the late Mary Overlie, Viewpoints originator. She presently continues Six Viewpoints practice and research. In addition to being Movement faculty at CalArts, Garcia is faculty at South Coast Repertory and a resident teaching artist for Center Theatre Group.
Sophia Treanor is a director, performer, and educator. She worked with Mary Overlie as a student, assistant, and dancer throughout the United States, Europe, and China from 2011 until Overlie’s death in June of 2020. Sophia was Overlie’s improvisation and research partner in performance and practice, and had the honor of performing Overlie’s choreography as a soloist. Sophia’s live performance work has been seen in private and public spaces, theaters, and galleries across New York City, including the Living Theater, the Center for Performance Research, CAVE, the Glasshouse, Triskelion Arts, and Dixon Place. Sophia teaches at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and co-curates the Harold Clurman Center for New Works in Movement and Dance Theater. She is currently co-directing a documentary in production about Mary Overlie (www.overliefilm.com) and is a founder of the Mary Overlie Legacy Project (https://sixviewpoints.com). In her work, Sophia yearns to listen to and illuminate the infinite exchange between environment, perception, and consciousness.
Elizabeth Colón Nelson is the daughter of Carmen Gloria and granddaughter of Ana Rosa. She is a clown, a teacher, a writer, a gatherer, a mother. Born in Atlanta and raised Puerto Rican, her life, art and teaching are a reflection of that lived experience: a loud hot messy evolving mezcla. Elizabeth is faculty chair at Dell’Arte International where she received an MFA in ensemble based physical theater. She was most recently seen performing in Spiegelworld’s ABSINTHE at Ceasar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Elizabeth is the visionary and co-founder of Womxn of Color Arts Festival, in Las Vegas. Her newest project, Seat at the Table, unites poetry, performance art, and conversations of identity, colonization and globalization through Puerto Rican cuisine.
