These workshops meet online using Zoom for six weekly 2-hour sessions. Each of the six sessions has four components:

1. A presentation by Avner based on the Eccentric Principles
2. Exercises, either in the group or with a partner in a breakout room
3. An assignment to prepare a short, 1-2 minute video on a theme to be viewed by the group at the next session
4. A viewing of last week’s videos with notes and comments by Avner

Each session will be recorded and will be available for review for one week. His online workshops, organized by theater schools, festivals, and former students, have had participants from 40 countries.

If you are thinking of registering for one of these workshops, please look at a few of Avner’s videos on YouTube.  All of the principles are derived from his performing work and you can get a sense of his approach.

Hailed as one of the greatest clowns of all time, Avner Eisenberg is often a featured performer in comedy, magic, clown, and theatre festivals. After earning a theater degree from the University of Washington, Avner studied in Paris with Lecoq and on his return to the US taught at Dell’Arte. In addition to a busy performance schedule, Avner has taught master classes in clowning and Eccentric Performing in the United States, France, Germany, Finland, Belgium, Japan and Spain. He has developed silent theatre skills as a therapeutic tool and also teaches workshops for students and professionals in health care, education and counseling, as well as theatre. He lives on an island off the coast of Maine and would really rather be sailing.  Read more about Avner on his website. 

This course is open to anyone with an interest in discovering their own eccentric performance.

The post Introduction to Eccentric Performance Principles appeared first on Dell'Arte International.

Access the body and imagination’s innate ability to feel and experience what it means to be human, in all its different forms and states— and bring the audience into the experience in a visceral way. Michael Chekhov developed creative, concrete, transformative tools to connect with: character, objective, action, relationship, and the world of the play. These enlivened connections between imagination, body and inner life lead to transformation into character and the transformation of the space. In this course we will explore his keys to unlocking this connection to creativity:  psychological gestures, centers, atmosphere, imaginary body, qualities of movement and more. 

Read more about Julie on our faculty page

The class is aimed at those with some acting experience or training, but it is not required.  

The post MICHAEL CHEKHOV TECHNIQUE: Acting Tools for Transformation appeared first on Dell'Arte International.

We will explore the form’s expressive physicality through exercises, view film clips, discuss its history, and show you how to make your own special
effects to share with the class. 

Debbie McMahon is a theatrical director, deviser and performer, and Artistic Director of Grand Guignolers.  With the Guignolers she creates and directs critically-acclaimed productions which utilize new blends of traditional physical theater genres—melodrama, commedia dell’arte, clown, Grand Guignol, dance, vaudeville and puppetry—in a 1920’s Parisian event-like atmosphere.  She graduated Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre after earning an M.A. in Performance Studies at NYU. Debbie is a Producer for Directors Lab West. She taught and directed as Associate Professor of physical theater at USC, has been a movement coach for numerous productions and has clowned with Cirque du Soleil.

Michael Fields was one of the original Dell’Arte Company members and a teacher of Melodrama with a penchant for horror. As a member of Dell’Arte’s performing ensemble for over 40 years, and its founding producing artistic director,  Michael has been a recipient of San Francisco, San Diego Critics Circle and Los Angeles Critics awards for Performance and Writing. He has co-authored and performed in over 40 Dell’Arte productions and was past president of International Theatre Institute/USA and a member of the TCG board of directors. He has taught various physical theater forms and community engagement practices at CalArts, the Dutch National Theatre School, and Teater Studio in Stockholm, among many others. He has directed productions around the world, including the National Theatres of Denmark, The Netherlands and Sweden. He was also the director of CSSSA (California State Summer School for the Arts). He recently started his own producing group called LONGSHADR (www.longshadr.com).

The post Grand Guignol: Theater of Laughter & Terror appeared first on Dell'Arte International.