Over the coming months Burjesta Theatre will be stretching its wings into new disciplines for the weekly Wednesday workshops. The idea is to use, maybe dance, maybe yoga, fitness programs, juggling or any form of movement and ‘add’ it to theatre. This is with a view to moving away from the notion of an actor who learns, remembers and repeats lines at particular points in a play at a particular point of the stage. We want to develop actors into performers and physical performers at that, with the voice being merely one aspect. All in all we want to foster a dynamic spirit within actors that leads to spectacular performances.
The format will follow along these lines. In the first workshop we’ll look at a particularly discipline, a particular style of dance for example (with an invited specialist in that genre leading the workshop). In follow-on workshops we will then apply the movements and aspects of that discipline to drama, creating improvisation and scenarios from this combination.
Later on in the year we’ll also be incorporating some of these ideas into a study of commedia dell ‘arte, the Italian style of theatre, involving improvised scene playing, which has stood the test of time for 400 years now and was enormously influential on Shakespeare, Moliere, Lope de Vega to name but three giants. These workshops will then feed into our next production for the autumn/winter season, and will be in keeping with our policy of only auditioning people who have been attending the workshops.
So if this sounds of interest to you watch this space, we’ll shortly be announcing the first of these workshops which as ever take place each Wednesday, 7pm @ The Casa, Hope Street, Liverpool and cost £2. Non-actors are particularly welcome…