About the workshop
There are different ways to create a character, but the Animal exercise from the Stanislavski method of psychological identification, based on the idea that every human being carries animal characteristics, is undoubtedly the best known.
This workshop offers another original method based on imaginary idiomatic centers. It relies on expressions of exceptional metaphoric value taken from the spoken language. For example: to stick one's nose in everything, to have leaden feet, to be on tenterhooks, to have a hard head, to have one's head in the clouds, to be heavy-hearted... These expressions express moods, emotions and feelings.
They also describe the character’s energetic center. So for someone who “sticks his nose into everything”, the center will be the nose. Every participant chooses an expression, identifies the center, and then the work process shows how the entire body of the character is transformed and how his gesture and his posture express the energy inside of him.
The work deal with the progressive refinement of these gestures and the posture, as well as the character’s internal complexity they reflect.
This seminar ended with a collective improvisation using the characters born during the process of researching these
imaginary idiomatic centers.
Workshop overview
It’s Friday evening: 6:00 pm, Friday 21 April. Ten people are waiting to initiate the European workshop organised by Créarc and led by Marco Pernich, director of the Studio Novecento of Milan. He is assisted by Stefania Lo Russo, actress.
First, Fernand Garnier talks about the long-term collaboration between the Studio Novecento and Créarc. Then the work begins. As an introduction, Marco Pernich presents a brief history of character building methods. He first talks about Stanislavski (1863-1938), whose method is now known in the whole world. Then he goes on to a method built around animals: this man is a bear, etc. In the end, he arrives to the method based on what he calls imaginary idiomatic centers.
Stefania Lo Russo follows up with a warm-up. Then, Marco proposes to start out with the spoken language expressions: to stick one’s nose into everything, to be on tenterhooks, to have leaden feet... The actors interpret these in three steps: first, they act them out exaggerating, then internalizing the expression, and at last they limit the expression, keeping however the muscles’ tension and the emotion.
Next comes a collective improvisation: a village square, in the end reunited in a fresco, impressive by its diversity and its strength.
The second day, the workshop includes some new reflections, then a dance, and finally new expressions: to have a hard head, to be scared of one’s shadow,... Then, Marco Pernich proposes an improvisation theme, created by Jacques Copeau (a famous French director, 1878-1949). A doctor receives a patient, accompanied by his disease. Three characters, each of them has a characteristic. For example: to have leaden feet, to have one's head in the clouds, ... A dialogue to be invented is added to the physical acting. It’s a new phase. An improvisation on the first scene of Oedipus the King of Sophocles: they act out Thebes falling prey to the plague.
The conclusion reveals the interest lying in the method and the difficulty of the articulation between gesture and spoken language. How can we ensure that the work on the body does not get erased by the return of the dialogue? It is with this question that the participants part ways, exhausted but happy.
Marco Pernich
Director, writer, founder and director of the Studio Novecento in Milan. For him, theatre is a way of human and artistic formation, as well as a place for research and exchange. He came to the Rencontres du Jeune Théâtre Européen in Grenoble for the first time in 1995, and quickly became an essential member participating intensely to the Réseau (Network) du Jeune Théâtre Européen. He has also founded a Festival du Jeune Théâtre Européen in Milan.
Documents
Interview : Click on this link to open this document.
Poster European Masterclass : Click on this link to open this document.
Tariffs :
Unemployed people, students, RSA : 66€Employees : 81€
Besides the tariff of the inscription, an annual adhesion to Créarc is required : 15€
French version
