What makes you unique as a performer? How can you expand your palette of skills? What do you appreciate watching in a performance? What do you most enjoy giving to an audience?
The essence of Performing the Present is to help people find their own unique performance presence using movement and voice. Inspired by Al Wunder’s Theatre of the Ordinary, the work of Andrew Morrish and Ruth Zaporah’s Action Theater, this class promotes an experiential way of learning. Participants discover what they like doing, what they like seeing and take responsibility for developing their own style of onstage presentation.
We start warming up the body and voice using a variety of images and exercises focused towards certain themes for each day or class. We discover how to generate material instantaneously, reflect on the dramaturgy of the piece that is developing and take the audience into account while creating.
The practice, in small or large groups, moves into performances for others where we learn by doing and watching. The experience of creating with a public present is an essential part of the process: to risk the vulnerability of the performing moment, appreciate each person’s uniqueness as performers, and recognise our aesthetic preferences. Feedback sessions help the performer and public evaluate their strengths and foci for growth, to further improve the performance experience from both angles.
“Life is an improv” – Ruth Zaporah
Susanne Bentley
