November 6th, 10am-1pm: Physical Comedy 3hrs
taught by Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell
Explore physical techniques that support comic performance, with exercises in stillness, reaction, focus, clarity of mimetic gesture, illusion, physical characterization, the divided self, status in the duo and trio, the inclusion of the audience, and clown. Mark draws on his training with Etienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau. Sabrina draws on her training in the LeCoq pedagogy with Dody DiSanto with concentration… Show more in the realm of the theatrical clown. Their complimentary approaches combine to address nuts-and-boltsphysical, technical and structural skills and the more esoteric issues of honesty, presence and accessibility.
November 7th, 10am 1pm: Theatrical Clown 3 hours
taught by Sabrina Mandell
Theatrical Clown is a super-charged, slam-dunk laboratory where the performer gets down to the nitty-gritty of what it means to take the stage and Play. On this 3-hour journey of fun you will hone performance skills to become more honest, present, and accessible to the audience. You'll amp up your dynamic physicality and broaden your range. So come high dive into your own humanity and see what all the fun is about!
* For both of these workshops no prior experience in the specific subject is necessary, but participant should have some performance experience.
Happenstance Theater is a professional company committed to devising and producing original, performer-created visual, poetic Theatre. With the simplest means we seek to elevate the moment when the performers and audience meet, to lift the encounter beyond the daily and pedestrian into the realms of dreams, poetry, and art. Meaning is often found by happenstance.
BIOS
Mark Jaster's skills in mime were developed in training with 20th-century masters Marcel Marceau and his teacher, Etienne Decroux, along with careful observation of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harpo Marx. Jaster served as teaching assistant to Mr. Marceau in a series of seminars in Michigan, and he teaches frequently in Artist residencies, theatres, and dance programs, including The Maryland Opera Studio and The American Academy of Ballet. In his solo performances, Piccolo's Trunk, A Fool Named 'O', and The Maestro, Mark combines live music on unusual instruments and non-instruments, (like the pipe and tabor and the bowed saw), outrageous acrobatics, (like a dive through an impossibly small wooden hoop), and hyper-advanced communication skills with honest, gentle humor. With Artistic Co-director, Sabrina Mandell, he has created and performed in a series of critically acclaimed works for Happenstance Theater, including two works that have toured to the NY Clown Theater Festival: Manifesto! (2008), and Diz and Izzy Aster, Vaudeville's Late Bloomers (2010). Mark is also a proud member of The Big Apple Circus' Clown Care Program, performing at the Children's National Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University Hospital.
Sabrina Mandell is the founder and Artistic Co-director of Happenstance Theater. She has written, produced and performed prolifically since the company's founding in '06. Works have included Prufbox based on the TS Eliot poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"; The Seven Ages of Mime, Low Tide Hotel (voted Best Comedy of the 2007 Capital Fringe Festival); Manifesto! (a 2008 Capital Fringe hit with a subsequent run at the New York Clown Theatre Festival); and Cabaret CooCoo (Best Comedy, Capital Fringe Festival, 2009). They also created FarFar Oasis, a desert companion piece to Low Tide Hotel; Look Out Below! at Round House Bethesda; the Capital Fringe hit, Handbook for Hosts; and is now engaged in touring Cabaret Macabre, Pinot Augustine and Impossible! A Happenstance Circus. Clown teaching credits include the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, The Shakespeare Theatre DC, Constellation Theatre Co, Round House Theater, Arena Stage, Centerstage and Everyman in Baltimore, Grinnell College, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Université St Anne in Clare, Nova Scotia. Sabrina performs regularly with the Big Apple Circus' Clown Care Program in DC and Baltimore, and as 'LaLa', partner to A Fool Named 'O' at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. She is also a visual artist and poet.
http://www.happenstancetheater.com
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