In this session Michael Devine will expand the actor’s available expressive vocabulary, exploring in particular the use of non-verbal communication, physical gesture and physical imagery. Through exercises, targeted improvisation and etudes, the actor will hone their skills in both interpreting established material and creating original performance. Stanislavski noted that the actor must create not only Truth, but Beauty, and the actor must be a guide who leads and audience to a sense of things greater than their daily existence.
The workshop will focus on the body language, its alphabet, from the birth of gesture to its dramatization. Body is energy, it’s the structure on which the actor creates his character, he gives him shape and breath. Energy fixes the dramatic instant in order to create a story through gestural scores in movement. Through the study of iconography, the creations of the great masters of Art like Bernini, Michelangelo, Canova, the actor can observe the meaning of the body in relation to space and time; this is how he gets a gestural consciousness of the body, that becomes Drama.
Founder/Executive Director of CATT/Instructor, The Actor Beyond Words I
Actor, director, playwright, theorist and essayist, Michael Devine has directed more than 40 professional productions in eight languages, including productions for national theatres in Canada, Serbia, Kosovo, Romania, and Hungary. His own plays have been produced in Canada, Hungary, Serbia, Finland, Kosovo, and Ukraine. BoxWhatBox, Michael’s actor-training and performancecreation method, has featured in more than 20 countries in seven languages on 5 continents. Michael possesses a PhD in Drama from the University of Toronto and trained as an actor at the Actor’s Movement Studio (New York), the HB Studio (New York), and the London Academy of Dramatic Art (London). In 2016 will appear as a Featured Guest Artist at the Odessa International Theatre Festival (Ukraine) and will begin a collaboration with Tahweel Theatre Ensemble in Beirut (Lebanon). At CATT Roma 2016 Michael will lead actors in The Actor Beyond Words I: The Artist as Sculptor, The Artist as Canvas: Advanced Tools in Expression.
Co-founder Teatro Maner Manush/Instructor, The Actor Beyond Words II
Actor, author, director, trained at the International Institute of Commedia dell’Arte in Venice (Italy). Andrea Lattari is a renowned performer of the Commedia dell’Arte and he has spent his career in intercultural theatre research, exploring anti-conventional movement and the rhythm of the body, and the link between theatre and painting. As co-founder of the MANER MANUSH Theatrical Group he has promoted collaborations and cultural exchanges on several continents, stimulated by an idea of theatre where the meeting of different cultures and all artistic discipline finds expression. Andrea has created several performances presented in international festivals (England, Slovakia, Greece, Mali). In May 2014 Andrea and Teatro Maner Manush completed a two month performance tour of the United States, and created and performed Michelangelo da Caravaggio and Artemisia throughout Italy. At CATT Roma 2016 Andrea will lead actors in The Actor Beyond Words II: The Body Drama.
Cofounder, Teatro Maner Manush/Instructor, The Actor Beyond Words II
A gifted actor and costume designer/builder, Cinzia has an extensive background in intercultural theatre, studying dance, singing and martial art teachers and receiving a degree in Oriental Theatre, followed by study in India focusing on classical chanting and folk and religious music. She then performed with the mystic itinerant musicians Baul of Bengal. Her special field of theatrical research is the relationship between rituals and the body, and she also researches the ethnomusical use of voice in theatre. A professional performer in the Commedia dell ‘arte, Cinzia studied masks and techniques of International Institute of Commedia dell’Arte. She co-founded the MANER MANUSH theatre group with Andrea Lattari to make explorations into a visual approach to theatre through images and painting, and several of their performances have been presented at international festivals. Through theatre, she tries to wind historical and traditional human roots together, between western and oriental techniques and images, seeking new waves of expressions in an anthropological vision of performing arts. At CATT Roma 2016 Cinzia will lead actors in The Actor Beyond Words II: The Body Drama
These workshops focus on developing an actor’s physical and non-verbal expression. The first explores gesture, space, rhythm, and stillness to enhance performance and storytelling. The second focuses on body language as a structured form of drama, using movement, energy, and visual inspiration from art. Both emphasize creating original performances through the body as the main expressive tool.
A visual record of laboratory work, rehearsal processes, and international collaborations.