Aaron Tucker has worked as a professional circus clown since graduating from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. He has toured the U.S. extensively with Ringling Brothers Circus and in Japan with Kinoshita Circus. He currently works in the Big Apple Circus’s Clown Care Unit at Boston Children’s Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, RI.

Now touring the Barn’s newest show, The Fabulous Problemas, Aaron reports from the Orlando Fringe Festival.

Aaron writes:

“In the week since Mandy, Daniel and I got in the car up in Portland and drove ourselves and our set down here to Orlando, things have moved rather quickly. We arrived at our very gracious host’s place (where we are “billeting”) and within 24 hours, we loaded our gear into our venue, met our fantastic technician who had been supplied by the festival, ran a three hour tech of our show, performed as part of an evening preview of all of the “out-of-town” acts, and began doing face-to-face promotion for our upcoming performances.

The real work of being at the Fringe is just getting people to come see you.  We have been fortunate in so many ways, one of them being that Mandy had taken her show, The Soiree, here 2 years ago, so she had an understanding of what kind of signage, postcards and posters we would need to bring with us, just to have some visibility. There are over 80 shows here of all types and it takes a lot of effort and luck and word-of-mouth to get somebody who has never heard of The Fabulous Problemas to make the choice of coming to our show over whomever has the same time slot we do in another venue. The preview show was very important and many people have told us they came to see us on the strength of that. It has also been invaluable to have plenty of postcards to hand out. With Daniel’s show design on one side and information about the Barn on the other, they are very colorful and give us lots of ways to start a conversation.

We have also discovered the fact that there are 3 of us makes us stand out a bit. Many of the Fringe shows have casts of 1 by both inspiration and necessity, so to have 3 very different people talking up the same show makes a big impression. We play games in the hot afternoon with the people in line for other shows, or at the ever-popular beer tent. Skulking through the crowd in our trench coats and fake beards gets a familiar greeting: “uh-oh, it’s The Problemas”.

My favorite thing has been meeting the other artists, and seeing their work.  We go to 2 or 3 other shows a day (sometimes more if we can).  Being at the Fringe makes me feel that we are all part of this one big conversation and lucky to participate in it. The long voyage together in the car leads to vulnerability on stage and to sincere gratitude when someone says, “I saw your show, I really loved it”. How wonderful to get to see somebody really arrive on stage and say something simple and elegant and true.

The weather has been mostly good (though pretty hot), and the promotion of the Festival has been very strong, which has made the audiences turn out in larger numbers than usual for this already popular event. Our show and our ambitions for it grow every day as more and more people see it. The Fringe makes “finding an audience for your work” an actual physical adventure.  I’m so happy to be on this adventure with my friends.”

-Aaron Tucker

Thanks, Aaron.  We’re so lucky to have you on this team.  What an incredible adventure it is on and off stage!  

The response in Orlando has been outstanding from both audiences and critics! Orlando Sentinel writer Matt Palm says, “Stylish silliness…most entertaining…catch them if you can. The three slinky crooks of Fabulous Problemas are as fabulous as their name.”

Thank you, Orlando!

For more information on The Fabulous Problemas, visit: http://celebrationbarn.com/fabulousproblemas.html

Shawn Kinley has been performing and teaching for more than 30 years across five continents. A member of Calgary’s Loose Moose for over 25 years, Shawn has been leading workshops in improvisation, contact improvisation, mask work, mime, and other forms of theatre.  Outside of the Loose Moose, he has worked in television, film, and circus as well as in visual arts and writing.

His workshop, Improvisation:  Playing the Edge runs June 25-30, 2012.  I caught up with Shawn last week to hear more about what we can look forward to during this adventurous workshop!

Mandy:  You teach improvisation around the world to professionals in many different fields.  What is it about this work that speaks to such diverse students?

Shawn:   I like to think that everything we do in life has analogies to all other things we do in life.  Great discoveries are made when we link various components of existence.  When autumn weeds stuck to his dog’s hair, Swiss Engineer George de Mestral the inventor of Velcro asked what purpose could this have in my life. What appeared to be an initial failure and annoyance turned into a goldmine because one man saw the connection that no one else had made all of the autumns before.

Improvisation is the greatest analogy to successful performance, work and life. And, it makes sense.  After all, everything we do is based on improvisation.  How we learn, how we think, how we interact, behave and exist are at the root of our work.

Keith Johnstone created many of the exercises used in modern improvisation and influenced many more.  His process was not to create performance but to create solutions that would allow people to fix the problems that they and society place in their own way all of the time.  We want better lives, more expressive lives, and exciting excellent lives.  So, improvise.

Mandy:  One question I’ve been getting a lot on the phone is “Do you think I’m ready to take this workshop?”  What do you say to students who may not have a lot of experience with improvisation or performing?

Shawn:  Please come.  You don’t know it, but the strength you have by being a “not ready” performer is tremendous.  We have to get out of this hierarchical way of thinking that doing something the longest means doing it the best.

Why would we want a class of mixed abilities?  Because our behaviors at each level are important and gives great lessons on how we think and express ourselves.  I’ve been in classes where the young kids are dancing through the exercises that seasoned performers are struggling to find any mastery with.

You also might want to consider a recent solo improvisation show called Blind date that was created at the Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary and played successfully on tour and off Broadway in New York.  It is a one-woman show but there is another person on stage for the entire night.  An audience member.  That entirely inexperienced non-performer is the star of every show.  Of course they can only be good with an improviser who has great ability.  Remove perceived abilities and learn to be present to greater potential.

Mandy:  What opportunities will this workshop offer experienced improvisers?

Shawn:  Ah!  We all have issues to work on.  Experienced improvisers will improve their narrative skills, their awareness skills, their physical skills and more.  I try not to teach to a curriculum.  I look at teaching the people in the class. As we experience the work we will experience your needs and that will be a starting point.

I can tell you from 30 years of previous history that we are likely to look at failure issues, control issues and awareness issues for many experienced improvisers. Bring yourself and we will work on what you need.

Of course we will touch on some basic work as well.    I think there are probably a few experienced performers who see a class open to all levels and say that they are above the work and don’t want to touch on the basics anymore.  If that is you, re-think your attitude.  One of my favorite classes was in Finland with a group of performers (some of Finland’s top stage and screen actors) who asked just for the basics of improvisation.  They were inspired and grew greatly from the three days we worked together.  They showed great intelligence in being aware that being advanced sometimes means having advanced problems stemming from simple basic ideas.  We never “know” this stuff.  We are constantly reminded of what we have forgotten or instinctively knew when we were 4.

Mandy:  What is one of your personal favorite performance moments of all time?

Shawn: I have many that stand out and they all seem to relate to my relationship to the audience.

There were 1200 people in the audience who all gasped at the same time for something that I thought was very obvious on stage.  It’s a great feeling to hear any other emotion besides laughter in improvisation.  Laughter is easy.

Or in Taiwan I was sweating in the heat and finished my performance when one child brought up a kleenex to wipe my brow.  Then it was 50 rushing to do the same.

In Montreal I was messing around in the street and a crowd gathered… then the police came and wanted me to stop and took me to the side.  A little girl about 6 came up and gave me a hug.  The cops looked the other way and let me finish performing.

In Halifax, the phone rang in the audience.  I ran immediately to it.  It was her fiancé who just wanted to say he loved her.  I asked why they were waiting to get married.  We should have the ceremony right now.  And we did. An 8-year-old boy stood in for her fiancé who told him what to say on the phone.  It was great.

Improvisation is an art of interaction and relationship.  There is a subtle lie in many of the arts where our ego makes us shy away from failure and truth and try to perfect the art of the lie instead.  The written script and moments are not our own.  Improvisation pokes us in the middle of the head, heart and gut and says “Be honest!”  See what the audience is seeing.   React.  Be here, now!

Mandy:  What do you suggest students to do to prepare for this workshop?

Shawn:  I think it would be really good for some people just to think about how they get in their own way.  It makes change and growth much easier.  For others, figure out which areas inspire you.  It’s a good starting point to learn from.

Mandy:  Anything else you want to tell folks?

Shawn:  It’s exciting work. I love it and look forward to sharing some of my ideas with you as well as enjoying the experience that your presence will bring.  Be ready to be challenged, to have a good time and to grow.

For more information about Shawn’s upcoming workshop visit:

http://celebrationbarn.com/w-improvisation.html

This year’s Intensive Workshop is bigger than ever with a month-long immersion with master teachers Davis Robinson, Karen Montanaro and guests!  We are thrilled to announce a new scholarship for this incredible program.  

Thanks to a generous donor, one emerging Maine artist will have their total tuition covered– that’s a value of $1,450.   It does not include housing and meals, which are additionally available options.

 The Intensive Workshop encourages artists to push the boundaries of creative theater with daily classes in movement, improvisation, premise work, physical graphics, and principles of ensemble building.  Master classes with world-class guest teaching artists will strengthen and diversify students’ skill sets.  Inspired by daily assignments, students will have an opportunity to create and perform their own new work.  

Each week will lead to new challenges and increasing levels of risk and collaboration. We will use the natural world surrounding the Barn, music, literature, current events, and the human condition to devise original material in groups, solo, and duets.   

People who arrive at the workshop with existing ideas for material will be encouraged to push their work in new directions, to test their strength and resilience with new technical skills, and to open up new avenues for exploration in an intensive and supportive atmosphere of creative joy and mutual discovery.

Veteran Cirque du Soleil performer Stephen Ragatz, who first studied at Celebration Barn in 1989, returned last summer to participate in the Intensive Workshop.  He says, “It’s well suited for anyone who has to be on the stage. It is the sort of thing you can take again, and again, and again – each time getting new insight, new material and a renewed love for the craft.  It’s like having a full body massage for your soul.”

For more information about the Celebration Intensive visit: http://celebrationbarn.com/w-intensive.html

Applicants for the Emerging Artist Scholarship must be first time Barn students, at least 18 years of age, and be either a Maine resident or a Maine college student.   To apply, complete the registration form found here: http://celebrationbarn.com/forms/workshops-registration-form.html  Submit it along with a headshot, resume, and a letter of introduction which speaks to your motivation for taking this workshop and expresses how this scholarship is helping you overcome financial obstacles to attend. Applications must submitted electronically to Mandy@CelebrationBarn.com by 5 PM on Tuesday, May 1, 2012.  Applicants will be notified of the scholarship committee’s decision by May 7.  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email Mandy@CelebrationBarn.com or call (207) 743-8452.  

We’re thrilled to welcome Natsuko Ohama to the Barn this summer!  Her Linklater Voice Workshop runs June 18-23, 2012.   A good number of folks have already registered.  To guarantee your space, sign up today!

Natsuko Ohama trained under Kristin Linklater, Peter Kass, Trish Arnold, and Joseph Chaikin at the Working Theatre in New York and she is a founding member and permanent faculty of Shakespeare and Company Lenox, Mass.  She heads the voice progression for the MFA Acting Program at University of Southern California and has an extensive private teaching practice in New York.   Peter Brook described her as, “a gifted and caring teacher with a wonderful sensibility.”

Mandy:  Last summer you came to the Barn for the first time with fellow master voice teacher Louis Colaianni.  What is it about Celebration Barn that makes this a good place to study voice work?
Natsuko Ohama: Yes, I came to support Louis, and the great news is he is coming to do the same for me this summer! I adore the Barn for it’s pastoral setting, timeless nature all around, and supportive solitude. One can really focus on voice and personal work without outside distractions, and develop amazing friendships as well.

Mandy:  What is Linklater Voice Work?
Natsuko : A phrase that is also used is “Freeing the Natural Voice”. This means not artificial disconnected elocutions, but through certain exercises and explorations one is releasing and connecting with one’s true speaking voice to express your thought and feelings.

Mandy:  When you say, “Free your voice, free yourself” what does that mean?   How does our speaking voice relate to our creative expression?
Natsuko: The way we speak is one of the most under estimated powers we have as people. So much of our world is based on the physical or our appearance. To understand how the voice works, doesn’t work, how we can express ourselves, not just informationally, but personally, revealing emotion, complex ideas, texts, imaginative communication is a tremendous exploration. A transparent speaking voice can reveal who you are and illuminate the human experience.

Mandy:  What do you hope performers will take away from this workshop?
Natsuko: They will know more about their voices and selves, as well as practical things like the component parts of the voice (breath, resonators, jaw, tongue, articulation etc.) Also the Sound and Movement work is the abstract and embodied explorations of voice, body, imagination, and emotion to deepen the connection and expression of text. The experiencing of this can change you and enhance your ability to communicate profoundly.

Mandy:  Anything else about the workshop you’d like to add?
Natsuko: Experience has shown me people really can transform themselves, as well as gather and absorb information in workshops like this. It is a short amount of time for something that is a lifetime of practice all at the same time. It is always a powerful, exciting and fun thing to do.  I can’t wait!

Click here for more information on Natsuko’s  Linklater Voice Workshop: http://www.celebrationbarn.com/w-linklater.html

This July 19 – 24, Dody DiSanto brings her incredible Neutral Mask workshop to the Barn.   Dody was trained in Paris, France, where she held an esteemed position as a teaching protégé of the late Jacques Lecoq.  After having worked with neutral masks for over 30 years,  she uses this dynamic tool to help performers explore ”the miracle of life.”

Mandy Huotari: What is neutral mask?

Dody DiSanto: The neutral mask is a full-face mask, which is intended for actor training, not for performance. Created in the 1920’s by Jacques Copeau, and developed into a foundation for actor training by Jacques Lecoq, it is a non-verbal tool for liberating the body and the imagination. The mask is worn through a series of exercises. These exercises guide the individual through a journey of discovery and creativity leading to freedom, awareness and expression. The neutral mask does this through revealing us, in all of our human glory!

Mandy: What first hooked you on the neutral mask?

Dody:  My first exposure to the neutral mask was in 1975, when I was a student at the Lecoq School in Paris. The profundity of the mask was overpowering from the onset. Its territory of truth was deeply moving, and held an enormous relevance for each individual, no matter where each person was positioned in their artistic development.  The ability of the mask to reveal information, both universal and personal at the same time, creates a vital ensemble dialogue and environment.

Mandy: Who is this workshop for?

Dody: The work with the neutral mask is so universal, that it is useful for any person seeking to communicate through performance.

Mandy: When is it useful for someone to do neutral mask work?

Dody:  Once you establish a relationship to the neutral mask, it will always remain a helpful tool.  Because the work is about calibrating oneself to the truth, in a way that connects us to our natural instincts, it is always helpful to go back to the source to be refreshed. Somehow, in the course of our daily lives, our sense of confidence and honesty can become buried!

Mandy: How have you seen students change as a result of working with neutral mask?

Dody:  The notions of space, force and rhythm are introduced with this mask. This is often a new perspective for actors. It is a language and practice that teaches the actors to remove themselves from standing in between the audience and the theatrical event. Many people discover the notion of “dynamics” through the neutral mask.

Mandy: What will students take away from this workshop?

Dody: The discovery of how much knowledge they possess within themselves, as a human being – how truly wise the body is. And due to the location of this workshop – with nature surrounding us – the revelations are quite exciting and most promising!

Mandy: Is there anything else you’d like people to know about this workshop?

Dody: I have been working with this mask since 1978 – it is an overwhelming reservoir of knowledge that has continued to reveal itself and nourish me for over 30 years. I never tire of it! The neutral mask always provides fundamental information.  It is about the miracle of life.

This summer, we’re launching an intensive two week course with eight, count ‘em, eight of our renowned instructors. It’s Barn Boot Camp, July 5 – 17, which will feature daily “core” classes with Davis Robinson and Karen Montanaro in movement, improvisation, and creating work that is rich in originality and spontaneity. Guest instructors, including Broadway veterans Avner the Eccentric and Fred Garbo, will give you an incredible collection of creative tools — all packed into two weeks.

Recently, I talked with Davis Robinson about who, from college students to seasoned professionals, should come to Barn Boot Camp and how the workshop will help you create your own original work:

Amanda Huotari: What kind of student is Barn Boot Camp for?
Davis Robinson: This workshop is for the creative individual who’s on a quest to make something exciting and new that hasn’t been seen before. It’s great for serious college students, working professionals who have been making work but want to recharge their batteries, and actors who have been working in “legitimate” theater and are now interested in creating their own work. It’s for anyone interesting in learning a successful model for making and taking work
out into the world.

AH: What techniques for devising work will Barn Boot Camp offer?
DR: This workshop will teach you the theater making techniques of the legendary Celebration Barn Ensemble, the Beau Jest Moving Theater, plus a thorough grounding in the movement vocabulary of Tony Montanaro and the teachings of Jacques Lecoq. Students will work 8 to 10 hours a day, developing provocative, risk-taking, original work with fellow workshop participants in a motivated, focused, and creative environment. The two week format includes physical training, improvisational structures, working with guest artists, creating new material, structured rehearsal time, and evening presentations of your pieces.

AH: What will students take away from this workshop?
DR: This will be an intensive that encourages students to explore ideas and themes deeply, to take input from working professionals and fashion something that has never been seen before. Students will leave at the end of two full weeks of creating and performing with a rich set of tools for making dynamic original work and a new group of life-long friends and artistic collaborators. As a student, you’ll will leave with a stronger sense of what you want to do next as an artist. You’ll know what kind of work you want to make. You’ll know who you want to make it with, where you want to make it, and what you want to make it with.

AH: For you, what’s special about the Barn?
DR: Its a magical building — all that wood is so very resonant. You step into the space and get ideas. The whole building is a work of art, always there reminding you to do more and to work simply with the materials you have to do something beautiful and powerful. And then, when your creative energy needs to be recharged you can go out to the hill top, surrounded by trees, and work in the sunshine.

Barn Boot Camp will include afternoon master-classes with world-class teaching artists including the following:

Avner Eisenberg, Broadway’s Avner the Eccentric, will help free you from performance anxiety to build rapport your audience.

Julie Goell, master of Italian Commedia dell’Arte, will introduce working with masks and archetypes to build larger than life characters.

Rod Kimball, juggler and Flying Karamazov Brother, will offer techniques for exploring rhythm and action on stage.

Fred Garbo, acrobat, juggler and Broadway veteran, will share circus arts and acrobatics to explore the power of “wow!”

Leland Faulkner, international mime and award-winning film maker, will teach you how to use “physical graphics” to think visually.

Fritz Grobe, Internet sensation and Coke & Mentos guy from Eepybird.com, will teach you how to dig deeper into your work,
building from 1 to 10 to 100.

To learn more about Barn Boot Camp, visit: www.celebrationbarn.com/w-bootcamp.html

Make your creative leap forward — register today for this incredible opportunity to get the best of the Barn, all packed into two weeks!

A founding member of the New York Goofs, Barn alum Hilary Chaplain has been touring her solo show “A Life in Her Day,” directed by Avner Eisenberg, across Europe and the Americas.  She’s just now wrapping up an amazing 3 months at the Kristallpalast Varieté in Leipzig, Germany.  She was kind enough to write us about the excitement of performing in English for a German audience, as well as all the things that went wrong on opening night…

Hilary writes:

“My first time at the Barn was in January of 1977 for a three week workshop with Tony Montanaro.  It changed my life, which at that time, had only just begun.

Tony introduced me to the world of do-it-yourself theater.  Always torn between the two worlds of “legitimate” theatre and “popular” theatre, I finally made the break about 12 years ago and made the commitment to the do-it-yourself world.

So now, life on the road!  I am currently winding up a three-month contract at the Kristallpalast Varieté in Leipzig, Germany.  It’s a variety theatre that employs 8 to 10 performers at a time to do a show with a theme of some kind and various variety acts.

I’ve wanted to work a variety show for years having heard about them from Avner Eisenberg, Tom Murphy, Kenny Raskin, and David Shiner among others.  I wanted to be the clown!  There are few female clowns in this arena and everyone told me they’re always looking for good ones.

It took me 3 1/2 years from my first appearance in one at the “Newcomer’s Show” here at the Kristallpalast to actually walk on stage with a contract.  My numbers aren’t easy to fit into the context of a show and they  had some doubts about whether or not my Shakespeare piece, spoken in English, would even work for an East German audience.

The East Germans didn’t learn English during the Cold War Era, they learned Russian.  But the director here really liked my work and decided to take a chance on it in a show called “Very British” where I’m performing my comedy numbers the “Classically Trained Musician” and the “Classically Trained Actress”.  And it works – in English!  Thank God, because I hadn’t even begun to learn it in German when I arrived.  (I shouldn’t admit that!)  I was really against doing it in German because I thought it would change the nature of the piece and of the comedy, so I was greatly relieved when it worked beyond — way beyond — his expectations!  It’s getting a fabulous response and it’s such fun to perform it every night.

What’s it like to work a three-month contract working almost every day in the month of December with one or two shows a day?  It’s a bit like getting on a hamster wheel.  We live upstairs in the building of the theatre.  We take the elevator down to the basement where the dressing rooms are, dress and do our make up, and climb the stairs one flight to the stage.  Over and over and over again.

At first, during the weeks when we had 2 or 3 two-show days, it was hard to remember where we were, if we’re in the first or second show of the day, if we’ve reset things properly.  We go to bed, get up and eat and it’s time to start all over again.  The challenge is to continue with life outside of the building in some kind of normal way and not become a performer and only a performer.

Leipzig is a lovely little city with some fabulous little cafés and museums, an outdoor food market, and fabulous Christmas market that takes over the city center during December and we’ve got a great gym just down the road.  I bought an old bike when I arrived and rode all over the city.  At the end of the contract, about 100 shows later, I can say that I managed to stay human and my work has become wonderfully detailed and nuanced and I’ve learned an enormous amount about the kind of work I like to do, about the role of the clown both on stage and in society, about myself as a co-worker, a friend, a flat mate, an employee, a dressing room mate, an artist.  AND I can speak a little German!

Here’s a little story from the trenches, and why I’m a clown.  Off stage my life seems to feed my on stage work!

On opening night I had one of those great moments in the theatre when there’s a catastrophe backstage that goes almost unnoticed by the audience.  I was downstairs in the dressing room and I had thought ahead about what I had to do next.  In my mind, I was finished until curtain call forgetting that I had one more entrance to set Craig’s hula hoops.

I hear Kenny straining to say as loudly as he can without being heard on stage, “Hilary, the hula hoops.” I was out of my chair and up the stairs so fast that I was a mere flash passing by.  I rounded the corner hoping that someone was standing there with the hoops, but no.  I pulled back and called to Joan to give me the hoops while falling over Petra who was bending over in the corner having just come off stage after her act.

I should have been standing in the wing ready to go on with the hoops before her exit!  I was on my knees reaching for the hoops, my hair piece flopping around and my eyes darting about to see if anyone was coming to my aid.  Joan handed me the hoops, and as I tried to find the opening of the curtain one shoe came off and my big toe attempted an escape from the other — only to become wedged in because of the tape around my foot and ankle, a gag from my piece.

I stood up and staggered right into and under the curtain onto the stage.  I was about 4 lines late, as Luke was explaining to the audience that we were invisibly setting the stage while he was distracting the audience.  Problem was, I really was invisible!  So I calmly set the stage as I was meant to with one shoe on, in pain from the fall, and with my toe wedged in like Chinese foot binding — not even knowing if I was bleeding at the knee.  I took the short way off stage instead of my long cross so I could hobble back down the stairs and release my toe.

Word got out, and both directors knew what had happened by the time we were all back upstairs in the theatre for our opening night celebration dinner.  Craig and Joan saw the whole thing from back stage and said they had never seen anything so hysterical in their lives!  If only there had been a camera – I don’t think I could have staged it this well!

I’m so glad I could provide such special moments for my fellow cast members, but believe me, I’m now early for that cue.  In part so I’m not late, in part so that the laughter can die down backstage before any of us have to make an entrance.

It’s now 15 weeks later, and Joan is laughing just as hard!”

- Hilary Chaplain

For more info on Hilary, visit her website at www.hilarychaplain.com, or take a look at her postings on YouTube by searching Hilary Chaplain.

Thanks for the stories, Hilary!

Created by filmmakers Huey, Leland Faulkner, and Richard Searls,

Theatre and Inspiration is a one hour documentary film celebrating the life and work of Tony Montanaro.

Tony Montanaro (1927-2002) was one of the great mime artists of the 20th Century. Theatre & Inspiration celebrates his life and contributions to the world of theater and the joy he brought to audiences across America and Europe. In the film, rare archival footage of Tony is interwoven with interviews and performances. Featured in these scenes are Tony’s wife and performing partner, Karen Montanaro, and legendary mime Marcel Marceau.

In 1956, Tony traveled to Paris to study with Marceau and Etienne Decroux (Marceau’s teacher). After performing and teaching around the world, Montanaro journeyed to another Paris – South Paris, Maine. There, in 1972, he established Celebration Barn Theater, a mecca for performers who came from around the world to study with this man who was redefining mime and theater.

From here at Celebration Barn, generations of mimes, physical comedians, storytellers, and actors, guided by Tony’s genius, have gone on to careers in television, film and theater. Puppeteers with “Sesame Street” and “The Muppet Show,” writers for “Between the Lions,” the host of “Hollywood Squares,” and performers in Cirque du Soleil are just a few of the Celebration alumni seen in the film.

In 2004, thirty eight performers, all past students, came together for a series of tribute concerts in a dynamic and fun filled homage to their teacher. Theatre & Inspiration shows this master’s ability to reach beyond the footlights and into the hearts of the audience. This is the legacy of Tony Montanaro.

Art is Messy:  Talking with Laurie Carlos

May 30, 2008

by Amanda Huotari

“We have to get Laurie to the Barn”!  Karen Montanaro and I agreed when we both met Laurie Carlos as part of a workshop for the Cassandra Project festival last spring.  An Obie and Bessie award winner artist, she is a powerhouse provocateur.   An original player in the New York Avant-Garde Performance scene, Laurie brings with her over 30 years experience.  Last week, I talked with her about her upcoming Barn workshop, In the Bones of Your Experience, which runs July 21-25.

Amanda Huotari: Who is this workshop for?

Laurie Carlos:  Everybody. It applies to anyone who has an interest in artistic expression.  Anybody who draws, speaks, dances…it’s for puppet makers, puppeteers, musicians, paper-mache makers, light designers.

The deal with this workshop is that I am not very result oriented in it.  The value of it is cumulative.  On many levels you won’t even know what transpired until you walk away.  Constantly, you are being asked to evaluate your experience and ask, “how does it apply to your work?”  This workshop heights and deepens your artistic intention.

AH: How does the workshop title, In the Bones of Your Experience, relate to the work you do?

LC: In every artist’s body there is a memory.  You carry your mother’s memory in your genes.  You carry historical memory in your body.  A lot of times, the artist is not even aware of it, but its in the way you hold your head, walk through space, and the tone of your voice.  Your purpose as an artist is sometimes not known to you because you are not paying attention to what information your body is telling you.  Your body not only holds your dreams, but it also holds your intention.  Part of the excavation in this work exists to expose, examine and realize what that intention is.

What we are talking about is very practical, it is not mysterious.  It is even the most obvious component of your physical, artistic life.

AH: How do you see your role in the workshop setting?

LC:  I’m a midwife and shape-changer.  I am the person in the room with the most questions.

AH:  How do you see the workshop environment useful for creative artists?

Workshops allow you the opportunity to observe your energy and the energies of who ever in the room.  There are always opportunities for a deeper understanding of your personal artistic objectives.

In these workshops we want to explore dream and memory, and how that affects the telling of a story.  The entire environment is shaped to support this kind of investigation.  Everything is really set up for you to have an experience that is fraught with possibilities for change.  I want everyone to be able to get dirty.  Art is messy.

AH:  Is this workshop intended for beginners, experienced artists or both?

LC: The workshops is for beginners and professionals, long-term and mid-term

Beginners will get opportunity and an incite to what it means to have an artistic life.

Professionals always need a place they can reexamine what they are doing, but don’t always have the opportunity to do that.  They get locked into selling their professional product.   As an artist you really owe it to yourself to continuously examine what you are doing and to create as many opportunities as you can to examine all of the methods that have worked for you, those that need to be let go of, and always be able to ask yourself hard questions about your craft.  Many times, the most well crafted artists are the ones who require this kind of opportunity.

One thing I have heard a couple of times in the past few months from professional students is the idea that the workshops always allow them a chance to “come in and get clean.”

AH: What can students do to prepare for your workshop?

Observe, purposefully, your own resistance.  Breathe and come along.

Early registration is strongly encouraged! Click here for more information about  In the Bones of Your Experience

http://www.celebrationbarn.com/workshops-2008/w-bones.html

Over Memorial Day Weekend we had a tremendous team of volunteers working inside and outside the Barn.  As a result, we have lots of improvements to report!

• The stage floor and walls have been freshly painted with true black.
• Audience seating has been repaired.  The seating area has been freshly painted.
• Two new single bedrooms are on the way.  This will provide intern housing and allow us to expand the capacity of some workshops.
• Walls were built into the upstairs studio, which makes the space more user friendly, useful for classes, and easier to heat and cool.
• A new computer has been set up in the office for student use.
• The grounds have been mowed, pruned and cut back to make more outdoor space accessible and beautiful.
• Costumes, tools, cleaning supplies, etc. have been sorted and organized.
• This is just a condensed list.  More good suprises are in store for students this summer!

From Broadway clowns to Grammy-nominated storytellers, Summer Saturday nights the Barn is the place to be!

It’s not too soon to make reservations for summer shows!   All shows begin at 8:00 P.M. Doors open at 7:30 P.M. Seating is general admission. Saturday night tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $8 for students and children. Informal Friday performances are by donation. Reservations are recommended and may be made by calling the Barn’s box office at (207) 743-8452.

See the full schedule! http://www.celebrationbarn.com/-shows.html

Why should you sign up for a workshop now?

1.  Many workshops sell-out early, so don’t wait!  Workshop enrollment is limited to ensure individual time and attention is available for each student.   Guarentee your place by registering today.

2.  May 1st is the deadline for the Early Bird Discount.  To save $50 off  the full-price of tuition (only one discount available per applicant, see registration form for details), register now!

3.  Action speaks!    Get your application in today by downloading the registration form here:   www.celebrationbarn.com/forms/Registration-2008.pdf

Happy 2008! We had a landmark year in 2007, with record-breaking numbers of artists and audiences coming through our doors. Now we’re taking that momentum and enthusiasm into 2008 to ensure that the legacy of the Barn will continue for many years to come!

Read the entire newsletter and learn what you can do to help! http://www.celebrationbarn.com/pages/fundraising/letter2008.html

The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments

Great things continue to happen for our friends Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe of EepyBird.com. They just set a world record in Cincinnati, won a Webby Award (the Internet version of the Oscars), and believe it or not, they were nominated for an Emmy Award! All this because they started dropping Mentos mints into bottles of Diet Coke…

Stephen and Fritz have both studied extensively at Celebration Barn. They first met at the Eccentric Peforming Workshop with Avner Eisenberg and Julie Goell, and they’ve also studied with Davis Robinson, who will be teaching the Theater Collaboration Workshop this summer with David Gaines. Coming right up here at the Barn, Fritz will be teaching at the Young Performers Theater Camp with Amanda Huotari and Mike Miclon.

Earlier this month, Stephen and Fritz’s hit Internet video, “The Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments,” featuring geysers of soda choreographed like a miniature Bellagio fountain, won both a Webby Award and a Webby People’s Voice Award. At a ceremony in New York featuring David Bowie, the Beastie Boys, and the founders of YouTube, Stephen and Fritz performed a live geyser display outside on Wall Street itself. Stephen, who went to law school at NYU said, “After all this, now I find myself working on Wall Street?!”

The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments

On the heels of that, they also found themselves nominated for an Emmy Award in a brand new category, Outstanding Broadband Variety. They scrambled to find a couple of tuxedos (Fritz had never even worn one before) and headed out to Los Angeles for the awards ceremony. They didn’t win, but they had a fantastic time. They even got to pet a penguin. Of course. Fritz’s favorite celebrity sighting? Oscar the Grouch. Oscar and Elmo presented several awards, and afterwards, Caroll Spinney (the guy behind Oscar and Big Bird) walked right by and nodded hello. Fritz commented, “I don’t think I’ve ever been more star-struck in my life than in that moment.”

All this followed yet another exciting event: EepyBird helped set a world record in Cincinnati, authenticated by Guinness and everything. Along with 500 volunteers, they set off 504 Diet Coke and Mentos geysers simultaneously. You can see amazing video of the event here.

To see more EepyBird videos, including “The How-To Hunchback” featuring Mike Miclon, visit www.EepyBird.com. In their news and blog section, you can also read more stories of their trips to the Webbys and the Emmys.

Playing with Presence:
A Conversation With David Gaines
By Amanda Huotari
June 22, 2007

David Gaines toured internationally for ten years with The Moving Picture Mime Show, a very successful theatre company based in London. He was then invited to Paris to teach alongside Jacques Lecoq at the Ecole Lecoq as a professor of improvisation, mask, and movement. Since leaving France to return to the U.S., he has taught workshops at many universities and colleges, including three years on faculty at the graduate school of the University of Missouri at Kansas City. This summer, Celebration Barn presents students with two opportunities to study with David including Introduction to Lecoq Technique August 20-25 and Theater Collaboration with Davis Robinson August 27-September 1.

AH: What first attracted you to theater?
DG: I was a kid enthusiastic about goofing off, and theater offers the opportunity to exercise and value it. Though I also did straight theater, the eccentric side of mime and clowning have been the most fertile areas of exploration for me. I got to do that in college and after got to go to Europe to discover how European masters do it, most importantly, Jacques Lecoq.

AH: What led you to teach at the Lecoq School in Paris?
DG: After being a student at the Lecoq School, I formed a company with 2 classmates in London. We became successful and managed to tour around the world for the next 10 years. At the end everyone had grown to the point to be ready to go in different directions. When Lecoq heard I was available he invited me to come teach at his school. I was delighted to accept that. I taught there for two years.

AH: What did working with Lecoq teach you about teaching?
DG: It taught me two things. First, his management style: he hires teachers that he knows will be good teachers and then he gets out of their way. Second, he taught me that even great teachers have clunker classes. I witnessed Lecoq teaching a class that went nowhere one day and I thought I wasn’t understanding. Later, he turned to me and said, “Boy, I really screwed that one up.”

I realized that in the process of artistic creation, you have to allow for doing bad work. If you always worry about your work being perfect, you’ll never do anything. The analogy with nature is that without a lot of horse sh*t, you can’t produce a beautiful flower.

AH: You speak a lot about ‘presence’ in your work. How do you approach helping a performer be ‘present’ and why is it important?
DG: We start in the beginning by examining what is going on with any performer when faced with being watched by the audience. It’s the same whether you’re an actor on stage or a business manager addressing a group or even on a more social level, just a person meeting and talking to new people in a social event.

The response and normal response to that situation is anxiety. By examining it, dealing with it, and playing with that experience, people learn to be more relaxed under those conditions. When they are relaxed more of themselves come through, and that self is their presence, which the audience finds interesting and delightful.

AH: What does a performer need to be ‘responsive’ to?
DG: Responsive to what happens on stage, to what others may do, to what happens inside of them, and how they might feel about what happens on stage.

A lot of that responsiveness comes from the enthusiasm and liberty from the sense of play that is at the core of the workshop process.

Admittedly, the play isn’t totally unstructured. It’s designed to reveal an experience with the general principles of performance and improvising with others.

But the structure doesn’t make it less fun, in fact, more fun, just as the rules of basketball or football make them more engaging and satisfying than just tossing the ball around.

AH: What kind of structures are you going to explore in the Collaboration Workshop with Davis Robinson?
DG: We are going to examine a few different kinds of structures to see which ones are best for different types of people. Different peoples imaginations are provoked in different ways. Some respond well to conceptual challenges like “Give me a play with the title, ‘x’.” Some are stimulated by a structure of restraints, for example, a play that is precisely 5 minutes, using 5 characters and 5 scenes.

AH: One of your company’s most successful projects was The Seven Samurai. How did your company choose its subjects?
DG: That one was chosen because one of us, well, actually me, did an improvisation based on the provocation to retell a movie in a particular style. The style and narrative were specified and that left room for the artistic imagination in the detail and departures chosen; the lazzi, if you will.

Each time we made a new show, we tried to use a different approach to its development. One show we did was based on a Borges short story because it contained no characters, no plot and no dialogue. It was a pain!

Another way of working is character based like virtually all of our mask work. You start with masks or characters and ask, “What do they do?”

There are lots of approaches. What matters most is having a process and a working dynamic that allows you to enjoy playing together with what you’re working on. If you enjoy working on it, you will continue to improv. If you don’t, you’ll stop being a creator at the end of rehearsal and simply become an ill-tempered mechanic.

Click here to learn more about Introduction to Lecoq Technique August 20-25 and Theater Collaboration with Davis Robinson August 27-September 1.

Meet the Barn’s New Executive Director!
December 11, 2006

I would like to introduce myself, Amanda Huotari, as the new director of Celebration Barn Theater.  However, chances are good if you have been around the Barn in the last 15 years we have already met.

I grew up here in South Paris and first came to the Barn in 1991 to study Antic Arts with Fred Garbo.  Well, that was enough to get me hooked.  Since that time, while living, studying, and performing in Boston, San Francisco and Paris, I have returned to the Barn almost every summer to work, create and play.  Now I am happy to be here to stay and to help usher in the next generation of Celebration Barn!

What is next for the Barn? I have a surging excitement that anything is possible!

- We will continue running the  summer workshop programming with an eye on expanding the season.  Please spread the word about the Barn. The more people that come, the more we can offer!

- We have plans underway to begin Celebration Barn Touring Projects, which will kick off this Spring with the Northeast tour of an original Commedia Dell’Arte play.

- The facility is available for artists to come work on their shows, for company retreats, and private rentals.   The Barn is here, please come use it!

Thank you to everyone who has continued to keep the Barn celebrating!  The biggest thank you goes to Carol Brett who has been the Executive Director for the past 18 years.  Her dedication has been an enormous gift to the entire Barn community.  Personally, she has been a great mentor, friend and creative supporter.  We are thankful that she is going to continue to serve on the Board of Directors and offer her expertise to help launch this exciting new chapter.

Tony Montanaro started the Barn out of a necessity to create, collaborate and celebrate the miracle of inspiration.  For 35 years the Barn has been a home for those seeking to explore and grow artistically.  My first summer at the Barn I fell in love… with artists, audiences and this creative community. I am honored to be a part of this wonderful lineage. I hope that you will come and share this growing legacy.

Please come back to www.celebrationbarn.com for the latest news and updates.  Great things are happening!  Looking forward to seeing you here, soon.

Sincerely,

A Year with Cirque du Soleil
By Amanda Huotari
December 9, 2006

Steve Ragatz has been entertaining audiences with his juggling, physical comedy, stilt walking and general antics for over two decades. From studying at Celebration Barn to being a solo act with Cirque du Soleil, Steve has done “good gigs, bad gigs… everything, just to get out there and do it.” The good gigs have included The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, and The Today Show. Most recently, he just finished a year with Cirque du Soleil’s North American tour ofQuidam.

Amanda Huotari: When you first came to the Barn in 1989, what were you doing professionally?
Steve Ragatz: I came to Celebration Barn as part of my individualized major in Variety Theater at Indiana University. Mostly, I was unfocused, but extremely enthusiastic. I was frustrated that the traditional university wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I was looking for something that offered diversity.

AH: How did your work evolve at Celebration Barn?
SR: I got a broad variety of training in stage combat, voice, storytelling, and mime. These all apply to any theater convention in one-way or another. Everyone who steps on stage is a storyteller. Every performer deals with their physicality. At some point, you have to be a clown. All of the workshops influenced the way I thought about creating material. I learned the evolution of trial and error, theatricality, vocabulary and thinking structurally.

I was captivated by street performing and wanted to do a street act and pass the hat for a living.

AH: How did you go from wanting to be a street act to performing for Cirque du Soleil?
SR: I have a quiet persistence to keep going. I did all gigs: good gigs, bad gigs, high paying, free, ones that cost me money, ones that looked like they would be great and then sucked. I considered everything, just to get out there and do it. That’s pretty much been my career.

In 1993, Steve was cast in Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere in Las Vegas. After three years with that show, he toured with Cirque du Soleil’sQuidam. After a few years back home in Indiana, he spent this past year on the road again, joining the North American tour of Quidam.

AH: How was it to be back with Cirque du Soleil?
SR: Oh, it was so nice to get back in the circus world, having been there when they created Quidam and now returning as a solo act. I was in the original cast and part of the extensive creation process. To come back as an original performer was nice.

AH: How had the show evolved?
SR: The acts matured technically a great deal after ten years. The characters I knew were the same but had new faces. That was odd at first.

AH: How did you manage to balance family and circus life?
SR: The circus is pretty family-friendly. It’s kind of expensive, but it was a great experience for [my son] Andrew. We had afternoons together and then I would go do the shows in the evenings. The cast and crew provide a second family. It’s a rich ensemble environment. It’s like the Barn, but with more lipstick and funny accents. The creative energy and talent level is amazingly high. They’re just cool people.

AH: How do you approach creating a new piece of work?
SR: In circus, you’re always beginning with technique rather than coming from improvisation. You need both when you’re trying to create a seven-minute international circus act. If one part is missing, the act suffers. You have to try and package the whole thing: strong technical and strong theater, with honest and true execution.

AH: You’re over six feet tall. How important to you is physicality and body-type in creating work?
SR: The fact that I am tall got me cast as the father in Quidam. I can make a seventeen-year-old singer look like a little girl.

I had been working on gymnastics for a year and then the coach pulled me aside and said “Steve, I don’t see you ever getting this.” He was right, I had thin wrists and was too tall. It’s a handicap. Just because everyone else can do it doesn’t mean that I can. It’s a tough lesson to learn when you are young and have unbridled enthusiasm. You should work on things you can do.

Its important to write to who you are in reality and for what you can portray on stage. I was just working with a couple on an aerialist act this morning. We discussed how circus acts come out of the school where they emulated a performance that can’t be achieved without the right physicality.

A fifteen-year-old kid once asked me to teach him how to do juggling manipulation with a cigar – it’s a traditional juggling routine in vaudeville. I told him, “You are only fifteen – you have no business doing manipulation with a cigar.” I see kids going to the prom in tuxedos that don’t fit – clearly not in their element. Kids emulate older performers but don’t have the physical maturity for what they are mimicking. If you are fifteen be fifteen. Find a character and a context you’d be cast for and don’t try to write something that you can’t be.

Be true about who you are and what look like. No matter how hard I try, I will never be cast as the lead in Annie. I am just not a little girl. Wanting it isn’t enough.

AH: What are you working on now?
SR: I’m working on a new rola-bola act. One of the tricks in it derived from something that I did at the Barn years ago. I think that maybe this act is different from the others. As far as I know, my rola-bola is the only one that goes side to side and up and down.

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In addition to freelance work and special events for Cirque du Soleil, Steve is currently touring with the theatrical circus Birdhouse Factory. He may return to touring with Cirque du Soleil at the end of next year.

To read more about Steve Ragatz, visit his website: www.StevenRagatz.com

Steve Ragatz in Birdhouse Factory

For more info visit www.birdhousefactoryshow.com

The Farmhouse has a New Roof!

July 25, 2006

The most crucial repairs to the Farmhouse are complete! Our thanks to all of you who donated – you made it happen! Here are a few pictures of the Farmhouse, the Barn, and this very beautiful summer.

The new roof will keep the Farmhouse dry for many years to come, and allow us to house more students for big workshops.a

A nice sunny morning at the pond.

The balcony on the back of the Barn actually became a stage for a juggling performance this June during the Young Performers Workshop.

The stone wall and greenery also became the site of a battle between Roman gladiators during the Young Performers Workshop.

That’s it for this month’s pictures. I hope you enjoyed them, and I hope we’ll see you here soon!

Pictures by Amanda Huotari.

Mike and Kim Miclon filming Eepybird’s Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments (photo by Nancy Bennett)

Alumni News: Diet Coke, Mentos, and an Internet Phenomenon
July 21, 2006

What happens when you combine 200 liters of Diet Coke and over 500 Mentos mints? In just six weeks, the guys at EepyBird went from the woods of Maine to the Late Show with David Letterman.

It all began with a simple experiment: drop a stack of Mentos into a bottle of soda and it creates a geyser. Last November, Barn alumni Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz decided to take it a bit further. Okay, a lot further.

They spent eight months at their home base in Buckfield, Maine, developing different fountain effects, creating swinging and swirling images, using nozzles to get geysers over 25 feet high. Finally, this spring, they were ready. After eight hours of setting everything up, they filmed a spectacular three-minute candy-powered version of the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas.

Fritz and Stephen put their video on their web site, www.EepyBird.com, at the beginning of June. Two days later, the Late Show with David Letterman called. In the six weeks since, they have appeared on Letterman, the Today Show, Inside Edition, MSNBC, VH1, and more. Even the Wall Street Journal did an article on the phenomenon. Their video has now been viewed over 5 million times on their web site and at Revver.com.

“This went so much further than we ever expected, and faster too,” said Fritz. “We never expected to be getting calls and emails from Mythbusters, Mentos, and Polynesian television.”

“Our favorite phone call came from a company called WET Design,” said Stephen. “They are the people who made the original Bellagio fountains. Having them enjoy our video was fantastic!”

Fritz and Stephen met at Celebration Barn six years ago at the Eccentric Performing Workshop with Avner Eisenberg and Julie Goell. Fritz is a five gold medalist at the International Jugglers Championships and is currently part of “Birdhouse Factory,” a theatrical circus created by a group of former Cirque du Soleil performers. Stephen is a part-time performer and also a trial lawyer in the Boston area. They both make regular appearances at the Oddfellow Theater in Buckfield, just over the mountain from the Barn.

Fritz and Stephen will be posting more videos at EepyBird.com soon, although they are keeping exactly what new experiments they have planned a secret for now.

“We want to build our web site into a place where people can find all kinds of crazy, creative, unexpected theater,” said Fritz. “A lot like an online version of the Barn!”

Speaking Freely: Louis Colaianni on Voice and Character

By Amanda Huotari
July 20, 2006

He was the first artist to ever turn Celebration Barn Theater into a giant mouth! Renowned voice instructor Louis Colaianni teaches the Linklater Voice progression, used in many actor training programs. Here he talks about his upcoming workshops and how performers can learn to play any character under the sun.

Amanda Huotari: Last summer you offered your Linklater Voice Workshop and How To Speak Shakespeare for the first time at Celebration Barn.  How did you find the Barn for this kind of work?

Louis Colaianni: I found it a very inspiring, fun, warm space with a legacy that is palpable.  There is an atmosphere, which fills the spirit of the artist and performer, that makes this work so rich and intense.

AH: Many performers who come to Celebration Barn have experience in physical theater, but for many voice is new territory.  How does the Linklater work relate to a performer’s physical presence?

LC: Of all the types of voice work, [Linklater voice training] is the most physical.  It connects the voice and the body in an extraordinary way.  Exercises are on your feet and doing physical things.  The aim is to feel the voice vibrate through the body, to feel the impulse to speak as a physical sensation.  Voice work can give the physical performer a very natural extension into sound and spoken word.  A lot of this work is influenced by physical disciplines such as Alexander Technique and the work of Jacques Lecoq.

AH: What about improvisation, how does the voice improvise?

LC: There is a great dichotomy here:  It takes practice to be spontaneous,  In order to improvise well with the voice, there are exercises to release physical tensions, defenses and resistance so that the voice can flow freely and spontaneously, so that the actor can speak from primary impulses, uncensored.  This is opposed to the social norm of speaking from secondary or tertiary impulses.

Be the one who is in front of the many, speaking simply and from the heart. It takes practice to speak passions in a group.  It takes practice to stand on one’s own feet and uphold a point of view and to listen to others sensitively and receive fully.  Through this kind of practice, great spontaneity can be achieved.  A great voice teacher once said “when the voice is free, your soul shows through”, and that is what I am striving for, too.

AH: If the goal is absolute freedom, how does one begin?

LC: It begins with awareness of the body, skeleton and support of the skeleton and release of breath.  Physical awareness and breath awareness, that’s the beginning of everything that follows.

AH: How far into this process of “freeing the natural voice” can an actor get in a one week workshop?

LC: This process takes a lifetime.  For an actor to get the opportunity to spend an entire week working on a voice course like this is rarely offered.  What you can learn in a week you can apply for a lifetime.  My aim is not to become your voice teacher, but to guide you to become your own voice teacher.

AH: How did your career lead you from being a performer into being a voice teacher?

LC: I was a professional working at Shakespeare and Company.  Working closely with Kristin [Linklater] over a number of years was so meaningful for me. Finding and freeing my natural voice, I felt like I had to share it.  So I gradually made the switch from acting to teaching.  I’ve been teaching for over 20 years.  I often quote Rilke who said that his work was, “to voice the things only he could voice.”  That’s what I found, my unique voice, and that’s what I offer to my students, the chance to voice what only each of us can voice.  It’s not the voice I want to hear.  I want to hear you through your voice.  Once you can speak with that level of transparency, you can play any character under the sun.

AH: You specialize in performing and teaching Shakespeare.  What do performers learn from working with this text?

LC: Shakespeare is to theater what the Olympics is to athletics.  The challenges that Shakespeare presents to actors are huge in terms of intellectual and emotional dynamics.  Every character is Shakespeare has a unique point of view.  The grammatical structure and structure of ideas is as intellectually challenging as it gets.  The situations, experiences and relationships that Shakespeare characters go through are as intellectually challenging as it gets.  If you can do Shakespeare or attempt to do Shakespeare, and grapple with Shakespeare, you then are able to do everything else.

Shakespeare came along as modern English was being established.  For English speakers Shakespeare is our common heritage.  He created thousands of words and created linguistic resonance.  As we let in Shakespeare’s words, we give ourselves an experience in language beyond our everyday scope of language.  It’s invigorating, inspiring and exciting to speak great poetry.

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Louis Colaianni will be teaching the Linklater Voice Workshop at Celebration Barn from August 21 – 25, 2006, and How To Speak Shakespeare from August 28 – 30. These intensive workshops are designed to awaken and enhance the participant’s ability to speak with vocal power, clarity, sensitivity, resonance and range.