Details of the 1st Physical Fest - 2005

Momentum

in Partnership with GENERAL LUDD & HOPE STREET

Introduces the 1st

Physical Fest

in Liverpool

The Physical Theatre Workshop Festival runs from Monday 18th to Sunday the 24th of July at Hope Street Ltd (13a Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BQ) with workshops from Alan Richardson, Momentum and General Ludd. The workshops are aimed at people aged 17+ with some experience of participating in workshops, or performing.

Momentum formed after completing Hope Street’s Physical Theatre Programme. The company has developed a reputation for their unique and powerful style of physical theatre. Their recent award winning show, Tmesis has been touring nationally and internationally, taking part in festivals such as the London International Mime Festival and the Dublin International Fringe Festival. They are currently working with Tanya Kharabova (Derevo) on their new production.

THE WORKSHOPS

Momentum Workshop – The intention behind the movement (2 days), 19th & 20th July. This movement -based workshop will introduce Momentum’s powerful physical training, exercises for body awareness and movement techniques with a strong emphasis on the intention behind the movement. It will focus primarily on partner work, looking at how two people can move as one, basic acrobatics, movement improvisation and creating choreographed movement sequences.

General Ludd – Physical Theatre- Workshop (4 Days), 21st - 24th July. The participants will train their voice and body through exercises based on the principles of Meyerhold and Grotowski’s theatre techniques. Through these systems of actors training the participants will explore elements of acting like body awareness, discipline in the space, sense of the rhythm, reaction to impulses. The aim is to work against our tics and physical habits, focusing on the discovery of the neutral presence. The second half of the workshop will focus on improvisation based on characters from Homer’s Odyssey. The result will be a presentation to an invited audience.

Yorgos Bakalos (General Ludd): Yorgos is an international physical theatre performer/workshop leader and he has worked extensively for companies such as Para Active, La Fura Dels Baus and Senza Tempo. He is a Co-founder/artistic director of General Ludd Physical Theatre Company. Yorgos has trained in theatre, specialising in Meyerhold and Grotowski’s theatre techniques. He also trained with Jaroslaw Flet, Phillipe Gaullier, Complicite, Tapa Sudana (Peter Brooks' actor).

Alan Richardson - Applications of Clowning (1 Day), 18th July. A look into the world of the red nose clown and where this can be used, from scripted clown work such as Beckett to the improvised clown of the street. Taking the participants through the basic skills of clown work it will be possible to look into the wide variety of uses for the clown.

Alan Richardson trained at Liverpool Polytechnic and the International Theatre School of Lassaad. Since 1990 he has been working as a director, actor and teacher both in Britain and across Europe. He has specialised in clowning for both indoor and outdoor performances, producing work from international tours of indoor devised 3 man shows to large scale outdoor performance involving400 performers for Porto European City of Culture 2001. Alan is Hope Street’s Creative Development Coordinator.