PLAYWRITING IN MOVEMENT WITH COLEEN MACPHERSON
COURSE DESCRIPTION
A six-week, playwriting workshop for writers, playwrights, directors and seasoned actors.
This workshop proposes a discovery into the act of writing text for the stage through the lens of movement. MacPherson will lead the group through Ecole Jacques Lecoq’s theatrical principles of movement, space and play and apply this to the craft of playwriting. We will begin our journey with the neutral mask and explore movement and space, nourishing our understanding of situation, character, observation and spatial relationships. We will search for our voice and inspiration through an exploration of music, painting and poetry through practical exercises that ignite text. The class will culminate with each student creating a short self-contained piece to be read and/or performed on the final day.
The workshop will involve movement exploration, improvisation, in-class writing exercises, discussion and group work. Please wear clothes you are comfortable moving in.
TO ENROLL
Please contact: education@tarragontheatre.com with a CV and a half page paragraph of interest. Registration is limited.
COST (INCLUDES HST)
$550 Regular
and $440 Equity/Artist discount
Note: Once a participant has been approved to join the course, their spot will not be reserved until the theatre has received a 20% deposit.
SPRING 2018 DATES & TIMES: 9 CLASSES FROM 6:30 – 9:30 P.M.
Tuesday March 6 6:30-9:30 pm
Thursday March 8th 6:30-9:30 pm
Tuesday March 13th 6:30-9:30 pm
Thursday March 15th 6:30-9:30 pm
Monday March 19th 6:30-9:30 pm
Thursday March 22nd 6:30-9:30 pm
Tuesday March 27th 6:30-9:30 pm
Thursday March 29th 6:30-9:30 pm
Monday April 2, 2017 6:30-9:30 pm
INSTRUCTOR BIO
After studying at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris and taking part in UK’s Off-West End Arcola Theatre’s Writers’ Program and attending workshops led by playwrights James Graham (National Theatre) and Michel Azama (Bled, The Life and Death of Pier Paolo Pasolini), MacPherson has developed her own approach to writing for the stage to provoke the imagination and develop each artist’s unique voice. Her plays have appeared at Camden People’s Theatre, Mimetic Festival (London, UK), Falaki Theater (Cairo, Egypt), Plateau 31 (Paris, France) and The Theatre Centre (Toronto). She has also toured work to Shangai, Montreal, NYC, Chicago and Barcelona.
Most recently she held a staged reading of her play, Meat at the Arcola Theatre performed by Richard Hansell (Ivo Van Hove’s A View From the Bridge), Angela Bull (Epsilon Productions), Kate Handford (Boudica at The Globe Theatre) and Denise Stephenson (About a Boy). Her play, This Is Why We Live will be heading to Krakow, Poland in 2018 and is part of New York City’s La MaMa’s 57th season.
MacPherson’s joy in teaching is also a joy gained from a desire to collaborate and develop relationships with working artists in Toronto and to stimulate new methodologies of creation with her company Open Heart Surgery Theatre. She has recently taught at StudioZAT in Cairo, Egypt and The University of Toronto.
Companies in Canada she has worked with: Theatre Smith-Gilmour, The Children’s Peace Theatre, Why Not Theatre, Bad New Days, Necessary Angel, Theatre Direct and Onelight Theatre. Recently she was part of a workshop with Onelight Theatre in Halifax called Asheq: Ritual Music to Cure a Lover.
Upcoming for Open Heart Surgery Theatre: Surrealist Women, a devised play inspired by the painting and writings of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo.
www.openheartsurgerytheatre.com