Total hours: 28h
Contact: obrador@salabeckett.cat
Gabriel Calderón, actor, playwright and director, is one of Uruguay’s most international stage creators.
One should never begin a text with a NO. Especially if it is an invitation, or a call to attend. No. But it is very tempting to begin how one should NOT begin. To enter through the back door. To start off on the wrong foot.
This is not a creative acting workshop where we will try out different ways of understanding and representing a text, but rather we will seek to act out in a simple and specific way the proposals emerging from the text.
All the exploration work will have as its study focus the understanding of the power originating from the Word and its direct stage possibilities. We will concentrate on the proposals and premises that emanate from the text to explore the interpretational possibilities for actors and the problems emerging during this investigation.
Work mechanism
Each author proposes through their words a springboard for action and dynamic play in relation to the stage. Each day we will devote two hours to studying a theoretical comprehension mechanism proposed by the play of a playwright and, for four hours, we will apply these in a practical way to the work and development of the scenes chosen, whether by the same author or another.
The plays we propose to work on are:
- La vuelta al desierto by Bernard Marie Koltès
- Claus Peyman se compra unos pantalones y luego nos vamos a comer by Thomas Bernhard
- Yo estaba en casa y esperaba que llegara la lluvia by Jean-Luc Lagarce
- Or -tal vez la vida sea ridícula- by Gabriel Calderón
The authors and subject areas to be worked on are:
- Myth of the origin in the writer and study on the beginnings: the contract according to Oz.
- The word as the origin of action: the acting platform/dialogues of the deaf/interrupted monologues: experiencing Koltès.
- Discourse and thought: the example of Lagarce.
- The three levels of the character: the levels of Pinter.
- The dramatic unit and the traditional components of drama: a visit to Shakespeare.
- Possible rhythms for theatrical language: Bernhard’s stacatto and dramolettes.
- The playwright as the first actor/the playwright as the first reader: the idea of Borges.
- Teatro Claudio: some personal reflections on “fascist” theatre”.
- Translation as dramatic writing: finishing with Piglia.
Requirements
Participants of this workshop must come on the first day having already learned by memory a scene that will be sent to them at the time of confirmation of their participation.
Within the GREC 2017 Festival of Barcelona.
Playwright, theatre director and actor. He has written over 20 plays and has received recognition through various awards, notably including the National Prize for Literature on two occasions: in 2011 for Mi pequeño mundo porno and in 2016 for Ex: Tal vez la vida sea ridícula.
In 2004 he received a grant from the Fundación Carolina to go to Spain to take a “Course for professionals in playwriting and theatre directing” and in 2009 he participated in the International Summer Residency for Emerging Playwrights programme at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Since 2011 he has been a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and resident artist at the Théâtre des Quartiers d’Ivry in Paris, France.
His plays have been performed in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, France, United States, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. His texts have been translated into French, German, English, Greek and Portuguese. With his shows he has participated on reiterated occasions at international theatre festivals in the Americas and Europe. He has given lectures, classes and seminars in Argentina (Ibero-American Creative Playwriting Seminar coordinated by Mauricio Kartun/ELTI- Encuentro Latinoamericano de Teatro/Biblioteca Velez Arfield), Brazil (Sao Paulo-Nucleo de Dramaturgia do British Council SP/Universidad de Santa Catalina), Chile (Universidad de Chile/Universidad Finis Terrae/Universidad Católica), Cuba (Casa de las Américas/Festival Mayo Teatral), Mexico (Guadalajara Festival de Lecturas/DF Transdrama), France (Nouvelle Sorbonne Paris 3/Casa de Amerique Latine/Theatre Quartier d’Ivry/Université Paul Valery), Israel- Palestine (Jerusalem-Palestine National Theatre) and Switzerland (Lausanne-HETSR La Manufacture/Haute Ecole de Théâtre de Suisse Romande).
He is currently actively working at the National Theatre’s Teatro Modena in Genoa together with the Fondazione Teatro de Emilia Romagna and the Yolanda Gazzerro de Módena School.
Admission to the course will be based on order of arrival and CV assessment, which should be sent (with photograph included), filling in the form on the right.
Places on courses are limited. Places will be reserved once the course amount has been paid. Payment must be made within one week of receiving the corresponding acceptance email.
The dates indicated for each course or seminar may be subject to variations in exceptional circumstances. These will be notified when applicable.
For the course to take place, a minimum number of students must be registered. If this number is not reached, the course will be cancelled and the student will have the option of registering for a different course (providing that there are places available) or alternatively will receive a refund of the amount paid (100%). If a student withdraws, a refund of 75% of the registration fee will be applicable, providing that written notice is given at least 10 days before the start of the course.