Double Presence
Workshop on the relation between actors and life-sized puppets, and specifically “chorus-manipulation”
Master workshops
Maximum number of participants: 15
Price: 20 PLN
1st October, 2PM-9PM
Workshops will be held by Yngvild Aspeli (pupeteer, director of the performance Chambre noire, founder of theatre group Plexus Polaire) and Viktor Lukawski (pupeteer, a graduate of École Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France, Artistic Director of ZOU theatre company).
During the workshop we will look at how to give life to the puppets through precision of gestures and movements, and how to “write” a theatrical situation through play and improvisations. We will focus on the relation between actor and puppet, and look at how this relation can be a “dramaturgical key”. Why is it interesting using puppets to tell a story? What can the puppet allow us to express different than an actor? We will work around the themes of presence and absence: understanding how the puppet can help make concrete an emotion or a state, and allow us to express both human and social themes. A central part of the work will be how to combine being an actor and a puppeteer, and “chorus-manipulation”; how a group of actors together can make a theatrical situation and at the same time give life to the puppet.
The workshop are addressed to students and graduates of theater and puppetry schools, theater educators as well as people wishing to develop their drama skills and become acquainted with the practice of puppetry and physical theatre.
The workshop is connected to the audition for the performance by Viktor Lukawski Painted Bird, based on the novel by Jerzy Kosinski. The research and development for the performance start in April in Cricoteka, Krakow.
Workshop will be held in English, translated into Polish.
Yngvild Aspeli is a Norwegian director, actor and puppeteer living in France. She trained at Ecole Jaques Lecoq in Paris (2003-2005) and ESNAM (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette) in Charleville-Mezieres (2005-2008). Her performances Signaux (2011), Opera Opaque (2013), Cendres /Aske (2014), and Chambre Noire (2017) are touring internationally, and her work is highly visual theatre mixing actors and human-sized puppets. From 2012 to 2015 she has been in a mentorship with the Compagnie Philippe Genty (FR), and she was an assistant in the creation of Forget Me Not (2012). As well as developing her own work, she is a part of projects in Norway, France and the UK. She was a mask-maker for Yvonne, princesse de Bourgogne (2011), by Cie. Narcisse (FR) directed by Anne Barbot, and performed in Red Cape Theatre´s (UK) From Newbury with love (2011) directed by Claire Coaché. With the company Krutt og Kamfer (NO) she devised and performed in Før kaffen blir kald (2012) directed by Andrew Dawson, and she directed the solo-performance Fastoche (2014) with Pierre Tual (FR). She is a member of Jammy Voo Theatre (UK) and have made the performances Something Blue (2007), A Corner of the Ocean (2010) and Birdhouse (2012), and has directed the company’s new show The Sleeper (2017). In 2008 she set up Plexus Polaire theatre company.
Viktor Lukawski is a theatre director, performer, and puppeteer based in Toronto, Canada, where he is also the Artistic Director of ZOU theatre company. He is a graduate of École Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France, and Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. He has developed and performed award-winning works across Canada, the US, and all over Europe, collaborating with companies such as The Old Trout Puppet Workshop (CAN), Bad New Days (CAN), Plexus Polaire (FR/NO), Vancouver Opera (CAN), and Wet Picnic (UK). His theatrical work has incorporated various disciplines, from performance art to puppetry, from street theatre to opera. With his company, he has developed two shows: Buffalo x 8 and Business As Usual (both in 2014), and is currently developing a new show based on the life and works of Jerzy Kosinski, author of The Painted Bird, to be premiered in 2019.
