Irish Theatre Summit 2012

Well , I wasn't really planning on blogging again so soon after my escapades over the last 2 weeks.

However, this week I took part in a series of Acting Masterclasses as part of the Irish Theatre Summit 2012 and a friend convinced me to post about them. Also, judging by my timetable which is currently scarily empty for the next few months, this may be the most interesting thing I do for quite awhile...

The Irish Theatre Summit was set up by Players to give people the chance to take Masterclasses in either Acting, Directing, Writing or Tech. With some of the top industry practitioners invited to facilitate workshops, the whole experience was invaluable. It was also a fantastic opportunity to work with people from the older years who I hadn't had the chance to work with before.

Annie Ryan

Friday: Annie Ryan & Alison Bomber

Friday started with a workshop with Annie Ryan, Artistic Director of Corn Exchange. We started by doing an hour and 15 minutes of Yoga. While this may sound soothing and peaceful, it was relatively painful and made me realise what a failure I am at life...
The main thing I got from Annie Ryan's workshop was to push boundaries and not to always settle for my first instinct. According to Annie, our third instinct on stage is always the most interesting and is where the magic happens. Unfortunately, I had to leave the workshop an hour early. However, while I was there we did some exercises on making discoveries in the moment which activated the imagination. As brief as it was, doing a workshop with Annie Ryan was fantastic. As well as her knowledge and passion, it is inspiring to see a woman being so influential in Irish Theatre.

Alison Bomber

After lunch we had a workshop with Alison Bomber, senior voice and text coach from the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Royal Shakespeare Company!! If the Theatre Summit had been this workshop alone, I would have been there. I had never met someone before who was so overwhelmed and energized by language and sounds. It was really refreshing to witness someone who has a sincere passion for words. The main  focus of the workshop was to show  how one doesn't need to act when acting Shakespeare. The meaning is found within the sounds of the text. We focused a lot on punctuation in text, walking around the room and stopping with a full stop and changing direction with any other type of punctuation. The whole workshop was pretty mind-boggling and also extremely beneficial.
I did so well that Alison even invited me back over to the RSC with her to play Ophelia. I told her my schedule was pretty packed at the moment, but maybe another time...



Saturday: A day at the Lir

We began at 9:30 with a movement workshop with Sue Mythen, a teacher from the Lir Academy. Throughout the workshop we did a lot of work on the centre, exploring how it can affects our bodies, voice and how we interact with other. We explored moving in the space with our centre open, closed, up, down, forward or backwards. It was interesting to observe how it affected how we communicated with eachother.  We also worked creating a certain atmosphere in a room and then seeing how that atmosphere affects the people in the room. We finished with a group improv where each of us created a character who had just walked on to the Titanic...

After lunch we did a vocal workshop with Cathal Quinn. To begin with we did a lot of streching, incorporating the voice: Fiddly fingers, wriggly wrists, eager elbows, angular ankles etc. Throughout the workshops we did a lot of work on articulation, projection and breathing. We also worked on text from Burial at Thebes, by Séamus Heaney.

Acting class with Bryan Burroughs was a breath of fresh air. He started the class by telling us that he was going to push us in this workshop, instead of opting for the easy option which would be to play games for the entire session. I have to admit I was nervous when I heard this, but also relieved that we were really going to be challenged.

According to Bryan, all theatre is is PUSH and PULL. While I was initially unconvinced by this statement, as the workshop progressed, I knew exactly what he meant.
For a large portion of the workshop we simply played with gravity. It sounds simple, it is simple, but it is also incredibly intense. We did the exercise different ways:

1. Beginning lying down, being pulled towards the floor by gravity. Objective: Try to stand up.
2. Beginning standing up, being pulled towards the ceiling. Objective: Try to sit down.
3. Begin against the wall, being pulled towards the wall. Objective: Try to get away from the wall.
4. All of these together.

You can cheat, but you don't. Instead, you cause yourself stress and strain trying to drag yourself from the floor. Scenarios start to build in your head, and gradually you make yourself believe that you physically are being dragged down or up or backwards. All around the room there are pained sounds and heaving breaths. I found it extremely interesting to observe how such a simple concept can cause such a massive effect in the room. We transformed these individual processes into a group ensemble pieces, performing in groups of three and then receiving direction from Bryan.

Spending a day at the Lir was fantastic, offering all of us an opportunity to experience what it would be like to go to Drama School.



Sunday: A day with Louis Lovett

Today, Times Square watched us as we passed a ball around the room. They watched in amazement as we created spontaneous moments. They couldn't get over our talent. They applauded momentously. We were the best ball passers in the world!


I could continue discussing all of the games and exercises that Louis taught us today because they were wonderful and fun and energetic. Instead though, I'm going to talk about the fantastic advice he offered us throughout the course of the workshop, because for me, the advice he gave was invaluable.

1. It is crucial to be a team player. Be willing to be part of a team.
2. Love your audience.
3. Be READY. Always.
4. Raise the stakes for yourself. If you are practising in your bathroom, imagine that Times Square are watching you.
5. Be present. Imagine a giant light shining out from your chest, your face, your shoulder, your ass. Fill the space with your presence.
6. Check in with others.
7. Play seriously.



I immensely enjoyed the series of Masterclasses over the last few days. It was a fantastic opportunity that I am so glad I availed of. Huge recognition deserved to Players committee who organised the weekend.
I hope I will be privileged enough to work with some of the practitioners again sometime in the future.

Fin x