Masterclass in Contemporary Acting
Auditions for Olly's Prison
Chris Cooper from Big Brum Theatre Company will be in Malta to direct a Masterclass in Contemporary Acting based mainly on the scripts of leading British playwright Edward Bond.
The objectives of this workshop is to make participants familiar with the works of contemporary authors such as Edward Bond, to help them judge a role and approach the part, work with the playwright, find the right way to undertake auditions (even abroad) and rehearsals and how to think about the scene. Mr Cooper will use a text by Bond as the basis for a practical and theoretical exploration to the Bondian approach to theatre which will include:
An opening session with a general introduction to Bond - public space, the function of drama in the 21st century and the difference between Theatre and Drama.
The rest of the workshop will then focus on a the chosen play to explore
The Site
The Centre
Drama Event
And enacting rather than acting.
Mr Cooper will also use these workshops to start selecting the cast for our production of ‘Olly’s Prison’ the following year. The benefit for actors and pupils participating in these workshops is obvious as they would be working with a top practitioner in the field. Maltese theatre seems to concentrate on classics and this workshop will aim to give participants an insight into contemporary theatre.
The dates of the workshop are 5 & 6 May 2012 and the venue is St James Cavalier.
To apply send an email to Adrian Buckle on info@unifauntheatre.com.
This project is supported by the Malta Arts Fund.
Big Brum
Big Brum TIE has been working in Birmingham and the West Midlands since 1982.
The Company tours throughout the region to schools and colleges, working with pupils from the age of 3 up to 17, and students in tertiary education.
The mainstay of its work are two TIE programmes a year (one in the autumn term, and the other in the spring and summer terms) and one project in pupil referral units and learning support units (which usually lasts for a month to six weeks).
The TIE programmes consist of a half-day or full day's work for one school class at a time. They have theatre at the heart of them, and involve high levels of participation by the pupils. This participation is often in role and always has a purpose to the children's engagement with it: a task to undertake, or a problem to solve. The participatory, workshop, elements of the programme can include work with teachers to prepare the young people for our visit before they see any theatre, during or after the theatre element, or a combination of all of these.
The Company employs a team of permanent actor/teachers (at this time two, supplemented by freelancers for each tour) to work with no more than one class at a time. This is one of the most important features of our work, which distinguishes Big Brum TIE from young people's theatre. Fundamental to our methodology is a teacher-pupil ratio that provides for a high level of teacher mediation in the learning context we are exploring through any given dramatic situation. Our aim is to use art as a mode of knowing the world in which we live. Big Brum's underlying philosophy is perhaps best characterised by Jerome Bruner when he outlined the five ideals underpinning his own work on Man a Course of Study:
· To give respect for and confidence in the powers of their own mind.
· To extend that respect and confidence to their power to think about the human condition, man’s plight, and his social life.
· To provide a set of workable models that make it simpler to analyse the nature of the social world in which we live and the condition in which man finds himself.
· To impart a sense of respect for the capacities and humanity of man as a species.
· To leave the student with a sense of respect for the capacities and humanity of man as a species.
· To leave the student with a sense of the unfinished business of man’s evolution.
Chris Cooper
Chris studied Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle, graduating with a BA Hons in 1986.
He became a freelance actor and joined the Dukes Theatre-in-Education Company, Lancaster, as an actor-teacher in 1988.
He worked at the Dukes from 1988 until 1995 when the Company was closed down by the local authority. During his time at the Dukes time Chris performed in over 20 new TIE programmes, was an active member of the Standing Conference of Young Peoples Theatre (SCYPT - the national association for TIE), as a national committee member, Chair and National Secretary. From 1990 to 1998 he was also on the editorial committee of the SCYPT Journal, a journal of theory and practice in the field of TIE and DIE.
In 1996 Chris set up Theatre Iskra, writing and directing his first play La Sangre. He continued to work as a freelance actor, actor-teacher, director and playwright with both Big Brum TIE and Theatr Powys in Wales until 1999 when he became the Artistic Director of Big Brum.
Since then Chris has directed 28 new TIE Programmes that have toured in the west midlands, nationally and internationally. He has also created dozens of special projects for young people aged 3 to 21 years old, adults and community projects.
Since 1995 Big Brum has been working in collaboration with Edward Bond, regarded by many as Britain’s greatest living playwright. Bond who has written 48 plays that have been performed in over 60 different countries has written 8 new plays for the Company. Chris has either performed in or directed 6 of them and has developed a close working relationship with him including working abroad with Bond in France and Hungary. In 2005 Chris contributed a major chapter on Bond’s Big Brum plays in a new book edited by David Davis, Edward Bond and the Dramatic Child.
Chris has recently written an introduction to and the forewords for a new collection of six plays by Geoff Gillham to published this autumn. He is currently writing a new chapter for the Third Edition of Learning Through Drama for Routledge Books.
In 2008 Chris set up his own new company Accident Time to develop new projects while continuing as Artistic Director of Big Brum.
Chris has written 19 plays that have been produced by Theatre Iskra, Theatr Powys, Big Brum, Big Brum Youth Theatre and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. In 2011 his play Scarecrow was nominated for the Brian Way Award. His new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein will premiere in October 2011.
He has been a free lance director, teacher trainer, teacher, lecturer and workshop leader in 17 different countries. For the last three years he has been working as a drama consultant and teacher at Drama Rainbow, Beijing and at the Porta Studio, Athens. His play for young children The Other Side of Me, is currently touring in China. Chris will be writing and directing a new production of The Emperor’s New Clothes for Porta Studios to tour in January 2012.
Between 2008-2010 Chris was UK project leader of the DICE Project which researched the impact of dramatic activities on children’s educational and social competencies; editing a book,Making the World of Difference, and contributing to another on the research findings, The DICE has been Cast.