BEINTHEWORK 2024/25
Cosmino have teamed up with arthaus.berlin to host four very special workshops at the beautiful Arthaus 190sqm studio in Pankow, Berlin in 2024/5.
Venue:
EDEN*****STUDIOS
Breite Straße 43 / 13187 Berlin, Germany www.arthaus.berlin
To apply or ask a question, please email welcome@arthaus.berlin
THEATRE FEAST
Mike Shepherd (Kneehigh Theatre)
09 – 10 Nov 2024
10h – 17h
“I have no formula or set process, I’m not interested in analysis but I love exploration. Theatre making, for me, is a bit like cookery. Story, poetry, metaphor, music, action, design, colour, text and improvisation are the ingredients to combine with both care and a dash of panache. Ideas are everywhere, I love taking them for a hop, a skip and a jump.”
This practical workshop into the use of story with joint artistic director of Kneehigh, Mike Shepherd, will journey through three chapter headings:
“Understand the straight line before you make it wavey” – performance energy, awareness and technique
“What happens next ?” – narrative structure and developing ideas
“ All for one and one for all” – ensemble and collaborative process
All of this happens embracing generosity, play, bravery and freedom, key factors which make up the very ‘spirit’ of Kneehigh.
A unique insight into some of the valuable processes that Kneehigh Theatre used in developing so many of their incredible theatrical feasts.
Mike Shepherd started Kneehigh Theatre in Cornwall in 1980. Actor, teacher, director and artistic director for 40 years. He wanted to make surprising theatre, in surprising places for cross generational audiences. “When I first started teaching in inner city London, in a grotty and ghettoised Nissan hut, I quickly learnt the importance of nurturing creativity and how the conditions of creativity, often overlooked, need to be considered.” In 1990 he turned an old derelict farm building into the home of Kneehigh. For 30 years the shows of Kneehigh were seeded here, explored and developed by an umbrella of artists and theatre makers. The barns remain a vital space in this extraordinary time of change and uncertainty – for fresh horizons, new futures and ways of being – locally, nationally and internationally. In 40 years Kneehigh produced 75 main shows, 23 community events, 19 site specific shows and 10 “special” projects. “We played to audiences in Syria, Lebanon, China, South Korea, America, Australia , Norway, New Zealand and others !” Mike Shepherd continues to run the barns as a home for artists and the community. “We aim to help people to return to a more wild and self-willed state, we aim to tickle, jolt and edify the numb parts of us all back into being.”
Fee : 200€
PUPPETRY & PERFORMANCE
Robin Guiver
30 Nov – 01 Dec 2024
10h – 17h
Robin: “This workshop will examine in depth the relationships between puppet, performer and audience, combining technical exercises with creative challenges. Vitally, we will ask why would we choose to use puppetry and when does it work best. Handspring’s principals of puppetry are a jumping off point for exploring a whole world of performing objects, actor-puppet relationships, and expressions of poetic metaphor. We will look at both solo and multi operator puppets. And not only will we look at what puppetry can do as an art form, but, like a mask, we will also examine what it can teach us about our creative process as a whole.”
Robin Guiver is an actor and puppeteer, who has been working professionally in the theatre and film world for nearly 20 years. His approach to puppetry combines his Lecoq-based training at LISPA with extensive work with Handspring Puppet Company as part of the original West End cast of War Horse, and later as a workshop facilitator for the company. From there he has honed his skills with collaborations in film, TV and Theatre in the UK.
In addition to his Performing in the West End, Robin has also worked with Complicite, Ad-Infinitum, the National Theatre, Gyre and Gimble and many others. Robin’s first work in film was as a Movement Artist on the award winning Gravity. Further projects include Creature FX puppetry with Neil Scanlan Studio on Star Wars ep VII, VIII and IX, Jurassic World and Solo. Under his own company, Performance FX, he has used puppets on the film sets of Tom and Jerry, the Fantastic Beasts films, The Little Mermaid and many others.
www.robinguiver.co.uk
Fee : 200€
ADVENTURES IN VOICE
Frankie Armstrong and Darien Pritchard
25-26 January 2025
10h – 17h
For thousands of years, our ancestors sang to accompany work, devotion, seasonal rituals and social gatherings – to express joy, grief, rage, tenderness, hope and fear. All these emotions can be given full range through the power and beauty of the voice.
To help unlock this, Frankie and Darien use a range of gentle, enjoyable movements and ‘exercises’ to help relax and free the body, breath and voice. This workshop is an opportunity for anyone to explore the melodic voice in an easy-going, supportive atmosphere – to be curious and adventurous with their voices, using the body and imagination, without judgement or the need to “get it right”. The aim is to tap into the joy, strength and energy of singing with others, and to find a range of colour and expression in each of our voices. Frankie uses chants and songs from around the world, along with simple structures to create vocal ‘events’.
No prior experience is needed; just bring an open heart and mind and wear loose comfortable clothing, and have water (at room-temperature) to hand to keep your voice lubricated.
Frankie Armstrong, the ‘godmother of the natural voice singing movement’, has been singing professionally since 1964. In 1975 she began her pioneering Voice Workshops based on ethnic styles of singing – where singing is as natural as speaking. She has sung and run workshops all over Europe, N America and Australia working with Community Groups, Theatre Companies, International Voice and Theatre Festivals and in every kind of setting from hospitals to the National Theatre Studio, London. She has made 12 solo albums, cowritten three voice books.
She is honorary president of NVN (Natural Voice Network), honorary life member of VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association), and holds a gold badge from EFDSS (English Folk Dance and Song Society).
Darien Pritchard draws on his experience of more than 40 years as a massage and Feldenkrais teacher. Frankie and Darien have worked together for nearly 40 years, developing a unique style of combining body and voice.
www.frankiearmstrong.uk
Fee : 200€
BREATH, SOUND & TEXT: EMBODYING THE VOICE
Ann Ogbomo
22-23 February 2025
10h – 17h
This two-day workshop will begin by connecting participants first and foremost with their breath, the place where all sound emerges.
From this connection, we will explore how sound is made and the different parts of the body in which it can resonate. The journey then moves to turning sounds into words and feeling the formation of those words within corresponding parts of the vocal apparatus and body in order to instinctively and authentically express text.
Participants should bring a poetic text, requiring muscularity of thought and speech, and in English.
Ann Ogbomo (MA, PGA, BA) is an actor and educator with over 20 years experience.
She worked on voice with the late Kristin Linklater and speech with the late John Barton. Most recent theatre was playing Goneril to Kathryn Hunter’s King Lear at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Theatre credits include: King Lear, Shakespeare at the Abbey, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew and Richard III, all for Shakespeare’s Globe; Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Henry VI parts 1, 2, 3, Richard II and Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 all for the RSC; 15 Heroines for Jermyn Street Theatre; Schoolplay for Antic Face; Light Shining In Buckinghamshire and The Tempest for the National Theatre; Henry IV at the Donmar; Tamburlaine at the Barbican/Bristol Old Vic; The Gods are not to Blame for Tiata Fahodzi; and The Jungle Book at West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Screen credits include: Surviving Earth (Film4 and BFI); We Live in Time (Film4 & Studio Canal); The Sandman (Netflix); The Rising (Sky) The Last Letter from Your Lover (Studio Canal); Krypton (Warner Bros TV & Syfy); Justice League (Warner Bros); Wonder Woman (Warner Bros) and Honeytrap (Bright Pictures).
Fee : 200€
