July 10-14, 2023
Action Theatre
with
Sten Rudstrom
SPACE, TIME
&
SENSE-ABILITY
When we improvise we are engaged with the space and passage of time in each unfolding moment. In this workshop, you will use your sense-ability to track & engage the moving and/or voicing body, and experience the act of performing/being. You will work with embodied presence and explore the agility of the imagination through exercises that are simple, playful, and challenging. Building one’s awareness is an essential part of this “sense-ability’. Becoming more aware of the body experience helps each performer become more aware of their performing. The constellation of sensations, feeling states/moods and ideas that may arise are all part of this process.
Our focus is the inescapable musicality of each moment-to-moment experience, the space and time inside solo/ensemble/duet work, and body generated sound and language. You will be use the body as the source material for spontaneous expression, physically, vocally and verbally. The goal is to develop performers who possess the vitality, sense-ability, and daring instincts of great improvisers, and who can to translate those qualities into any creative work they undertake.
Action Theater™ is a physical theater improvisation training which expands individual expressive range, builds ensemble awareness, and offers performers a clear, structured form in which to play with abandon. By integrating the kinesthetic intelligence of dance with the emotive nature of acting, Action Theater™ helps students access imaginative impulses. The training builds vocal, verbal, and physical performance skills, hones awareness and increases expressive range.
This workshop is open to everyone, with or without prior improvisation experience.
For over 25 years, Sten has been working extensively with Ruth Zaporah, who developed Action Theater™. He is the artistic director of the NOW! Festival of improvisation in Berlin, founded the international improvisation performance group EAT, and is a member of the Berlin-based Streugut. He teaches and performs throughout the Europe and the USA. His workshops are high-energy, articulate and promote the development of stronger performance skills.
To improvise well, you need to find a balance between inner & outer awareness. Your thoughts, feelings, attitudes; how you sense into your moving body; the textures of voice & words in the mouth are all part of the cosmology of the present moment. Your mind & body work together in this process, neither one more dominant than the other.
Sten Rudstrøm started his educational career with a B.S. in Chemistry/Mathematics at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, 1982. In his graduate work, he found himself boxed for hours on end in a windowless room spinning unknown samples in multi-thousand dollar NMR machine. At this point in his life, he realized that he wanted to work with people. He travelled around Europe for 3.5 years trying to find himself, during which he witnessed a Canadian performance poetry duet in a small Berlin café. It seemed to him that the only difference between the performers and himself was that the performers were on stage. This epiphany triggered an arts education. He received a M.F.A.Fine Art/Performance from the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles, CA., 1989, then went on to complete a M.F.A Creative Writing/Poetry from The Naropa University, Boulder, CO., 1991. In 1986, he met Ruth Zaporah, developer of Action Theater™ and has continued to work with Action Theater™ and other forms of improvisation since that time. He teaches regularly internationally and is known to be inspiring, compassionate and challenging. Regularly students have told him that Action Theater™ work could apply directly to their own work environment.
for more information
www.stenrudstrom.com