I’ve been accepted into the the La Mama International Master Acting Workshops with a full grant from the National Arts Council! Needless to say I am excited!
From 30 July to 9 Aug 2013 The workshops will be held in the gorgeous Umbria, Italy, in a country house owned by La Mama. The international teaching artists will be:
Kristin Linklater – known worldwide for her vocal training for actors (The Linkater Technique)
Paul Binnerts – author of ACTING IN REAL TIME, who developed the real-time acting approach, which offers a bridge between Bretcht’s naturalism and Stanislavski’s naturalism.
Nancy Gabor – a close collaborator of Joe Chaiken and the Open Theatre.
Training has always been an essential part of my practice, and it is the right time to enhance my skills as a practitioner. I am really looking forward to the intercultural exchange at the La Mama workshop, mainly to find new tools to approach my work and to get artistic refreshment. Furthermore, learning from the practice of international artists is a gainful way of invigorating work and my contribution within the Singapore theatre industry.
But why acting and not the directing workshop? Honestly, it was a first a question of schedule. Dreamplay: Asian Boys Vol. 1 clashed with the directing workshop and if Rising Son hadn’t been postponed, I wouldn’t have been able to apply for the acting workshop. When I found out that I could apply for the acting workshop, I jumped at the opportunity to interface with masters who have built their careers training actors and then directing them. As I continue to deepen my craft as a theatre practitioner by expanding my work into directing, I feel the need for new tools and to expand my vocabulary to help me train and direct my actors better. I will be going with the mindset to collect these approaches to apply to my directing work.
Tan Shou Chen 