Raïa Haïdar and myself just founded OpenTheatre.cc [site coming soon].

Open Theatre is platform for exploration where the stage is invisible.

These classes aim to bring together professionals and amateur from all backgrounds who wish to explore, develop, express different emotions, thoughts, actions and ideas. The classes will focus on giving participants acting training as well as improvisation skills through practice using technology (sound recordings of performances, the use of video as a mean to create an environment where participants will be invited to play).

Below is The Open Theatre movement description.

The Open Theater was an experimental theatre group active from 1963 to 1973.

It was founded in New York City by a group of former students of acting teacher Nola Chilton, and joined shortly thereafter by director Joseph Chaikin, formerly of The Living Theatre, and Peter Feldman. The group’s intent was to continue Chilton’s exploration of a “post-method”, post-absurd acting technique, by way of a collaborative and wide-ranging process that included exploration of political, artistic, and social issues, which were felt to be critical to the success of avant-garde theatre. The company, developing work through an improvisational process drawn from Chilton and Viola Spolin, created well-known exercises, such as “sound and movement” and “transformations”, and originated radical forms and techniques that anticipated or were contemporaneous with Jerzy Grotowski’s “poor theater” in Poland.[1] According to playwright Megan Terry the notion of a minimalist aesthetic was fueled by the company’s quest to achieve narrative insight and political accountability through the body of the actor:

During the sixties we were concerned with stripping away. Chaikin and the Open Theater actors worked to reveal the actor’s imagination as projected by the actor’s presence. We showed that full, exciting theatrical productions could be done with nothing but actors and two benches or four chairs or only a bare stage. It was not only a matter of economics, it was essential to demonstrate the profound power of the actor’s imagination and the actor’s ability to create place, i.e., scenery through the power of belief via total technique, and through the use of transformation not only of character but of time and place.[2]

Photo courtesy of LIFE magazine (Israël 1948).

So a little bit about our collaboration…

Raïa Haïdar is a French-Lebanese actor who has been working in film, theatre and television for two decades. Her approach evolved from classical acting to exploring other practices such as coaching actors, directing plays and art direction.

Céline Semaan Vernon (aka celinecelines) is a Lebanese-Canadian experience designer who explores technology as a means to create narratives and storytelling that can broaden perceptions, locations and tastes.

Together they joined forces to create Open Theatre — mixing classical acting methods, open media and the use of technology in order to bring participants to explore the practice of acting and performance.

Open Theatre Lesson Plan: Classical Acting Classes.

First Class:

Starts with a personal presentation of each participants, who they are, their acting experiences, motivations and artistic expectations.
Conductors will choose or select directions to take according to the participants desires and needs.

Warm up

Every class will start with a 20 min warm up:
Body relaxation, voice exercise, space awareness and collective improvisation based on physical sense and emotions (ex: being underwater, feeling hot, walking in the desert, waiting, laughing, crying, falling etc…)

Group Improvisation

Slowly the silent warm-up improvisation will develop into language… First improvisation non lingual (ex: animal, nature like) and then according to class progress the language will lead to a prepared group improvisation.(20 min).
Themes and improvisations exercises will develop around the Multimedia conductor leading to a final presentation.

Solo Improvisation/work/project

First class will ask participant to improvise a psychological situation in silent.
in order to work on the cinematographic acting, capacity to transmit an emotion a situation without using words.
this can develop into use of words ( ex: a phone conversation, writing a letter, preparing a speech) (5 min per participants)

Duo Improvisation/work/ project

Same as solo project but using 2 participant working on communication and dialogue developing the abilities to listen to the other and feed improvisation.
(ex: fight between two, a separation…) (10 min each)
Can also be worked as a “Trio Improvisation/work/ project”
Themes and improvisations exercises will develop around the Multimedia conductor leading to a final presentation.
According to participants personal multimedia project, this time is used for solo or duo/trio projects.

A list of exercises and performance like works will be added to each class.

Performance and Technology.

• The use video projection as a background for creating dialogue and new narratives
• The use of recordings to create soundscapes as a mean to explore one’s inner dialogue
• The use of photography as a mean to document and portray different characters
• The use of silence and body awareness and movements as a mean to explore space
• Collaboration (online / offline) as mean to develop improv skills, sharability and the maintenance of networks
• The body as a tool to be mastered and perfected
• Food and rituals as a discovery of cultures and traditions
• The use of responsive technologies and wearable sensors as a mean to explore other realities in a hyperconnected world

Ideas of play.

• Foods of a particular country, with projections of landscape and people from the chosen country and a series of improvs using the objects and food (documented and published online)
• Microphone worn as broches recording the participants and the sound is then used in another manner, outside its original context
• Karaoke cinema where participants are invited to improvise and create the dialogue of given movie clips or remixes
• Chatroulette performance where participants are invited to create a short situation

What is Karaoke Cinema?

Karaoke Cinema means creating dialogues, voice-over and soundtrack over remixed movies in a context of a performance played live with different participants.

For this Karaoke Cinema I plan to select video clips of many famous people or historical figures; for example dictators who have been ousted by their people and let participants voice-over them giving speeches and give the speech they want.

It can be poetry, messages of peace, whatever comes to mind to the participant.The performance will be documented and eventually shared.

Are you interest? You happen to be in Montreal? Register Here!