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The Integrated Actor: Acting From the neck down​​

THIS COURSE HAS BEEN SUSPENDED FOR 2020 AND WILL MOST LIKELY BE REOFFERED IN SUMMER 2021.


This course challenges actors to engage with the body as the primary instrument for exploring and interpreting theatrical scenarios and texts. Study physical theatre approaches and techniques, and learn how to make the body speak for you.

  • Train in contemporary physical theatre practices such as Mary Overlie's Six Viewpoints, Allan Wayne Work, the Jean Hamilton Floor Barre and Grotowski-inspired techniques to explore solo, ensemble and text-based performance work.
  • Learn individualized, daily, physical theatre practices to support you in an audition and rehearsal for a variety of roles, genres and working approaches.
  • Act with your legs, feet and whole body. Leave this rigorous class stronger and more flexible.
  • Unite the body, voice and mind through physical practice, and expand your sensory awareness!


 

COURSE NUMBER/CREDITS

Undergraduate: DRAMA 424, 3 units
Graduate/post-baccalaureate: DRAMA 624, 3 units

MATERIALS FEE

None

WHO SHOULD APPLY

Students of theatre who have ideally completed a course in beginning acting. Movement experience is not necessary.​

HOW TO APPLY

  1. Prepare a short, two-paragraph written statement of purpose expressing how this type of training is essential to your artistic development, describing your previous training in physical theatre and detailing what you hope to gain from the experience. Also, upload a short one-minute video introduction of yourself that includes a physical or movement-based expression of yourself as an artist.
  2. Submit/upload the materials listed in step one when you apply online by May 11, 2020.

COURSE COORDINATOR

Carin Heidelbach
(209) 743-3344


Guest Artists

Brendan McCall –  https://integratedactor.wordpress.com/faculty/​​

Brendan McCall has worked internationally as a performer, director, choreographer and producer in more than 45 countries on five continents. He was manager of the Cummins Theatre from 2012-14, producer for Grusomhetens Teater from 2014-17 and director of production for Tulsa Ballet in 2019. He is currently developing a new opera with composer Kristin Norderval with a libretto by Rita Dove through multiple residencies at the Norwegian Opera House. Since 1994, McCall has taught Allan Wayne Work, the Hamilton Floor Barre and the Six Viewpoints at the Yale School of Drama, the New School for Drama, New York University, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School.

Matthew Floyd Miller – https://integratedactor.wordpress.com/faculty/​

Matthew Floyd Miller has been an instructor of acting at East Los Angeles College’s Theatre Arts Department, California State University, Los Angeles, California State University, Long Beach and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he taught courses in Grotowski-based physical acting training. Miller has also taught the Grotowski-based work at a number of independent schools and studios, including Stella Adler Conservatory; Chekhov Studio International in Los Angeles, where he has also taught a course in dialect w​ork; The Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, California; Working Classroom in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and The Grotowski Workshop L.A., which he also founded. He has worked as a professional actor all across the U.S. for more than 24 years and has acted on Broadway in “Not About Nightingales” and “The Invention of Love.”

Stacy Dawson Stearns – stacydawsonstearns.com​

Stacy Dawson Stearns is a Bessie Award-winning interdisciplinary performer and director, known for her original works as well as her collaborative work with Big Dance Theater, David Neumann, Hal Hartley, Ken Nintzel and Blacklips Performance Cult. She has performed internationally since 1996 as a principal with Big Dance Theater and in her own work. Domestically, she has performed at festivals and venues, including Jacob’s Pillow, American Dance Festival, the Walker Art Center and others. Stearns is a lecturer at California State Polytechnic Pomona and California State University, Los Angeles. She can be seen as Kreon in “ANTIGONICK,” Anne Carson’s one-act, radical-feminist, philosophical take on Sophocles’ “Antigone” in January 2020 at Carolina Performing Arts and June 2020 in NYC at the River2River Festival.