Presence Workshop
PRESENCE WORKSHOP
with John Beale
Aug 26th, 27th and 28th, 2016
Friday 6pm-9pm
Saturday and Sunday 11am-5pm
Artscape Youngplace
180 Shaw Street, Toronto, ON
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
The study of showing up, being open, sensitive, vulnerable, human and ridiculous. Discover your special quality that connects you to others, being present and engaging to an audience, connecting and opening a channel between you and them.
This work helps us get unstuck. It teaches us to listen, to re-discover play, not to push too much or shy away but to let go and be attuned to the moment. It's a rudimentary practice for anyone.
This form is studied to discover one's clown. For actors it's Jedi training - an essential workout to become more sensitive, open and connected to your audience. For non-actors it's a practice of facing fears, showing up and finding a powerful connection with others, opening that channel between you and them. Everyone will have the experience they need.
We will discover the ways in which we reveal ourselves and how we hide away. This form connects us with our enormous pleasure to play but then presents us with the formidable task of making everyone burst out laughing. Our ego rushes in to save the day either pushing too much or shying away. This fear of failure brings out all our tricks we use to avoid being exposed. It's when our best intentions fall flat the pretense of the ego is revealed. The rug is pulled. The thin ice cracks and what is uncovered is a beautiful, sensitive, vulnerable presence behind the slipping mask of ego- a presence that fills the room. We show up. It's very powerful. So in the end it's not about being funny or goofy or small or cute it's about showing our true presence. Paradoxically the goal we set out to achieve in the first place happens by accident. There is a burst of laughter but not a derisive or pitiful laughter, it's a huge heartfelt, belly laugh at the human condition. The audience falls in love.
"With this work people have to find a way of being beautiful and surprising... and by beautiful I mean being in the grip of pleasure or freedom".
Philippe Gaulier
PAST PARTICIPANTS
Actors, dancers, filmmakers, painters, musicians, writers, stand-up comics, poets, teachers, acrobats, lawyers, clowns, doctors, public speakers, life coaches, facilitators, administrators, toy-makers, Gestalt therapists, HR, fine artists, surfers, rocket-scientists, computer programmers, inventors, Feldenkrais practitioners, massage therapists, chefs, event planners, mindfulness practitioners, psychotherapists, social workers, university professors and many others.
ABOUT JOHN BEALE
John Beale is a Toronto-based actor, teacher and director. A graduate of the Philippe Gaulier International Theatre School in Paris, John also trained, performed and taught extensively with Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. He is an artistic associate with reWork Productions in Toronto. He has been holding publicly offered performance workshops since 2005. More at www.johnbeale.net.
Cost: $300 + HST
50% discount for returning students
20% discount for Equity and ACTRA
Pre-registration and payment is required
Space will be limited to 14 people.
REGISTRATION AND MORE INFORMATION
416-892-4322
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