I am going to be running a professional training course along with puppeteer Mark Whitaker at Horse + Bamboo – here’s the information.
Loz teaching on a professional development week at Horse + Bamboo.
TAKING THE LEAP…
A Horse + Bamboo Masterclass exploring ‘Little Leap Forward’
This is a rare opportunity to train with Horse + Bamboo’s Associate Artists Loz Kaye and Mark Whitaker. This intensive week course will introduce participants to Horse + Bamboo’s current working practices and give a unique behind the scenes look at how the show ‘Little Leap Forward’ was put together. You will come away with a raft of new tools for creating your own work or teaching, and a healthy dose of inspiration from what Jane Horrocks describes as ‘this must see company’.
The work will have three focuses – mask, puppetry and space. We will explore techniques for Horse + Bamboo’s characteristic helmet masks- physical characterisation, the reveal, energy, tempo, internal monologue. ‘Little Leap Forward’ has a rich variety of puppetry techniques which we will work with- multiple person operated table top puppets, chinese style hand puppets and whole body shadow puppetry which we developed at our base at the Boo. We will also get to grips with some of the fundamental principles of object theatre, the relationship of the puppeteer to the object and the notion of animation and transfer of energy.
Finally, we will introduce the latest techniques Horse + Bamboo have been developing in shows like ‘Deep Time Cabaret’. This is the idea that the animation of the whole performing space is a type of puppetry. We will look at how objects, light, sound and video become an extension of performance rhythm, and how changes of physical scale can become a playful part of storytelling.
The masterclass will take one of the current shows from the repertoire: ‘Little Leap Forward’ as its focus. This moving account of the true story of Guo Yue’s childhood in Cultural Revolution Beijing gained 4 stars in Lyn Gardner’s Guardian review…
We will use this as a way of showing how technique can be put in to practice. There will also be a chance to meet the show’s director Alison Duddle, and gain insight in to Horse + Bamboo’s working process, and how we transformed this book in to a stage work.
So, take the leap in to the fascinating theatrical universe of Horse + Bamboo.
July 12th-16th 2010, 10-5.30 each day. Taking place at the Boo, Waterfoot, Rossendale. Cost £250. To book contact alison@horseandbamboo.org .
lozkaye