The Making of an Actor

A Coordinates Project of Singapore Biennale 2019

The actor is the lynchpin of any theatre performance. All other aspects of the art form — narrative, design and mise en scène — flow through the expressive capacity which is the actor’s body-mind. As such, the artistic subjectivity of the actor, its formation, conception and identity are singularly significant to the process of theatre-making, particularly in making new theatre.

"The Making of an Actor" is a unique opportunity for a select number of attendees to witness and understand how the creative capabilities of the contemporary actor are conceived, shaped and primed for performance at the Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI).

Over the course of several sessions between January and March, attendees will be given access to various stages in the process of making a contemporary actor, including:

• A guided introduction to actor training and interculturality, in the form of a 1 and a half-hour talk with ITI Director T. Sasitharan
• Observation of selected classes which shape the actor’s instrument – the body-mind complex
• Witnessing the methods and practices which immerse the consciousness of the actor in the ocean of a traditional theatre form – viz. Kutiyattam, a Sanskrit theatre form recognised by UNESCO as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity taught by master teacher Gopalan Venu
• Observations of the Final Year Production rehearsals and viewing of the finished public performance in March 2020 directed by Andy Ng Wai-shek, and viewing of the finished public performance
• A concluding talk and Q&A

"The Making of an Actor" serves as a prelude to the Asian Intercultural Conference: New Theatre(s) for A New World (23 – 25 November 2020), which will explore how artists and theatre-makers respond to urgent and growing realities of life, including populist nationalism, xenophobic exclusionism, failed globalism and environmental catastrophe.

"The Making of an Actor" will attempt to show the processes which cultivate the development of specific disciplines and practices that enable the controlled release of deep subjectivities onto the open, objective stage. That, in essence, is theatre.

 
Attendees will receive a certificate of participation upon completion of the programme. 

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