November 12 (2-7PM), 13,19, 20 (12-5PM)
Location: Vileišio 18

Price for 4-day workshop:
Regular price - 395Eur
Early Bird price - 350 Eur if booked by Oct 31, 2022
Observers price: 175 Eur/5 days or 40 Eur/ day

Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 12 Actors
(only for those who have taken Workshop 4 or 5 with Steven)

Workshop 7 (Character Work 2) continues our work on creating character! In our last workshop we explored Physical Impediments and how an addition to your normal behavior – like a Physical Impediment – will begin to create a new and separate life within you.

Now we are going to take our exploration of character work a step further! We are going to explore Intense Physical Pain (without hurting ourselves!).

Playing intense pain takes us into a new area of acting. This area is concerned with the illusion of reality rather than reality itself. A lot of inexperienced actors have very misguided notions about this. They think you must feel actual pain in order to play it well. This is a big mistake.

In acting we don’t do anything that will cause actual pain. We don’t bang our head against a wall if we need to play having a headache. Instead, we use our skills as an actor to create the symptoms indicative of a particular condition.

When you are playing pain, your work will be judged by two criteria: whether or not the audience can recognize the condition you’re creating; and whether or not they believe the way you’ve portrayed it.

In this workshop, you will learn specific techniques on how to create the symptoms of different conditions that are demanded of you, the actor, in many story lines - Migraines, hangovers, colds, flu’s, toothaches, shingles and crumbling lower back pain to name a few, all the while staying relaxed and open to your partner.

Most actors tense their bodies when playing pain because, in real life, pain tends to cause physical tension. You must learn to let go of that habit and keep your body loose. A loose body is essential for listening and responding to your partner as well as for letting your emotions flow freely.

Staying relaxed at this stage of the game is a very advanced acting challenge and you will most likely have trouble with it, but that’s ok, that’s what we’re here to work on.

It’s challenging and exciting work. I can’t wait!

I hope you get to join us!

Best,

Steven