PERFORMING
ARTS

COLLECTIVE SCENIC CREATION:
TOWARDS A HORIZONTAL WORKSPACE

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This summer school is organized by Escola Universitària ERAM (Universitat de Girona, Spain) as part of the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP). Students will be invited to discover the possibilities of collectivity in the framework of scenic creation. We will explore how to alter traditional hierarchy structures, where the figure of the director generally prevails, to find a way to create more horizontally. We will create a space where dramaturgy, direction, acting or scenography can coexist simultaneously, so that they can feed back to achieve a common goal: the creation of a scenic piece.

We will start sharing our artistic references to create our own ecosystem. That way we’ll get to know each other and discover our personalities, habilities, style and artistic preferences, so we can create a stimulating environment. We will experiment around the roles in stage creation, and we’ll discover other scenic creators who try to work beyond the historical stablished hierarchies.

Director ≠ Dictator.

Preparatory Online Session: This phase would involve an introductory online meeting where actors are introduced to key concepts of acting and performance. They might engage in preliminary exercises to prepare for the in-person sessions, focusing on improvisation, character development, and script analysis.

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Intensive In-Person Workshop: The core of the program, taking place over a week, where actors participate in intensive workshops and rehearsals. They would work in groups to explore different acting techniques, develop characters, and prepare scenes or short performances. This phase could also include masterclasses with experienced actors or directors and group feedback sessions.

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Wrap-up Online Session: The final phase would be a reflective online meeting to discuss the experiences and learnings from the workshop. Actors could share their work, receive final feedback, and discuss ways to apply the skills and techniques learned to their future acting endeavors. This session could also include guidance on career development in the performing arts.

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THE SUMMER SCHOOL WILL INVOLVE THREE PHASES

Preparatory session / on-line
Online Session 1

Group introductory session. We will introduce ourselves and present the course program. We will find out what we mean by scenic creation. We will jointly define concepts that will accompany us throughout the program, in order to generate a common vocabulary that will facilitate communication between the participants.

Wrap-up session / on-line
Online Session 2

In this session we will share our artistic references (artists, companies, collectives...). We will plan an individual scenic creation exercise (which will also serve as an artistic presentation for each one) that they will have to carry out outside the sessions and bring the first day of face-to-face class.

Summer school / in person

Monday

Introductory session and group cohesion exercises

This will be an introductory session to the program. We will explain the contents of the program and we’ll see the results of the exercise that was proposed on the previous online session. In order to accomplish the program goals, it is important that the participants find a comfortable and useful workspace. This session will let the participants find a space to get to know each other and discover their personalities, habilities, style and artistic preferences, so they can create groups afterwards.

Tuesday

Effervescent Creation: Pivotal Roles

During this session we will experiment around the roles in stage creation. In groups of five or six people, an exercise will be proposed to create short stage pieces where each of the participants will adopt a role (direction, dramaturgy, space, acting...). They will have one hour to create a small theater play around a theme. After presenting it, the formula will be repeated: a new topic will be proposed and the roles will rotate.

Wednsday:
Barcelona - Visit a creation factory

We will visit one of Barcelona's creation factories (Nau Ivanow, Fabra i Coats, La Caldera, Graner, La Escocesa...). Fàbriques de Creació is a municipal program based on the transformation of old disused industrial buildings to turn them into new spaces for culture and artistic expression. They become an indispensable part of the country's scenic ecosystem, favoring experimentation, testing, trial and error, dialogue and exchange among artists. The idea would be to visit one of these spaces and ideally also attend the opening process of a resident artist.

Thursday:

Preparation of the final pieces

In this session, the same formula as Tuesday will be followed, but extended in time. Groups of five or six people will be formed (different from those on Tuesday) and they will have the whole day to prepare a stage piece around a theme. They will have to decide in which role they want to be and how they are organized. They will work independently with the supervision of the workshop assistants.

Friday:

Presentations of the final pieces

The pieces they prepared the day before will be presented. We will not only see the result but also talk about the creative process of each group: what advantages they found, what difficulties and how they solved them, etc.

Closing session / on-line

This session is meant to be a closing of the program. We will share experiences and talk about what has happened during the week we have been together.