Mask in Performance

Presented by: Norwich Puppet Theatre & Mark Pitman

Tue 17th Jan 2012

Price: £120.00 - £150.00

The course duration is 10 weekly evening sessions.

Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Ages: 16+

10 x weekly evening sessions

7pm- 9.30pm

Commencing Tuesday 17th January 2012 until Tuesday 27th March 2012 (There will be no class on Tuesday 14th February as this is half term week).

Exploring

Neutral Mask - Metaphysical Mask - Larval Mask - Character Mask

In this 10 week course of evening classes, Mark Pitman will explore how to bring the mask to life through improvisation and the study of movement. The sessions will be relaxed and fun, we learn by playing the mask, and we will learn even more by observing how others play the mask.

This course is for anyone with an interest in masks as well as students, professional actors, teachers and puppeteers.

The Neutral Mask

Week 1 to 5

In the 5 sessions exploring the Neutral Mask you will be led on a journey to discover and develop your physical awareness. We will explore the forces of nature, elements and colour.

The Neutral Mask is the foundation of all mask work, and allows us to study how the body moves in the space we inhabit, it teaches us about silence, stillness and breath. It is a reference point of departure and calm, but at the same time a state of energy in the body.

The Metaphysical Mask

Week 6

Using visualization, we will explore the freedom of the Metaphysical Mask drawing on the discoveries made from the neutral mask.

The Metaphysical Mask was originally developed by Carlo Mazzone-Clementi who found in his teachings with the Neutral Mask that actors were trying to impose characters onto the Neutral mask.

Being a mask with no human characteristics, it allows the wearer a greater freedom in their body and strips away any preconceived ideas they may have.

Larval Masks

Week 7-8

Using the Larval Mask we will focus on improvisation, timing, fixed point and rhythm using everyday situations. In these sessions we will move towards performance techniques of playing a mask.

The Larval Mask, which is also known as the naive mask or Basel Mask, is a wonderfully comic mask with simple expressions and clear features. Exploring these masks will enable you to find out how to react and play with the audience.

Character Masks

Week 9-10

After having played the other masks, we will move on to the Character or Expressive Mask.

In these masks we are looking at how the mask can change its expression.

Whereas the Neutral Mask is part of the world around it, the Character Mask reacts to the world around. In these sessions we will move towards the playing of the counter mask and how a Character Mask can express its opposite characteristics.

At the end of the course you will have a deeper understanding of:

Body control and how the mask highlights your own movements in the space you inhabit
Exercises that will enhance your performance techniques
The different kinds of masks in rehearsal and performance
Techniques of how to play the mask and react with the audience.

Mark Pitman

Mark Pitman is co-director of Garlic Theatre - a visual theatre company that uses image, puppet animation, movement and live music to create theatre productions. During the last 12 years, Garlic Theatre has toured both nationally and internationally. Their puppet productions have been performed in international festivals in 15 countries outside the UK including Romania, Brazil, Singapore and Taiwan, winning 5 awards.

Mark worked as a model maker before training in mime and movement with Desmond Jones and attending Jacques Lecoq’s school in Paris.

He has studied leather mask making with Donato Sartori in Italy.

In 1995 Mark became a part-time tutor for puppetry and manipulation and construction at the Central School for Speech and Drama in London for six years.

Mark has worked as a freelance director since 1993. Recently, Mark has directed Alice and the White Rabbit for Indigo Moon and Morgenstern and Around the World in a Teakettle for Tineola Theatre in Prague which premiered in Berlin in October 2008. He directed Sindbad for the Andersen Theatre in Lublin in September 2009. He currently performs Little Red Robin Hood. In 2011 he will be teaching Mask in performance for students in Iaşi, Romania.