American artists deliver a theater master class to Turkmen young actors and directors
As part of the III International Theater Festival held in Ashgabat, a creative master class was held at the Student Theater named after Mollanepes. Actors of the Theater Simple, USA, shared with the students of the Actor and Director faculties the basic principles that they use to stage performances.
Attention was focused on the fact that modern theater is not cumbersome scenery, but the imagination of the audience, therefore their involvement in the theatrical performance process is the most important part.
“When we say that theater is simple, we do not mean that “simplet” means “easy”. It is not about it. Our goal is to get the audience actively interacted with what that is happening on stage,” the director of Theater Simple, Llysa Holland, says.
Students were given the opportunity to understand in practice the basic ideas developed in the Theater Simple. Text and movement, audience associations, of course, are important elements in the performance. However, lighting design was another topic of the master class.
In a mini-performance, the actors of the American theater played a light illusion. The hero, sitting on a chair, somehow finds himself floating; the light of small flashlights, which are controlled by his partners, made the flight illusion.
“Using flashlights and playing with shadows, you can achieve incredibly beautiful pictures on the stage, moving in the imagination anywhere you want. Light can become a source of emotions, it all depends on where the light is directed,” the actors explain.
The Theater Simple was founded in 1990 in Seattle, Washington, by artistic instigators Llysa Holland and Andrew Litzky. The theater has presented many performances on four continents. The theater has toured extensively and has been honored with the dozens awards. The theater simple can be presented in both traditional theater spaces and more “out of the box” locations.
In Ashgabat, the Theater Simple will present the Caravan Chronicles performance, a story about family values and affinity of human souls. The premiere for the Ashgabat audience will be held on November 21 at 19:00 at the National Drama Theater named after Alp Arslan.
