Acting Course: Step by step towards Theatre

Playing is a natural activity: we do it massively when we are children and then we tend to forget it a little, too busy with our busy lives!

In English, French and German the act of making theatre and music is to play, jouer, spielen. The connection between life and Theatre is out there for everybody to discover and explore.

In Theatre we with play with our bodies, our voices our imagination, bringing together a new, fresh energy: the energy of creativity. Step by step we can discover the power of making Theatre together and the multiple skills playing involves.

Our partner

Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi
The Paolo Grassi  School of Theater is a longstanding and visionary study center. It is the only school in Italy to offer training for every profession in the field of theater and live performance.

It offers 5 curricular courses providing advanced theater training, talent and career development, continuing education and an Ex-tra section that allows the community to use the tools of theater.

2nd semester workshop

Peter and Alice

The main goal of the 2nd term workshop is to stage a part of a real show, that will be the result of the entire course carried out during the year, or shortly to work with text. The following description is related to the whole project.
Starting from the acting techniques learned, the training studied, and the experience made in the 1st term workshop, we will work specifically on a text, namely “Peter and Alice” written by John Logan.
It is a play belonging to the contemporary drama world.
The play is based on a meeting between Alice Liddell Hargreaves, the woman who inspired Alice, and Peter Llewellyn Davies, one of the boys who inspired Peter Pan, at the opening of a Lewis Carroll exhibition in 1932. The play sees enchantment and reality collide as this brief encounter lays bare the lives of these two characters.

Objectives, contents and opportunities

The text, thanks to the great amount of characters (real and fantastic), allows us to work with a rather large group of actors: all of them will work on one or more characters.
The work will therefore start with an in-depth analysis of the text that will provide the basis for the next work: the construction of the character.
To get there we will work through the system of improvisations, theatrical games that will bring us closer and closer to our characters. We’ll start with the body (how is my character’s body, how does he/she walk, sit, jump, sleep…), we’ll understand how to talk with the body; then we’ll skip to the voice (how does my character think and talk, how does he/she say the lines) and at the end, like a painter, we’ll be able to make a perfect picture of the character. At that point let’s say that we’ll give the character its own life.
Finally, we will proceed to the real staging with the presentation of the final show (the staging will be in English and it will be a part of the real show).
The rehearsal period will be organized with the weekly appointments of the classes staged, but it will be necessary for each participant to carry out a study and continuous independent work to get to the point.
It will be a real theatrical company experience.

Requirements

The course is for anyone who wants to challenge themselves with theatre. This means making a commitment to the group - not missing lessons, doing a little homework when necessary, being open to the group’s needs.

The only requirement is a good level of English.

The course is open to anyone from the Bocconi Community (priority will be given to students).

Calendar

Lessons will be held in-person, in the Campus Life Area in Via Bocconi 12, at 7PM-9 PM.

• 15-22 February
• 1-8-22-29 March
• 5-19-26 April
  
• 3 May
  

Eventual Extra lessons

In case of extra lessons we will work around the idea of "open-reharsal" which means that the last meeting will be open to a selected audience. These people will partecipate to our work, they will see our training at the beginning, they will understand how a theater class is organized and, at the end, they will see part of the scenes we worked together.

It is not a common reharsal, it is not a complete show. It's a way to share our work, and meet some audience, that is a very importante element of the theater process.

Registration and participation fee

A participation fee of € 60 is required.

Registrations close on 14 February 2023 and should be made by paying the participation fee through Bocconi University's online payment platform.

Click on "Access as BOCCONI USER", select "Campus life" and choose the product "Theater brings us closer".

Students can register simply by paying the registration fee.

Faculty and staff should first check availability by writing an email to campuslife@unibocconi.it

Spots available: 22

Educator

Manuel Renga is professor of theatrical direction at the Paolo Grassi school and director himself.
He graduates at Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi in Milan in 2013. In the same year he participates at the contest "New focus on German drama" and is selected as director of "The Dog, the Night and the Knife", by M. Von Mayenburg (Piccolo Teatro Milano, ERT Emilia Romagna Teatro).
2014/16 Assistant director for "Storia di Q" by Dario Fo and Franca Rame staged at the Piccolo Teatro in Milano.
2016/2020 Director of more than 20 plays: "Per una donna" by Letizia Russo, "Activated carbon” by Nick Ronjun Yun, “Nuovo Eden” International Figure Theater Festival Arrivano dal mare in Rimini, “Romeo e Giulietta” by W. Shakespeare, “Borders are open!” (author and director) Festival Verdi Parma 2020.
He often works on plays for young audience: "Federico e l’allodola" and "Come Giacomino salvò il pianoforte del Maestro Puccini" new operas for kids, Festival Pucciniano in Torre del Lago.
2019 Director of "Elisir d'amore" As.Li.Co (Como) co-production Théâtre des Champs Elysées of Paris, Opéra de Rouen, Royal Muscat Opera (Oman).
Assistent director for Grahm Vick’s Don Giovanni produced by Opera di Roma.
2019-2020 Director of “Rigoletto” As.Li.Co (Como), co-production Bregenzer Teater Festspiele.
2021 Director of “Traviata” (Teatro Regio di Parma), “Don Pasquale” CSA Musci Festival Pescara.
Artistic director of Teatro Libero in Milan and CHRONOS3 Theatrical company.
Director, set and costume designer for Palketto Stage Milano International theater productions.

Coordinator

Giorgina Cantalini is didactic manager at the Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi in Milan, Italy. She obtained her PhD in Linguistics at Roma Tre University in 2018 with a dissertation on Gesture/Prosody Synchronization in Acting and Spontaneous Speech. She is an actress and a drama professor, and she has developed a technique for exploiting body movements for expressive reading.

For further information: campuslife@unibocconi.it

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