Arthaus Berlin
The end of summer was a bit of a blur to be honest. Finishing up my Howl tour, with a great final performance for Span Arts in Pemrokshire. We were already set up and the audience were gathering as the rain started. It was touch and go to be honest, and I was sheltering in the gazebo with Dan (sound designer and musician) peering out with a feelign of despondance, when the rain slowed and finally stoppped. The Welsh audience were well prepared, and we were all happy to go ahead. Internally I thought, this is it, one last chance (for 2023) to do a great show. So we did it, and it felt like the best show of the tour, the audience were well behind us and there was a touch of magic in the air. It was a great show to finish on. From there, it was a whirlwind of packng down, dropping things off, packing a bag for Malawi and one for Berlin.
I mentioned in my previous post, my trip to Malawi. Straight from there, I went to Berlin to join a full time course- Devised Theatre and Performance. Doing this course has been a dream of mine for many years, but it felt difficult to take so much time out of my career, but this year I decided to take the plunge.
It has been one of the best decisions I have ever made, and I realise now that, had I have done the course sooner, I may not of got so much out of it, that I'm now in a place to really get so much out of it. Arthaus Berlin (formerly LISPA) is one of the highest regarded physical theatre schools in Europe. They take their training very seriously, the quality of the teaching and the culture of the school ensures a really fundamentally quality experience for the students.
The course is a deep dive into the practice of embodiement, and combines a movement based pedagogy with emotional resonance, voice work, writing practices, art, academic research and a deep devising process. It strongly encourages you to develop your own creativity in response to the provocations of the course.
It has been wonderful to be a student again, so refreshing and as I have already mentioned the quality of the tution is excellent, I feel my brain, body and creativity really coming alive,am stimulated and inspired by the course and my colleagues on it. It's also really fun to be in such a dynamic and happening city as Berlin, where there is so much going on, especially in the worlds of theatre, art, dance and film.
I'm doing the course part-time, so in Decemeber 2023 I completed term one, and willl now wait unitl Januar 2025 to return, which gives me plenty of time to digest and integrate the learnings so far into my life nad artistic practice.