McCauley: Playing the Self, Playing the Other

Presented by: Robbie McCauley

For actors who want to make their own work, using acting as their source. Expand your ability to shape language for performing subjects that matter to you; deepen your vocal and body connections; collaborate with others; and explore possibilities to play characters other than ones you are likely to be cast for — ones that you yearn to play. Robbie states, “I began teaching actors to tell stories, and since teaching requires learning, I began daring to write pieces I could perform from the actor’s point of view.”

This workshop is open by submission to actors with prior training and experience who are interested in creating their own work, either from found sources, through their own writing, or a combination of the two. Robbie will be selecting a group of actors for the workshop based on the subject matter you are interested in and how you are connected to it.

So that we can assemble actors willing and able to commit to this work, we are asking you to do the following:

-In your application, describe the material you are moved to engage with, and why you connect with it.

-Before the first session, choose approximately 10 to 20 lines of a poem or narrative piece to work with on the first day of class (memorization not required). You may choose from the books listed below, which are available at HB Studio.

-You may also choose from other texts or from your original writing.

Suggested Texts:
Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century, by Jo Bonney, ed.
Out From Under: Texts by Women Performance Artists, Leonora Champagne, ed.
Fires in the Mirror or Twilight  by Anna Deavere Smith
Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen
Native American Wisdom by Kristen Maree Cleary
The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde
The Me Nobody Knows by Stephen M. Joseph
The Redthroats by David Cale
Pagan Operetta by Carl Hancock Rux