Teatro Punto Workshop Information

Contemporary Commedia Workshop
Dates: August 5th, 2009 from 3:30-9:30pm; August 6th, 2009 from 3:30-6:30pm
(Workshop includes the ‘Solo dell´Arte’ performance on August 6th at 8pm)
Participants: 20 Maximum
Fee: $150

Teatro Punto makes theater where the actor is the author of the story. As the actor on stage is stripped of supports such as extended settings and a fixed script, he can become the author of a tragicomic show, whether he's talking about texas hold'em or the fall of the Berlin Wall. He does this through movement, text, techniques and imagination. Carlos and Katrien’s main source of inspiration is Commedia dell'Arte. Employing their training, imagination, intellect and a great deal of hard work and experimentation they have taken the Commedia to new heights. Their storytelling takes the masks into new territory. They have discovered ways to make the life within each mask not only amuse and engage the audience but take them to the dark side. A theater form full of acting possibilities; it is precise and vulnerable, yet above all else it is alive. Previous U.S. workshops have been given at: Brown University, NYU, Wagner College, Sarah Lawrence, UMass, Trinity College, Tufts, and Williams & Mary.

The Workshop consists of:

• Movement analysis

• Physical transformation/metamorphoses

• From Tragedy to Comedy

• Musicality and timing

• Mask and archetypical characters

• Improvisation and scene composition - Canovaccio

• Study of interaction between actor and audience

‘Solo dell´Arte’ Performance
Date: August 6th, 2009 at 8:00pm
Admission: $15 ($12 – students with valid ID)

‘Solo dell´Arte’ is an introduction to the audience of one of the most ancient types of theatre, Commedia dell´Arte, and the presence of this Art into our days.
In this show/conference there is only an empty space, masks, an actor without costumes and the audience. Carlos García Estévez will perform a collection of stories under the theme of Love (tragically love, infidel love, casual love…). He will be aided by his own techniques, movements, gestures, texts, imagination and the spirit of performing for and with an audience. During the performance, the actor will present the historical and contemporary context of this type of theatre and he will explain to the audience some of the mechanisms of how this theatre is made (the metamorphosis of the actor, the use of the mask and the grommellot).

Company Information and Personal Biographies

Teatro Punto is a theater company based in Amsterdam. It was founded in 1998 by Carlos García Estévez in Paris. He did this with the help and input of actors from different European countries, all trained by Jacques Lecoq. In 2000 Carlos moved the Company to Madrid where they produced two Commedia dell’ Arte shows. In 2001 the company moved again, this time to Galway in Ireland with Miquel A. Barceló and Judith Higgins, both of whom enacted important developments in the direction of the company. During this period they produced several shows. In 2003 Carlos met Katrien Van Beurden, a Dutch actress, director and trainer in physical theater, specialized in Commedia dell'Arte. Together they began to direct the Company from Amsterdam and created Teatro Punto’s Lab "CanZannone" near Girona in Spain. Teatro Punto has seven full time actors, as well as one mask maker. Many more actors, opera singers, writers and directors collaborate with the Company.

Carlos García Estévez, Madrid, Spain (1976) is the founder and co-artistic leader of Teatro Punto. He studied at Jacques Lecoq's École Internationale du Théâtre and at the Laboratoire d’Etude de Mouvement (LEM). Motivated by Jacques Lecoq, he began research into the tragic depth that exists in Commedia dell’ Arte. He starts to develop his own methodology for training actors and making theater. During this period (1999-2000) he was accepted by Mario Gonzáles, the mask master from the Conservatoire Nationale d'Art Dramatique of Paris and former actor from Théâtre du Soleil. In the same period he also met mask maker Den Durand, beginning a long-standing collaboration. Den Durand’s masks have been used throughout the history of Teatro Punto, and they continue to research and work together, discovering new expressive forms in masks and physical theater. In the summer of 1999, to further his own research, he travelled to Italy to study with Donato Sartori (sculptor and master in mask construction) at the Centro Maschere e Strutture Gestuali, Padova. There he started to discover the Gesture’s Architecture and the Anthropology of the Mask. A few years later he collaborated with Donato Sartori, as a movement teacher at the Centre of Sartori itself and as an actor in his conference at the University of Padova. Sartori’s work has served as an indispensable reference for all of Teatro Punto’s work. Carlos has also trained with Gennadi Bogdanov (biomechanics), Antonio Fava (traditional Commedia dell’ Arte), Pierre Byland (clown), Kevin Crawford (Roy Hart vocal technique), and Eric de Bont (clown).

Katrien van Beurden, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1977) is an actress, teacher, director and co-artistic leader of Teatro Punto. She graduated at the Conservatorium of Acting in Utrecht, (HKU), and at the School of Fine Arts in Montana, U.S.A. She followed her internship with director Frans Strijards company Art en Pro in the play ‘Ivanov’. After her graduation she played in the production ‘Esprit’ also directed by Frans Strijards at the ‘Theatercompagnie’. She played with Zep producties and Stichting Ciggaar. She appeared in the Israeli premier of ‘Boulevard des Miseres’ an international project commemorating deportations during the Nazi occupation. In 2003 she got a scholarship to study Commedia dell'Arte with Antonio Fava in Italy. There she was asked to participate in intensive mask training with Carlos García in Barcelona and they created the Commedia dell’ Arte version of Hamlet ‘Amleto’. Those experiences brought her to specializing even more into mask play, Commedia dell’ Arte and movement theater. In 2004, she starts to be the artistic leader of Teatro Punto. The coming season she will be seen at the Utrecht Film Festival and at the Avro in the movie ‘Schemeren’ by Jenneke Boeijink. And in the theaters with the theater company Lange Poten from Carla Mulder and directed by Dirk Groeneveld. With Teatro Punto she is directing ‘Völlerei’ with Carlos García, Paulo Serantes, Roos van der Werff and opera singer Hans Pootjes.