Professional Training Workshops
Specialized Workshops and Residencies
Pig IronTheatre Company’s workshops and residencies are available to colleges and universities, high schools, actor training programs, and groups of professional actors. Most workshops are ideally suited for groups of 15 to 20 students.
Pig Iron’s education programs are led by Quinn Bauriedel, a co-founder and Co-Artistic Director of Pig Iron Theatre Company. Quinn is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, and has performed in nearly all of Pig Iron’s original works. In addition to his teaching work with the company, Quinn also teaches at Swarthmore and at the Headlong Performance Institute. To book a workshop or residency, or to find out more about Pig Iron Theatre Company’s educational programming, contact Quinn at (215) 873-0883 or quinn@pigiron.org.
Neutral mask and red-nose clown
In this workshop, students will explore the fundamental building blocks of theatre through work on the Neutral Mask. A vital tool for performers, this work trains students to develop a heightened presence, a deep awareness of the demands of the stage, and an ability to create new worlds onstage by connecting the body, breath and gaze.
The Red-Nose Clown is a fragile and exhilierating territory that allows performers to indulge in “play.” This is an adventure into idiocy, virtuosity, ridiculousness, absurd logic, and comic vulnerability.
Ensemble playmaking
The Ensemble Playmaking workshop will focus on Pig Iron’s tried and true playmaking methods. Participants will be given performance assignments – themes, stories, characters, a piece of music – which must be solved as an ensemble. Participants will work on taking material developed through improvisation and turning it into finished pieces: precise, full, exuberant, and moving.
Melodrama
This workshop takes its lead from Jacques Lecoq’s research into melodrama, fusing music, movement, narration, and drama in order to move an audience emotionally.
Melodrama asks us to focus on stories about families, about human choices that we make and the consequences they have on those around us. This theatrical form explores sentimentality, grand gestures and, most importantly, the relationship between music and performance. Working with pantomime, live music, and sound effects, narrators and classic melodrama structures, the workshop will conclude with the creation of a short fully-realized melodrama.