Something from Nothing (for Zoom)
One of Pig Iron’s signature intensives–a space to begin, a space to create.
SOMETHING FROM NOTHING is a workshop on devising, tracing the journey from a single impulse to a full performance. Creation and creativity rely on the artist’s ability to listen and respond to impulses–this is true both in person and on Zoom. New vocabularies of creation will unlock new forms, new venues, and new relationships in this online workshop. Our work will embrace the challenges of the screen and stimulate fresh responses to our current constraints.
Participants will train physically, build a common vocabulary of creation, and receive performance assignments which result in the generation of original material. Playwriting and directing duties will be shared, and decisions will often be made collaboratively. Our workshop will culminate in an open showing on Zoom of short works created over the course of the workshop.
The workshop will be taught by Pig Iron School Core Faculty member Emmanuelle Delpech, with Pig Iron School alums Mieke D and Nathan Alford-Tate.
WHO IS IT FOR:
Artists looking to renew their creative energy, live theatre-makers discovering their creative impulses in digital spaces, and artists who need an introduction to generating performance on their own terms.
DATES:
Tuesday, June 8: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Wednesday, June 9: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Thursday, June 10: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Friday, June 11: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Saturday, June 12: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Tuesday, June 15: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Wednesday, June 16: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Thursday, June 17: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Friday, June 18: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Saturday, June 19: 1:00pm-4:00pm
All times listed are US Eastern Daylight Time.
COST:
$475
INSTRUCTOR BIOS:
Emmanuelle Delpech is a theater artist: actor, director and teacher. A native of France, she works and lives in Philadelphia. She was classically trained (text based theater) at the Ecole Superieur d’Art Dramatique de la Ville de Paris and then studied physical theatre at l’Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq. She also graduated from Temple University and earned an MFA in Directing. Emmanuelle was a member of Pig Iron Theatre Company for 8 years and was Barrymore nominated for best supporting actress in Hell Meets Henry Halfway and won a Barrymore Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her work in James Joyce is Dead and So Is Paris. In June/July 2009, Emmanuelle performed with The Second City Chicago in Reverie directed by Dexter Bullard which was premiered at the “Just for Laughs” festival in Montreal. As an independent artist, she has created and performed Madame Douce-Amere, a wordless clown duet at the 2005 Philadelphia Lives Arts festival, which was also produced by 1812 Productions at the Walnut Street Theatre in October 2006. She received a 2005 City Paper Award for her performance in that show. In June 2016 she premiered a new solo piece at FringeArts: The Spinning Immigrant, on her experience as an immigrant, using sound devices and DJing. The show was world premiered in June 2016 at Fringe Arts.
Mieke D (they/she) is a mixed-race genderqueer femme of Asian and European descent who devises dance, theater, and performance art that is personal and political, “hilarious and disturbing.” Much like a medieval fool, she speaks truth to power “with grace, wit and necessity.” (Quinn Bauriedel, Pig Iron). As an educator and cultural worker, Mieke moves to destabilize rigid definitions of race, gender, and nationhood, while celebrating the inherent resilience and intelligence of the body through documentary theater, clowning, solo performance, games, rituals, and dance theater. Recent Philadelphia-based collaborations include Joseph Ahmed and Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists, Asian Arts Initiative, Simpatico Theater and Teacher Action Group at Theatre Exile, and multiple student showcases as an MFA candidate in Devised Performance at Pig Iron Theater / University of the Arts (Class of 2021). Also: Ping Chong & Company, LAVA Brooklyn, Helix Queer Performance Network, Taylor Mac, The Foundry Theatre, La Pocha Nostra, Cornerstone Theater Company, the Theatre of the Two-Headed Calf, Dixon Place and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Upcoming: The Garden (Nichole Canuso) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. MFA: Pig Iron, University of the Arts; BFA: Experimental Theater Wing, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. www.mieked.com
Nathan Alford-Tate is an actor and devising artist from Detroit, MI. With a BFA in Theatre from Western Michigan University, he is a proud Pig Iron alum, receiving his MFA in Devised Performance. Since graduation, he has performed with Quintessence Theatre Group, The National Constitution Center, Tribe of Fools and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His devised work has premiered in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. He is currently a company member of Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, where he has assisted in creating and performing in fully devised work that fuses physical theatre and acrobatics.