Course Title: Meisner Technique , Voice & Theatre studies, Improvisation, and shooting a drama scene – 4 perspectives – 2 day workshop with 3 Industry Guests

Dates: Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd April 2012
10 am to 5 pm Daily
Venue: Byron Bay Film & Television School
Address: 18 Brigantine Street Arts & Industrial Estate Byron Bay, NSW, 2481
Phone: 0414 888 884
Email: markpiper@ozemail.com.au

Outline:
Give yourself a cutting edge – hone your craft as an actor, gain an understanding of how film and television drama is made, and develop the skills you need to be part of a creative team. At this 3 day intensive workshop presented by award winning Director, Mark Piper.

Maximum 12 participants will shoot and act in scenes, with each participant being given the opportunity to act, direct, operate camera and rotate through the various roles of a film and television set crew.

What you can expect to achieve:
Based on the feedback from participants from previous Mark Piper workshops you can expect to develop and boost your confidence as an actor, clarify your vision and become more determined and motivated to succeed in a highly competitive industry.

Guest Presenters:

In addition to Mark Piper’s tuition, 3 guest industry professionals will present to you on aspects of acting, Meisner Technique, Chekhov, Steiner, screenwriting, voice, and what is expected from an Agent.

Louise Lee Mei – Meisner Technique

Originally from Newcastle Louise began training in the Meisner technique at 15 completing two years of preliminary teen training and theatre before moving to Sydney and enrolling full time at The Actors Pulse. Whilst completing five years of technique work under the guidance of Billy Milionis, David O?Connor, Luke Ford (The Mummy Returns, Black Balloon) and Jeff Bollow. She has also performed plays (Women of Manhattan and Biloxi Blues) in the advanced showcase from under the direction of Serhat Cardee (Cedar Boys). She later undertook The Screen Actor (2007) at NIDA where she trained with Nicholas Bishop (Walking on Water, McLeod?s Daughters). She currently teaches a private group of advanced Meisner students in Sydney.

Meisner Technique – An Introduction
Repetition
“Be Specific”
Meisner lived in a time when theatre acting in the 1930?s represented for him, a disconnection on stage between the actors real impulses in the scene and the characters set text. With this in mind he developed Repetition. An improvisational game designed to ?get the actor out of his head and into his impulses?.
These are the various stages to understanding Repetition as an exercise in your work. Taking the first thing – Connecting with your observations Calling behavior – Connecting with the other persons behavior Calling behavior with point of view – Connecting with your point of view of the other persons behavior
Doors & Activities -
“The truth of ourselves is the root of acting”
To enable actors to develop their instinctive instruments they were given either of two tasks that were urgent, meaningful and difficult to do whilst playing the repetition game. It opens the door to allowing the actor to let their own emotional life influence their work whilst working within an imaginary circumstance.
There are two stages to the following exercise. Activity – A physical exercise is brought in that is difficult, almost impossible to do. It is endowed with an imaginary circumstance that also has a sense of urgency to it.

Adrian Williams – Brett – Chekhov, Voice, Theatre, Steiner

Adrian is a voice and theatre specialist (Chekhov and Steiner methods) and will be tutoring students on individual monologues. Using movement, body-centres and ‘creative sound-work’, he will introduce an approach to text that brings gesture, dynamic and power to vocal delivery and characterisation.
Adrian trained at the Harkness Studio for Speech and Drama in Sydney before moving to the UK where he has spent the last 24 years working as an actor, director, writer, composer, musical director and acting teacher. He worked with theatre companies including the Rose Theatre Company, Portal Productions, Fairgame, Dionysia Theatre, Circle-X Arts and co-founded the award winning TaurusVoice Theatre Company. He toured widely in Europe and America with classical and contemporary productions.
He co-founded the Stroud Performing Arts Foundation Courses in the UK and ran two large community choirs. He was an original member of the Sydney gospel choir, ‘Café at the Gate of Salvation’ and in the UK sang with the award-winning ‘Naked Voices’ for two years.
He now lives in Byron Bay, where he has established ‘Theatre of Life’, a company running theatre-training and performance projects.

3RD GUEST TO BE ANNOUNCED

You will receive a copy of all your footage – please bring memory stick 8 gig or more

You can pay either direct debit to

Account Name: Account Name: Byron Bay Film & Television School BSB 032573 Account No 252578

Tutor: Mark Piper

About Mark Piper

Spanning over three decades in the international Theatre, Film and Television industries, Mark Piper’s award-winning career has seen him on the initial teams Producing and Directing many international drama programs. Water Rats – Director Pilot Episodes (Australia), Mercy Peak (NZ), Beastmaster (USA), Ponderosa (USA), Neighbours, Home and Away, All Saints – Co Director Pilot, Blue Heelers, Always Greener, Halifax F.P (Australia), and Gute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiten – Adviser and Pilot Director (Germany), are just some of the popular series that Mark has worked on.
Beginning his career as an Actor in New Zealand, Mark went on to running Director Roger Donaldson’s ( “The World’s Fastest Indian” ) company Aardvark films, and then worked on such films such as “The Blue Lagoon” with Brooke Shields, “Tim” and “Attack Force Z” with Mel Gibson, and “My Brilliant Career” with Sam Neil and Judy Davis.

Mark, in 1995, led a unique project with Care Vietnam, in conjunction with the Vietnamese Government entitled ‘Qio Qua Mien Toi’; a 32-part Drama series, of which Mark Piper was the Executive Producer. This was a TV series utilised on behalf of the Government to highlight the HIV & AIDS problem emerging in Vietnam; Mark was involved from the outset to set-up the concept and assisted in sourcing finance through French private investors as well as sourcing key personnel from Australia to mentor the Vietnamese crew. This has inspired Mark with his current project in development “Buscar – oneworldonwlove.”

More recently he has been working with internationally acclaimed actors Eric Bana, Chris Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas, Kylie Minogue, Julian McMahon, Simon Baker, Sharni Vinson and Nick Bishop.

Mark has just completed judging the 2011 International Emmy Awards – (Best performance by an Actress category)

Mark is currently a Board member for Screenworks and on the Selection Committee for Flickerfest International Film Festival

Click here to read Testimonials from past participants