Students from Theatre & Performance at The Cass collaborate with Istituto Teatrale Europeo for intensive workshop series.
Following last year’s successful collaborations with Bilingual Acting Workshop in Paris and Crisis Art Festival in Arezzo, Italy, Theatre & Performance at The Cass continues to foster new opportunities for students in the international industry.
A group of eleven students travelled to Rome for an exclusive intensive at Istituto Teatrale Europeo, organised by Senior Lecturer Dr Jacek Ludwig Scarso, who has collaborated with this institution for over fifteen years. The director, Mariagiovanna Rosati Hansen, former student of Peter Brook's and leading voice in Italy on the exploration of links between theatre and psychology, tailored a special course for our students.
Each morning the students explored the highly physical approaches inherent to Commedia dell'Arte, including mask work; and in the afternoons looked at the complexity of an actor's work on text, exploring a range of playwrights, from Shakespeare to Pirandello.
Mariagiovanna described Cass students as "unique, creatively receptive, in love with theatre" and said "It's been a joy to be their tutor for a while! Thank you Jacek for giving us this opportunity: next year we will continue this beautiful adventure!".
The participating students were been delighted too, with Jowita saying "Amazingly inspiring work , which reminded me why I love the magic of theatre and everything around it" and Deborah: "It's been such a good experience! Working in a such diverse environment is a privilege. Getting in contact with different methods and approaches had a positive impact on my own, body and mind, perception. Not even the language barrier stopped us from being a lovely group! On the contrary this made our experience, possibly, even more unique!”
Istituto Teatrale Europeo, with bases both in Rome and in Florence, has worked extensively on collaborations across Europe, centred in the formation of actors and art-theatre counsellors.
