Beyond Words on a Page: Introduction to the Viewpoints

Maximum Enrollment: 15
Open to actors and directors
Instructor: Pirronne Yousefzadeh

How can architecture unlock a monologue for an actor? How can the use of shape uncover an emotional truth of a character? Beyond the words on the page, where else may an actor or director find inspiration, and therefore flourish?

Introduction to Viewpoints will open the world of possibilities a theatre artist may find in the realms of time and space. Through a process of ensemble-building exercises and Viewpoints improvisations, students in this workshop will become more receptive to the multitude of stimuli surrounding them, and therefore more empowered in their choice-making in rehearsal and/or performance.

Viewpoints was first coined for use in the theatre by Anne Bogart. Essential to it is the belief that stimuli in time and space are just as essential and important as those impulses drawn from the words in any script. Through a rigorous exploration of such elements, theatre artists gain a heightened awareness through their senses, and thus, a greater wealth of information from which to find inspiration. Additionally, the Viewpoints Method gives artists an opportunity to find the balance between a sense of ensemble and independence onstage, as well as a higher level of freedom, spontaneity, and curiosity.

Pirronne Yousefzadeh is a director and teacher based in New York City. Recently she directed her graduate thesis production at Columbia University, Big Love by Charles L. Mee. Her work has also been seen at The Public/Joe's Pub, Playwrights Horizons (Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival), Collective: Unconscious, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Milwaukee Rep, and Hangar Theatre, where she was a 2006 Drama League Directing Fellow.

Pirronne has assisted Anne Bogart, both on Who Do You Think You Are(SITICompany), and at the 2007 Training Intensive in Saratoga Springs, where she trained extensively in Suzuki and Viewpoints. She has participated in numerous other advanced Suzuki and Viewpoints intensives, all taught by members of the SITI Company.

Pirronne has also assisted Leigh Silverman (world premiere of Coraline), Tina Landau (world premiere of Paula Vogel's A Civil War Christmas), Anne Kauffman, Kip Fagan, Eleanor Holdridge, and Joseph Hardy, among others. Pirronne received her M.F.A. in Directing from Columbia University, where she was a Shubert Presidential Fellow and Matthews Fellowship recipient, and studied with Anne Bogart, Robert Woodruff, and Brian Kulick. She has been a guest artist at the UCSB Summer Theater Lab (led by Naomi Iizuka) and a teaching artist at Play Group Theatre, and trained at Shakespeare's Globe in London. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Theatre and English Literature from Washington University. She is a proud satellite member of Nice People Theatre Company.

Workshop Dates:

Sunday, September 27: 11am–2pm
Sunday, October 4: 11am–2pm
Sunday, October 11: 11am–2pm
Friday, October 16th: 5pm–8pm
Sunday, October 24: 11am–2pm

Cost: $200

Location: Center City

For more information please contact: nicepeopletheatre@gmail.com