ON TOUR TO ITFOK, THRISSUR, KERALA JANUARY 2020: WORKSHOP, LECTURE, AND TOLD BY THE WIND

Amitesh Grover—Artistic Director of the 2020 edition of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (India, ITFoK) has invited The Llanarth Group for the January Festival in Thrissur, Kerala. The festival officially begins on 20th January.

SCHEDULE: January 16-22, 2020

Pre-Festival Intensive Psychophysical Acting Workshop at the Calicut School of Drama (Thrissur): 16-17-18 January in association with and organised by Sreejith Ramanan in collaboration with ITFoK Festival. In the workshop I will introduce participants to psychophysical acting via my use of kalarippayattu, taiqiquan, and yoga in the training of the contemporary actor.

TOLD BY THE WIND performances at the Thoppil Bhasi Black Box Theatre, Thrissur: January 20, at 8:30pm and January 21 at 2pm

LECTURE: January 21 at 5:30pm Embodied consciousness: ’inner movement’ & the actor’s consciousnesswhere phenomenology, cognitive science, and performance meet

Based on my recently published book, (toward) a phenomenology of acting, in this lecture, I explore ‘the studio’ as a site for philosophical exploration--a site where the training/practices of the actor offer the possibility of “doing” philosophy “in the flesh”. Citing the reflexive practices of key historical figures who have focused on the actor’s embodied consciousnesss--Zeami (the founder of Japanese noh), Stanislavsky, Grotowski, and a South Asian understanding of acting--I explore “the studio” as a meeting place—a location where phenomenology and cognitive science can inform the actor’s embodied process as a form of “embodied enquiry”, and (vice-versa) where reflecting on the actor’s complex modes of embodying consciousness can inform developments in phenomenology and cognitive science. Defining the actor’s work as a mode of ‘embodied enquiry’ is an invitation to further re-consider the complexities of the actor/performer’s embodied experience, awareness, attention, and consciousness from ‘inside’ the act of performing--a location marked by bodily/sensory/experiential depth. This lecture will focus on a specific dimension of embodied consciousness in the lived experience of acting: the pre-articulate present, before words or thought. I will briefly reflect on how the perspective I have developed on acting as "embodied consciousness" is a result of my long-term engagement with and practice of kalarippayattu, yoga, and taiqiquan. My discussion will include first person accounts of the actor’s work in the pre-articulate present when performing Ota Shogo’s The Water Station. My analysis of acting in the pre-articulate present will elaborate Heidegger’s key concept of Befindlichkeit, and on Mark Rowlands’s notion of ‘Rilkean memory’.

MEET THE ARTISTS: January 22 11:00-12:30 Kaite O’Reilly, Jo Shapland, and Phillip Zarrilli of The Llanarth Group in conversation about their work on TOLD BY THE WIND.