WORKSHOPS
FITZMAURICE VOICEWORK® AND POTENTIAL SPACE WORKSHOPS
ABOUT FITZMAURICE VOICEWORK®
Breathing is meaning.
Catherine Fitzmaurice
The following introduction is taken from The Fitzmaurice Institute web site, a comprehensive resource for those interested in the work.
What is it?
The purpose of Fitzmaurice Voicework® is to support people in finding and using their unique voices—in healthy, clear, and creative ways—while developing greater freedom and presence.
Fitzmaurice Voicework combines adaptations of classical voice training techniques with modifications of yoga, shiatsu, bioenergetics, energy work, and many other disciplines (see primary sources for more information). This integration serves to harmonize the voluntary and involuntary aspects of the nervous system, and the voice.
Through deep and practical explorations of the dynamics between body, breath, voice, imagination, and language, the work develops vibrant voices that communicate intention and feeling without excess effort.
Fitzmaurice Voicework focuses on the whole human voice, and can support speaking for performance, public speaking, singing, voice with movement, vocal rehabilitation, and developing greater presence. Since breath and voice lie at the intersection of the material and the non-material, this work can also assist in creative, intellectual, and spiritual growth. Visit Writings to explore further.
Where is it taught?
Fitzmaurice Voicework is taught at Yale School of Drama, Harvard University/American Repertory Theatre's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, New York University's Graduate Acting Program (and some NYU undergraduate studios), the University of California-Irvine, and hundreds of other institutions around the world.
There are approximately 300 certified Fitzmaurice teachers across six continents.
ABOUT THE TEACHER
I first trained in Fitzmaurice Voicework in 1998, as a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine. I was certified as an Associate Teacher of Fitzmurice Voicework in 2005.
I have since taught the work in professional workshops in both the UK and USA, and to undergraduate and graduate students in conservatory and university theatre programs in both countries.
My practice-based PhD research in psychophysical approaches to training, which also focuses on the psychology and acting and the actor, allows me to enrich the practical training with insights gained from contemporary psychology and neuroscience.
I have a particular interest in working with actors, through Fiztmaurice Voicework, in addressing the effects of personal histories on their work and in overcoming performance anxiety.
FITZMAURICE VOICEWORK WORKSHOP
Sunday October 21, 2018
10:00a - 5:00p
Lunch 1:00p - 2:00p
Venue
Cost: £60
Concessionary rates available for students and unwaged. Please contact me for details.
This workshop is suitable for both those who have not encoutered Fitzmaurice Voicework before and those who have experience of the work already.
The workshop will focus on the destructuring aspect of the work and give an introduction to basics of structuring.
Details, reservation form and enquiries
POTENTIAL SPACE WORKSHOPS
“The biggest thing I am taking away from this class is a sense of self-worth I have never felt before.…”
Actor feedback, December, 2013
POTENTIAL SPACE WORKSHOPS
Founded upon Donald Winnicott's concept of potential space, the Potential Space workshops explore the creative space between actors, their environment and text.
Developed through many years of experimentation in the training studio and rehearsal hall, Potential Space workshops synthesize Viewpoints (developed by Mary Overlie and Ann Bogart) and Stanislavsky and Knebel's process of Active Analysis. Depending on the length of the workshop, we may also draw upon Contact Improvisation & Suzuki Training and Fitzmaurice Voicework.
The foundation of this work is a strong and supportive ensemble. Through collaborative, experiential learning actors develop as autonomous, spontaneous, creative artists.
The work aims to address the fear that many actor's have of making 'mistakes'; it aims to diminish performance anxiety and foster an actor's self-confidence and positive mindset.
“The environment was a safe place where we could take risks […] Roger is such an intelligent, aptly responsive, and sensitive person as a mentor…”
Actor Feedback, Fall 2004
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP LEADER
As a consequence of growing up in the UK and spending a significant part of my adult life in the United States, my work as a trainer embraces elements of European, American and Eastern traditions.
My approach to to fostering actor learning is person centred and uses Viewpoints as a lens through which to explore may facets of acting and performance psychology.
I first trained in Viewpoints with the originators of Viewpoints, Mary Overlie and Anne Bogart in the early 2000's and have used it as a framework for training actors, directing text-based drama and devising.
I first trained in Fitzmaurice Voicework in 1998, as a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine. I was certified as an Associate Teacher of Fitzmurice Voicework in 2005.
I have since taught the work in professional workshops in both the UK and USA, and to undergraduate and graduate students in conservatory and university theatre programs in both countries.
My practice-based PhD research in psychophysical approaches to training, which also focuses on the psychology of acting and the actor, this allows me to enrich the practical training with insights gained from contemporary psychology and neuroscience.
I have a particular interest, when working with actors, in addressing the inhibiting effects of personal histories and trauma on their work, and in overcoming performance anxiety.
“I just wanted to say thank you Roger. You really have turned my view of who I am and what acting is upside down. You have taught me so much about this craft and made me believe in myself."
Actor feedback, December, 2014
Anne Bogart & Tina Landau (2005)
The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Composition
"Viewpoints is a philosophy translated into a technique for
(1) training performers;
(2) building ensemble; and
(3) creating movement onstage."
"Viewpoints training can be used to create staging (blocking) for a production. For both actor and director, Viewpoints is a pathway to unexpected choices…This does not mean that Viewpoints is incompatible with other approaches to acting, only that it provides an alternative and compliment"
Bogart & Landau (2005)
"I want to explain the rehearsal method proposed by Stanislavsky — the so-called Method of Active Analysis. Briefly, the essence to this method is that in the early stages of preparation the play is not rehearsed at the table as usual, but after a certain amount of preliminary analysis it is analysed in terms of action through études using improvised text."
Maria Knebel (2018)
Active Analsysis of the Play and the Role
“Roger is so dedicated to our individual growth in the class — realizing where we each are and catering his teaching to accommodate.”
Actor feedback, Fall 2004
