Download SEATTLE BIOMECHANICS INTENSIVE DESCRIPTION

ARMING THE IMAGINATION
AN INTENSIVE WORKSHOP IN MEYERHOLD’S BIOMECHANICS
BIOMECHANICS
Biomechanics is a system of actor training developed in the early 1920’s by legendary Russian actor,
director, and teacher, Vsevolod Meyerhold. Through this training, Meyerhold sought to develop actors
whose work would convey a geometric precision, an acrobatic lightness and agility, and a rhythmic,
musical sensibility. The technique emphasized the development of skills from traditional, non-realistic
theatrical sources such as commedia dell’arte, Russian folk theatre, circus performance, Japanese
Kabuki theatre, east-Asian dance, and pantomime. Soviet ideology eventually put a tragic end to
Meyerhold and his work. He was executed in 1940 for practicing “formalist” theatre (as opposed to the
officially-sanctioned social realism of Stanislavski), which was considered “antagonistic” to the Soviet
people. Although the teaching of biomechanics was officially forbidden, the system was passed on
secretly as an oral tradition until the “glasnost” period and the subsequent fall of the Soviet Union.
CLASS DESCRIPTION
The training is intensive and physical. A wide range of basic individual and ensemble floor exercises,
individual and partner work with physical objects, combined with exercises that develop the body’s
rhythmic and expressive abilities. Actors who undertake the training can ultimately expect to experience
the following: an increased sense of balance, awareness of the physical center and ability to move from
the physical center, awareness and expressivity of gesture and physical form, heightened reflexive
dexterity when working with partners and physical objects, and increased awareness and nimble agility
in ensemble work.
It’s important for anyone considering undertaking the training to understand that biomechanics is not a
system of acting or a method to create a certain type of theatre. Instead, biomechanics should be seen as
a valuable part of an actor’s personal palette of technique, helping to develop control of his or her body
in an expressive and grounded way. As a part of his or her palette, biomechanics is beneficial to an
actor’s work regardless of the specific aesthetic of a given project - from Miller to Beckett to Lecoq
clowning - anything and everything in an actor’s future can benefit in some way from this work.
Training in biomechanics is not unlike the honing of technique involved when a pianist practices
musical scales or a ballet dancer puts in time at the ballet barre. One of Meyerhold’s favorite actors, Igor
Ilyinsky, once said: “Technique arms the imagination.” This is ultimately what the training seeks to
achieve, the “arming” of the actor’s imagination.
CLASS DETAILS
Cost: $50 ($65 for registration after October 31st)
Classes will take place at Theatre Puget Sound, on the 4th Floor of the Seattle Center’s Center House.
Class size will be limited to assure individual attention.
To register, or for further information, contact: [email protected]
ABOUT THE TEACHER
Paul Budraitis is a director, actor, solo performer, and writer, as well as a teacher of acting and stage
movement. In Seattle, Paul has worked with On the Boards, Annex Theatre, the Degenerate Art Ensemble,
and New City Theatre, among others, most recently directing David Mamet’s Edmond with Balagan Theatre.
His original solo performance, (IN)STABILITY, will premiere at On the Boards in February 2011.
In 2001, Paul received a State Department Fulbright grant to pursue a master’s degree in theatre directing
from the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy (LMTA) in Vilnius, Lithuania, under the mentorship of
visionary theatre director Jonas Vaitkus. Since earning his degree, Paul has worked extensively in Lithuania,
collaborating with the National Drama Theatre of Lithuania, the State Youth Theatre of Lithuania, the
Kaunas State Drama Theatre, Oskaras Korsunovas/Vilnius City Theatre, and the contemporary theatre
festival “New Drama Action”. He has assisted directors Jonas Vaitkus and Oskaras Koršunovas, and is
currently working as an actor with innovative Finnish director Kristian Smeds on an on-going long-term
project, a contemporary re-imagining of Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard”.
As a teacher, Paul has worked as a lecturer in the acting and directing faculty of the LMTA, teaching acting,
the biomechanics technique of Russian theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Anne Bogart’s Viewpoints
method. He has also taught biomechanics to students at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik,
Iceland, and at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.