Handle My V.I.

Yes! The Voice Intensive is among us!

Today I had my first meeting with David and the other two associate instructors for this year's Voice Intensive. This year the associates are Patricia Darbasie, David Huber, and myself. The energy between all of us felt incredibly positive and progressive, and since we've all been so influenced by David (Smukler) and his work it's fascinating how we almost effortlessly complement each other's vocabulary and perspective. And of course it was refreshing to see David again. That's my homie.

Tomorrow we meet up with some of the senior faculty to discuss our roles as associates. From what I remember last year, the primary role of an associate is to "hold the work", which means to be a model/guide/ear/witness to the participants' journey throughout the Intensive. I've often described it to some as a liaison between the participants and the senior faculty. Because some of the sessions can have over 20 people in a large room for two hours, we serve as a second or third set of eyes and ears in order to appropriately address specific challenges of our work and communicate our observations with the primary instructors.

Most of this communication helps the associates in our paths to becoming better teachers ourselves, especially for me. I'm most certainly the least experienced of the associates this year, as both an actor and a teacher. So the evolution and clarification of how we talk about what we're doing is extremely helpful. This past year in Philadelphia for me has been about how to grow my experience simultaniously as actor and teacher; most won't respect me as the latter without the former. The Voice Intensive will be a much welcomed outlet for my desire to teach.

I'm so thankful to be here.



peace.

p.s. If you don't get the reference of this post's title, see here.

Vancouver!

So here I am back in Vancouver. I just got off the bus at the University of British Columbia to have the first meeting with David and the other associate instructors. It was quite an emotional moment arriving here. This place really means a lot to me.

More tonight.



peace.

Vancouver Trek

This week I found out I'll be heading back to Vancouver to serve as an associate instructor at Canada's National Voice Intensive, (check this) and I feel like I've won the lottery or something. As I've mentioned here before (here!), my experience at the Intensive has immensely influenced the way I approach my practice of theatre. As I told someone in conversation recently, I think CNVI is the closest thing to a pilgrimage I'll ever have in my life.

It's a pilgrimage of practicality, mind you. I think there is a stigma that exists in the world of theatrical education that views voice teachers as the pseudo-shamans of actor training. Supposedly, we are closer to spiritual healers than acting teachers, who pass off our work as a form of quasi-ethereal enlightenment or awakening rather than functional artistic awareness.

For the Intensive, nothing could be further from the truth. The work there is designed for professional actors or actors in training who desire a "re-inspiration" ("re" meaning "again", "inspire" meaning "breathe in") of their work. The practice gives the participants a way to reliably access the wealth of their actor energies with a repeatable, yet malleable, progression of voice and text explorations. And yes, it's true some of the work can have therapeutic resonances, but the foundational purpose is, and has always been actor training.

I just ordered a few books that I'll be needing for the Intensive and I'm making plans to let my cat live with my parents for the month. I don't know how my blog will function while I'm there; my access to internet will be limited. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

We'll have a new Emcee of the Month tomorrow! YEEEEEEEEAAA SON!!!

peace.