MYTHS & METAPHORS ACTORS' & ARTISTS' WORKSHOP 1  SHADOW HOUSE PITS JANUARY 23 -24  2008 GET IN TOUCH WITH MYTHS AND METAPHORS PERVADING OUR LIVES Join Shadow House PITS for an intense and fulfilling experience of an old mining town, its people and its ruins.  Over the coming year Shadow House PITS will be offering workshops and retreats that will assist actors and artists finding the elusive personal ingredient that is essential for theatre practitioners seeking a career: the IT or what Gerry Spence calls "charisma".  If you are really serious about a future as a theatre practitioner there is one essential ingredient you need to own  And ownership isn't easy.  There are no guarantees in life; let alone in theatre. You could spend years learning more about your chosen field of study and end up knowing more ... but not getting the work. The fear is that acting roles seem to just slip through your fingers. What if you are just right for a role and somehow it just evades you. Being an aspiring or practicing professional, you have probably done workshops on Auditioning. Maybe you have graduated from a University. You have experience of working in professional productions and innovative experimental works. But now you are becoming aware that unless something happens and things just keep going on as they are, you will be driving cabs or working in restaurants or earning precious dollars in areas other than in your chosen field. And it's not simply a technique or a magical skill. It is about personal power and yet less about the ego or vanity. It is about finding the personal steel and solid base for one's action while also letting go and becoming at one with the cycles of life and death and the environment. Join  Shadow House PITS for an intense and fulfilling experience against the backdrop of an old mining town, its people and its ruins. MYTHS AND METAPHORS: Actors' and Artists' Workshop 1 isn't likely to magically develop new acting skills or to immediately improve marketability as performers. We are not going to cover ground taught in Drama Schools and universities. We are instead offering an extension of ourselves to utilize the approaches, abilities and skills we have already developed or are in the process of developing ... and we seek a grounding in the reality of our own fragility. We will come to embrace the ephemeral nature of theatre art while seeking release from all that emotionally ties and restricts our ability to create and perform.. So WHY CAPTAIN'S FLAT?  Has it something to do with the physical ruins and feeling the heat and dust on the skin? Through a physical approach and an engaging of the intellect and a sense of affinity with a space participants will begin to face the difficult area of avoidance techniques and the blocks to one's achieving dreams and aspirations in the theatre. This two day workshop will take place on Wednesday and Thursday January 23 and 24 from 10.00am on Wednesday to 5.00pm on Thursday. Participants will stay over night at The Captain's Flat Hotel. Meals will be provided, including a communal dinner on the Wednesday night. Workshop leaders will be Shadow House PITS Artistic Director Joe Woodward and Little Dove Theatre Art Artistic Director, Chenoeh Miller. Apply today. Send us an email with a brief statement of why you would want to do the Myths and Metaphors Actors and Artists Workshop1. We will forward further application information to you by email. Payment may be by cheque, cash or on-line credit card payment. Life Changing Experiences Life changing experiences are rarely academic. They engage the emotions in particularly intense ways. Catastrophic natural events along with human interventions provide the basis for so much change in personal and social existence. It is these momentous events that provide the basis for so much story telling and other forms of expression. Theatre makers provide custodianship of cultural, social and personal experience. Actors, writers, designers, directors and virtually everyone involved in the making and presenting of theatre product need an acute awareness of the link between real events and the myths and metaphors that arise from them. Words, sculptures, music, dance, enactments and even electronic creations can affirm the life process in all its glorious shades. Vicarious experience and associated commentary from different cultural, historical and personality positions affirm the very notion of diversity; of independent thought; of cultural will and the struggles which leads to evolving understandings of who we are and how we relate to each other and the universe. And isn't it when we peek into the ruins of some aspect of our lives that we find clarity on how we actually relate to each other and how we deal with ourselves. As actors and/or artists of any sort working in theatre, to gain authenticity in our work, we need to become aware of what is authentic in our instrument (ie. our bodies, emotions and behaviours etc.) and then to expand our capacity for connecting with both the tangible and intangible realities around us. By tangible I mean with real people; even characters in our works. By intangible I mean with ideas, approaches and our place in society, history, belief systems etc. Yet how much effort do we place on building this capacity? If we are true to our craft we are working on ourselves all the time as a matter of course. But sometimes, we need time out to retreat into ourselves and into each other's worlds while emersing ourselves into spaces and places where we can stop; observe; truly hear and reflect. MYTHS AND METAPHORS: Actors' and Artists' Workshop 1 isn't likely to magically develop new acting skills or to immediately improve marketability as performers. We are not going to cover ground taught in Drama Schools and universities. We are instead offering an extension of ourselves to utilize the approaches, abilities and skills we have already developed or in the process of developing ... This two day workshop will take place on Wednesday and Thursday January 23 and 24 from 10.00am on Wednesday to 5.00pm on Thursday. Participants will stay over night at The Captain's Flat Hotel. Meals will be provided, including a communal dinner on the Wednesday night. Participants should be at least 18 years of age.  Fees are: $275 for the workshop, meals and accommodation.   Foxlow Street in Captain's Flat.  On the right is the historic Captain's Flat Hotel. Above: Ghengis Khan's Lounge Room, now the home office for Shadow House PITS. Drop in and have a cup of coffee and a wander through the books and CDs. Special saving of 30% OFFER Save 30% and help us at the same time. If you can forward this link and bring another person to enrol in the workshop, you will have assisted us greatly in promoting the workshop and assisting in the revitalization of theatre practices. Simply mention the other person who you have invited and give email details in your own email to us. Both you and your invited person will receive a discount of 30% and pay only $192.50 ... and still have accommodation and meals covered with your workshop participation.  So get in contact and prepare to share the experience with people you know. AND get 30% off your fees and pay only $192.50.  Offer Expires: Friday 18th. January   Apply today. Send us an email with a brief statement of why you would want to do the Myths and Metaphors Actors and Artists Workshop1. We will forward further application information to you by reply email. Payment may be by cheque, cash or on-line credit card payment as listed below.