Innovo Physical Theatre

Starting again!

2010-08-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

I was asked where someone might start practicing technique, when they have not been doing anything for many years. The answer is both simple and slightly tricky at the same time. I have three general and three specific suggestions for you to consider.

Three General Suggestions

First, start moving.

Do anything. Walk your dog. Take your loved ones for a walk around the block. Walk up the stairs of your home instead of shouting upwards. Park five cars further in the car park. The rule is this: Your start has to get you going but not be so hard as to cause you to have to take time off your new exercise plan to recover. We find this often in people that have renewed motivation to start running. They are ‘pumped’ to start, so on the first day they run until they feel that they exercised. Yet, the next day they are so sore, that they have to take two days to recover from their first run. This is not the way forward. Start slow, move and feel good about what you have done. Exhaustion is not your indicator for exercise. Instead, begin by moving more than usual. The small beginning will systematically become longer and more intense. This will assist you in staying motivated.

Secondly, get a partner.

Training is always easier with a friend. Sweating alone is twice as hard when you can’t wipe your sweat one someone else (hehe). They will keep you going when you don’t feel like taking the time on a particular day. You will also do the same for your partner. Training with others also works out wonderfully when you are unsure of a technique. Communal memory is most often better than any one person alone. Free movement and improvisation is also 100% more effective when you have others to draw from.

Thirdly, techniques are like old friends.

Your previous training is not lost. Your technique has simply been put away and needs to be dusted off. That also means that they might feel awkward when you do them again. Allow yourself some getting use to again. You know their names and they are in your body, simply give it some time. Resist frustration with your body and the feeling that you are never going to be as good as you were. Certain realities become clear with a lot of training, but you are not at a place in your new program where you will know what those are.

Three Specific Suggestions

First, start with a light warm up.

Warm up is essential, no matter whether you are practicing every day, or have not done anything in years. Start with something that gets your heartbeat up and keep going for at least 6-10 minutes. Fight the tendency to want to start with stretching first. After your cardio warm up (try jogging, jumping, skipping rope) slow down for a stretch. To make it super simple, start with your head and work your way down. Remember to rotate all the limbs, and do ‘stretch and hold’ positions for 8 counts. Don’t ‘bounce’ in your stretches (reaching your end point and then pulling away, and repeating the same back and forward movement in quick succession). Allow yourself to spend about one third to half of your beginning program doing warm-ups.

Second, alignment is your light.

Instead of jumping into hand positions or working through the elements, start with alignment. The reestablishment of a good alignment is essential. All stylization, and suspension of movement starts here, so you can feel good about starting with alignment as well. Start with the tension-relaxation relationship of your body’s center axis. Focus on building the body up like bricks in a wall, and like bending the center axis like the sections in a train. Experience how your breathing, bone alignment, and muscle fitness influence each step. Hereafter, move to isolations as they relate to your alignment.

Third, remember the feeling.

As you start to move you might find it easy to tell yourself that you feel uncomfortable. Allow this initial awkwardness and actively reaffirm the fact that you know this technique. Actively prompt yourself to think of the movement as ‘easy’. This mental framework will assist you to reconnect with what you already know about the technique. When at last you start to ‘remember’ how it felt, you will be well on your way to a great time in the studio, backyard, or living room.

A last word for all of you who might give this a try, remember Marcel Marceau’s encouragement to old and new students alike:

“It is not bad for a first time.”

August Technique II

2010-08-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

Placement Patterns - Modèles des placement

by Theo Williams

Foot placements refer to the placement of the foot or how the foot touches the ground. The placement patterns of the foot refer to the way in which the foot makes contact with the floor. Even though there are direct correlations between the foot positions and the foot placements, the contact with the ground ads an element that positions of the foot does not include. There are six placements within our standard technique syllabus. However, we won't post pictures of the positions here. I believe their names are sufficient enough for now.

1. Pointe - Point

2. Demi-pointe – ‘Demi’-point (or ball of the foot, or French ‘Bail’)

3. Plat - Flat

4. Demi-plat – ‘Demi’-flat

5. Talon - Heel

6. Arche - Arch (or hollow foot)

August Technique

2010-08-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

Pentagram hand (also known as 'fingertip hand', or even 'standing fingers' hand)

The fingers position looks quite similar to Decroux's shell hand or Marceau's grapefruit/shell hand. The fingers are straight instead of curved. It is often used in the identification of the wall, when the hand first makes contact with the wall, before the hand pushed through for the touching of the wall. It is also used in squid hand.

Remembering choreography: The hand used in Storyteller by Anxiety, when he/she touches their fingertips together.

Small variations seen: More closed, like standing on a table, and more open where all the finger prints can touch an paper without the palm touching.

Jonah

2010-03-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

We have a wonderful friend in Pastor Paul Otoko (Director of the Institute for Indigenous Studies). As a chief of the Micronesian people, and pastor to First Nation Peoples, he has taught us that God imparts to us from three directions- the sky, the earth, and the sea. He asked us to present a piece at the Deep Sea Canoe APPA Conference during the week of July 12-17, 2009. The story of Jonah immediately came to mind. I wanted to choreograph something with the sea as theme for a while now. This gave me a chance to develop a piece that would use images Pastor Otoko's Micronesian friends and all the other delegates would be familiar with.

I hope you enjoy this full length version of Jonah, performed by Theo & Jolie Williams and the students of Innovo Conservatory of Physical Theatre.
-Theo Williams

(CLICK HERE TO VIEW IT)

Choreography Details:
Choreographed and Directed by Theo Williams, co-directed by Jolie Williams. Performed and recorded in June 2009 in Los Angeles, California. This piece portrays the biblical story of Jonah, chapters 1-3.

Be Mime Valentine

2010-02-12T09:15:00.000-08:00

It is that time again...Valentines Day!

We, Jolie and I, was asked to participate in a short film in February 2009. Eric Reinig (e.rhino productions) directed, shot and edited this silent film for a film festival/class he was doing. His film won the event. Music was done by Brent Bain. Eric's goal was to create something timeless. Please feel free to leave Eric feedback.

Click 'here' for You Tube.

Our Vision Explained

2009-06-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

By Jolie Williams

“…to love God and one another by embodying the human story in beauty and truth.” Innovo’s vision statement

To love God and one another… God’s word charges us to love Him and one another. By this charge, we respond in artistic faithfulness as servants of humanity. As artists in community this ‘inspiration’ invites participation and cooperation, while sharing with those that are lost and hurt.

Embodying the human story… Jesus Christ, the physical God-man, transfigured to reveal His glorified body. Theatre can demonstrate and even become the same wonder of that transcendent moment when His people (His body on the earth) display His love. This kind of theatre discloses a communion with God and one another that invites us to freely participate with His concerns for the world. The physical theatre that enfleshes this master-story shows us that the imago Dei (the image of God) is not revealed in ideas, but in the presence of a caring community.

Beauty and truth… We are called to embody holiness and be the prophetic voice/vision against all forms of political injustice, ecological insensitivity ethical relativism and indifference to life. We are called to express through stylized and poetic movement the coherence of our faith and challenge all ideologies that contradict the biblical narrative. In this way we portray the beauty of truth, painted in the grace of movement and exemplified in the life of humanity.

We are called to equip and train artists to excellently and honestly present the gifts they have received. We are called to challenge these artists to live out the directive by which they were called. We are called to recover our freedom, functioning in environments that have separated the domain of artistic expression from religious worship. We are called to take our place in the greater community of the Church world wide, and through our artistry demonstrate the unity of our faith. On a greater scale we are all called to be the visible theatre of the character and witness of God’s mission (Missio Dei). Innovo Physical Theatre answers this call by responding through our artistry in performance, discipleship, community and training.

Approaching Art

2009-06-30T13:30:00.001-07:00

By Theo Williams

Imagine a majestic angel in the throne room of God, arriving with a bucket of water and cleaning cloth. He has been summoned to clean a little crayon drawing off one of the walls where small children sat the previous evening for a story time with God. One can imagine lip-reading the angel’s expression as he silently mouths the words, “humans!”

Art is unmistakably an essential part of our humanity. We “humans” were made in the “image of God” (Latin imago Dei), and therefore we are meant to live out our lives as works of art (Greek poiema). Living this way we reveal a living communio, a loving freedom to creatively express our gifts in service of God and one others. Our art can express and realize this ‘indwelling of meaning’ (Latin perichoresis) by how we express truth, goodness and beauty.

In this way our art becomes dynamic enactments that recall the meaning of their constituted reality in the present moment (Greek anamnesis). Our art embodies story in ways that are engaging while inviting them into participation. Approaching art in this way, we don’t need to rely on mimetic falsities, or struggle with the hopelessness of metaphysical idealism.

Our physical theatre expresses this understanding by starting with the actor/mime as the essence of theatre. In the same way that painting, architecture, music, and text have their own homes, the theatre is the home of the actor/mime. All the stage elements like décor, furniture, lights and scripts serve the actor/mime. The space is kept elementally simple as to focus or benefit the artist’s work. The actor/mime is a person presenting the corporeal artistry of a instrumental body; the dynamic interplay of presenting both the embodied story (personal), as well as its transfigured hope (universal).

Here the body expresses movement, movement expresses action, and action expresses the drama (comedy or tragedy) of our lives. In this way our physical theatre portrays emotion, thought and experience in a way that transcends cultural barriers and passes the many rational defenses our age erects against the musicality of the body. The body of the actor, like the strings of a harp, creates a rhythm that captures the tensions of our existence and opus of our hearts.

Even though this might not come easily, our Conservatory and training programs provide the new and experienced actor/mime the opportunity to pursue technical exactness, repertoire, and improvisation. Combining these elements, we believe the course of study grants our graduates an artistic composure we call “freedom under mastery”. This composure allows the performer to listen to the laws of motion and narrative-analysis while they can augment their expressions with improvisational immediacy. In this way thought, experience, and emotions can be strengthened, nuanced or reemphasized.

In Memory of Marcel Marceau

2009-06-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

The legend of mime, the master of silence, died Saturday, September 22, 2007. Marcel Marceau brought the art of mime to the public, and made it into a popular theatre form. Being a "spiritual" man, he had high views of his art and maintained those views as a standard for those he taught. Marceau believed that humanity needed and even hungered for silence. As he noted "It’s good to shut up sometimes." Marceau sculpted his silence to show forth the comedy in everyday life, the struggle of the human heart, and the drama of creation.

Was Marceau a Christian man? Well, he appreciated all faiths, though he especially loved the Bible. He created two particularly Christian-like mime pieces, one being the Biblical telling of the Creation of the world, the other a piece about a two hands, one good, one evil. When teaching his piece the hands, he speaks of the movements of the good hand in Christ's own words: "Let the little children come to me" and "Our Father, who art in Heaven." When visiting Mimeistry in 2002, Todd & Marilyn Farley and Theo were able to share their faith with him in extraordinary ways. Towards the close of the workshop, Todd and Marilyn performed for Marceau a piece called Still Her Little Child, which portrays the life of Jesus through the Mary's perspective. Marceau stood up and commented on its beauty, and then proclaimed loudly(paraphrasing): "This shows clearly that Jesus was a man; he knew the pain and struggle of humanity." Our students gladly smiled. "See? Jesus was not God." Everyone tilted their heads in confusion. Afterwards, Marilyn was able to share with Maestro Marceau that Jesus was in fact both God and man, and Marceau listened very intently. Later, Maestro Marceau shared with Todd & Marilyn his struggle with his art. He wondered if art really did make any difference. Sadly, Marceau was often not acknowledged for his great contributions to the art world, especially when it came to Paris. The day of his death, a French newspaper proclaimed Jesus' own words at Marceau's passing: "A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country,..." (Mark 6:4)However Todd & Marilyn were able to share with Marceau their faith in his situation. Marilyn told Marceau that God can use a story or a drama to change even the heart of kings, just like in the parable Nathan told to David. (2 Sam. 12:1-14)

Towards the end of his career, Marceau consistently performed one number in every show: The Creation of the World, of which he said: "I’m not religious in life, but when I perform The Creation of the World and when my soul is touched by the confrontation of “Good and Evil”, then God enters in me." As Paris forced his resignation in 2005, he withdrew from public life. Even a few days before his passing, our mime team was praying for him, and the Farley's began thinking of him. We hope that he came to know the Jesus he admired.

Marceau's funeral, held in Paris at the Cemetery Pere Lachaise, the ceremony began with the music of The Creation of the World, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21. A rabbi shared of Marceau's life, being a Jew who rescued children during the holocaust. He acknowledged Marceau as an international man, who sought to bring the beauty of the universal art of mime to the masses. The rabbi noted that Marceau not only gave to people with his heart and soul, but also his body, and especially his face, giving to the people love. There were several Psalms read, and a celloist played while while the rain drizzled and the wind blew autumn leaves across the cemetery. As they put his body into the earth, photographers from around the world huddled by to capture the delicate moment. As they drifted away, those touched by his art and his person remained to say goodbye to the kind hearted man they loved. One by one each dropped roses into the earth for a final farewell. Theo and Jolie both stood side by side and were the last to drop a flower into his grave before they sealed it shut. As the crowds dwindled, artists and family appeared through the crowd, and smiles and tears for remembering the maestro were exchanged through the rain.

Later Marilyn, Theo & Jolie were invited to the home of a member of Marceau's company. Most of those there were members of Marceau's company. Some were Christian artists, all touched by Marceau's art and ministering through their training. One young woman, Angelique, who recently became a Christian, was good friends with the Maestro. She was so encouraged to meet other Christians who want to use the art for God' glory. We were also able to meet again with Marceau's close assistant, Gyongi, who was present at the 2002 Mimeistry workshop which hosted Marceau. Gyongi thanked us for coming, and she told us how workshop still held a very special place in her heart.

For artists, Marceau left a legacy of truth and beauty, silence and simplicity. His art was infused with provocative thought, spiritual truth, and a moral conscience. Marcel Marceau showed a life's work of integrity, filled with a passion for seeking truth and stillness in his own heart. Of his own art he said: "I have designed my style pantomimes as white ink drawings on black backgrounds, so that man’s destiny appears as a thread lost in an endless labyrinth… I have tried to shed some gleams of light on the shadow of man startled by his anguish." He will ever be an inspiration, and hold a place of honor in our memory. Thank you, Maestro Marceau, for all that you left behind. May God grant us the strength to carry on the legacy with dignity, truth and beauty.

Mime experience in the feature film Surrogates

2009-05-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

By Jessica Ostrander

Last June I had a unique opportunity to be featured in a minor role in the soon to be released film "Surrogates". I worked on set with the director Jonathan Mostow who selected me because of my background in physical theater and mime training.

I played the role of a out dated surrogate model employed as a meter maid who tickets cars as comic relief for the film. Working in costume with a mask designed by the special effects artist Howard Berger (who also worked on the FX for Chronicles of Narnia) proved to be a fun challenge.

Since the film has not yet been released I will not know if my scene made the cut until it comes out in theaters on September 25, 2009. The experience was very cool. I had an all expense paid trip to Boston for five days, worked in two location in downtown Boston, met several actors in the film, and got to rub shoulders with some really cool professionals in the film industry.

Howard Berger was probably the coolest. He took me under his wing as the newbie and showed me around. I didn't interact with the other actors on camera but was able to meet them off camera. When I was being directed on camera for multiple shots, as a instinct I didn't drop character between takes, to the amusement of everyone on set.

Working on film is a lot different than working on stage. The adrenaline rush that comes with performing for a live audience in a theater is completely absent. "Hurry up and wait" is the mantra of working on set. My favorite part: The food! Everything was exquisitely catered on set, and off set we ate at the Harvard Club, a definite highlight.

Plot of Surrogates (2009): Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop (Bruce Willis) is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.

On Creating the Concept of Innovo

2009-05-21T11:56:00.000-07:00

By Rommel Ruiz

One of the greatest challenges that designers, agencies and creative directors face is to make a brand that captures the essence of a specific group, company or organization with authenticity and quality. In the case of Innovo, our challenge was not just to brand a physical theatre company and conservatory, but a revolutionary idea that encourage others to re-create, re-invent and re-birth art as well.

To us Innovo conveys the fantasy of the imagination (the invisible) with the reality that is around us (the visible). Our first challenge was to create a simple image out of these complex concepts. This meant that we needed to visually demonstrate the vision of where we want to go as a community of artists united in revealing the light of God through our art.

THE LOGO

The logo is composed of a logotype, which is comprised of Innovo’s trademark fonts. The official logo conveys the logotype with half of the symbol at the upper right side. The symbol can be divided in two identical opposite sides (official logo). This is Innovo’s trademark.

THE SYMBOL

We have received many questions about the meaning of Innovo’s seal and our quick answer had been “recreate”. But actually the symbol is more than that. The design process took hundreds of hours, even though it was an interesting and a challenging experience. We first started with the idea of a Jewish candlestick (Menorah). Historically the Menorah was created to illuminate the whole room inside the tabernacle of Moses and symbolized the Spirit of God. We believe that art can bring illumination, and for us who consider the arts to be a part of our worship, the arts can be filled with the Spirit of God and draw humanity to meet God.

After considering the Menorah, we went on to play with round shapes. If anyone has heard about King Arthur and his knights, they will remember that they had their private meetings around a round table, which symbolized that all men were created equal. We believe in a community of ideas where every artist must have a place to communicate and develop their craft and gifts.

Finally, through out many hours of sketching and design, we came to the final art, which is definitely an evolution of the first idea we had. The symbol has the appearance of a jester's cap. Jesters were mimes/physical actors that were set aside to delight the king. The symbol also captures the feeling of dynamic movement. Thus our symbol captures the concepts of divine illumination, worship, unity, and performing arts for the King of Kings.

Our logo and symbol represent our vision and call to serve the our God and the world in our art; in other words: to love God and one another by embodying the human story in beauty and truth. - Innovo's vision statement

Welcome!

2008-12-31T11:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome to All!

Innovo Physical Theatre has opened its doors, and we are thrilled to see what God is going to do!

What does Innovo mean?

Innovo is the Latin word for RENEW! CREATE! INNOVATE! That is what artists do. Through the inspiration and gifting of God, artists create images, sounds, movements and tangible moments in time. A famous french director once said: "Man created the theater so he could understand the mysteries of life".

Innovo Physical Theatre is the innovative creation of physical movement portraying the wonder of God's story through the simplicity of the body. Through the arts of mime, dance and drama we renew the telling of the old story, placing it on stage for the audience to have an experience of life, wonder and mystery.

Melea Brock summarizes this beautifully in the start of her new book ‘Step Inside: Where Stories Come to Life’ with the following quote: “If we are all caught in the story then there must be a Storyteller. And if there is a Storyteller then your part and my part in this story must truly matter to Him…”

Our vision is simple, “…to love God and one another by embodying the human story in beauty and truth.”

Feel free to visit us every so often, or contact us and get more actively involved in our community of artists.

Sincerly,

Theo & Jolie Williams
Directors of Innovo Physical Theatre