OPAL PROGRAMME

The criterion of success on the stage is a very subjective category. It is a matter of taste, style, form, cultural traditions, fashion, etc. However, there is also such important category as professionalism. “According to Ostrenko “professional” theatre performance would embody inspiration that would beam beautifully and profoundly as light does from a star. It would also embody exceptional training and skill by the performers. Both qualities, inspiration and skill, must be present for a “professional” performance” (Lorna Takehara Strand - theatre director, teacher).
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The final product we evaluate contains the long saturated process, which can be complex and vulnerable for any artist. “Creativity is not something that can be logically delineated or linearly outlined. Rather, it emerges within an atmosphere of trust, connectivity with fellow artists, and activities and exercises that generate actions that are unique and alive. Sergey is able to quickly and effectively build this atmosphere with strangers from around the world. His exercises and process establish solid connectivity between people, and in just one week, they are able to create with each other in profound ways” (Lorna Takehara Strand – theatre director, teacher).

How to make your performance a bright
event in your company life?

How to make the work more effective
and the whole process light, creative and joyful?

How to find your individual creative style and form?

Participants of OPAL Project will have opportunity to become acquainted with Ostrenko method – the system of creative work structuring developed through years of personal training and exploration of various exercises and techniques of traditional and contemporary theatre. The method was elaborated during the long-term research carried out together with the members of IUGTE Creative Laboratory – the team of professional directors, actors, dancers, choreographers and psychologists with specialization in performing arts and creativity. Ostrenko method is internationally known; theatre teachers from Russia, Europe, America, Asia and Australia who trained with Ostrenko have been using his method in their own teaching practice. His approach is the combination of the spirit of Russian Theatre Tradition and practical theatre methodology of the contemporary western paradigm.

Ostrenko training is an intensive, saturated and consecutive process. The atmosphere is conducive to exploration, demands alert involvement and personal investment in the process. This is a nurturing and challenging environment, a safe place within which to take creative risks!

“The methods and techniques that I experienced were varied and I could relate to them from my own practice but these were of a deeper level and intensity in terms of action and energy. The style of taking a participant, be it a director or an actor was of equality and an openness to ‘play’ it was this sense of safety and clarity that enabled the theatre moments to spark off one another. The attention to space and to the occupancy of space by the actor was always a theme that returned to the action of story and this was a vital in creating form” (Nazli Tabatabai - theatre director).

“For me, being used and experienced in these kinds of exercises, it was particularly interesting to experience how our group grew an incredible amount of trust among each other allowing everyone to step over their inhibitions and explore their limits with their movement improvisations, no matter what their prior level of movement experience was” (Rebeca Fernandez Lopez – dancer, choreographer)

“…This (course) was an example for the powerful effect theatre can have on people” (Kathrin Yvonne Bigler - writer, director).

Term 1
Director from Intention to Realization.

Term 2
Composing of The Original Piece of Art As Action.

Term 3 
Directing of The Artistic Space.

WARM-UP

The warm-up is based on the dynamic breathing exercises which helps participants to prepare their organisms properly for the full-value intensive work during the day. The training combines breathing, movement and imagination. These exercises help to focus the mind and body as one, gain sense of connection through the body, gain a sense of the centre of weight and achieve awareness of flow and energy in the body. The principal accents during the execution of the exercises are relaxation and naturalness.

PRACTICAL TRAINING
“Method of Work with Creative Group"

Part I. Physical training

Potential body possibilities.
Relaxation and awareness of the body through movement.
Practical investigation of spontaneity.
Awareness and spontaneity in movement.
Psychological gesture.
Transition from individual improvisation to spontaneous collective interaction.