International Festival
THEATRE METHODS 05
Between Tradition and Contemporaneity

Sheldon Deckelbaum (USA)

During the festival Sheldon Deckelbaum 
will present the workshop
"Anatomy of An Action"

Anatomy of an Action is a workshop for actors, dancers, directors, choreographers and other performing artists and teachers. It has been developed in response to a need performing artists have to get to the heart of this thing we call, action. There seems to be wide agreement amongst theatre practitioners in recognizing that action is essential to acting. Most actors and acting teachers would somehow also agree that “acting is doing.” However beyond that common phrase, what is an actor really doing when s/he is in action? Oftentimes the moment that was so compelling at one time in rehearsal is now gone and because we failed to name it, own it, and craft it, the action has eluded us and we work in vain to recapture it. As Shakespeare’s Hamlet said, “With this regard their currents turn awry and lose their name of action.” Perhaps we know it when we see it or hear it or feel it. Perhaps the actor knows it when he or she is doing it. But are there fundamental principles and properties of action that help one define it, shape it, craft it and repeat it? This is the territory with which this workshop is principally concerned. Anatomy of an Action examines, as if under a microscopic lens, the physiology of the performers’ primary currency of expression, action. In codifying the performers’ use of action, the workshop applies a basic model of physics to the work while still recognizing the relationship to psychology as the work seeks to repair what has become a disastrous schism between internal and external technique in contemporary approaches to acting.

Anatomy of an Action is about ways of articulating, shaping, modifying, scoring and repeating action. My research with performers, working within a variety of different media and different styles has lead me to recognize that ultimately good actors develop their own personal, even idiosyncratic approaches to their work. Yet good results share certain commonalities, even in this often elusive process. When the actor is engaged in action there is a sense of inner physical intent, a sense of potential energy which can be identified regardless of how that action is ultimately expressed. I call it the action nucleus. This workshop introduces the actor and director, the dancer and choreographer, to a more precise technical language with which to communicate about action. Anatomy of an Action breaks down the components of action and offers artists a practical vocabulary with which to craft theatrically effective moments. This approach stems in part from some of the ground breaking acting research of the last Century. Anatomy of an Action has evolved from a new understanding and synthesis of the late work of Constantine Stanislavski on psycho-physical action, Meyerhold’s techniques with biomechanics, as well as the work of Michael Chekhov,
Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba. Anatomy of an Action also integrates certain performance principles from the Noh and Kabuki traditions, adapting and distilling these insights for a primarily contemporary western practitioner.

BIOGRAPHY

Sheldon Deckelbaum most recently directed the premiere of MAMILLIUS, his adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale for La MaMa E.T.C. in New York City.  He also directed the New York premiere of Kevin Kling's The Ice-Fishing Play following its Humana Festival production at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville.  Other productions include:  his adaptation of Lazarus Laughed by Eugene O'Neill for the Theatre of the Open Eye, Heiner Muller's Explosion of a Memory/Description of a Picture at Soho Rep, his original theatrical adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's short story, Nel Segno, entitled The Body Sketch, for the New York Theatre Workshop JAW Festival, and Coming Home and A Woman Alone by Dario Fo and Franca Rame for the Westbeth Theater Center.  He has directed the premieres of many works which have also been seen in New York City at La MaMa, E.T.C., New Dramatists, Dixon Place Theatre, the Samuel Beckett Theatre and the Workhouse Theatre. Mr. Deckelbaum won the Hudson Valley regional critics award for best direction of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. He directed the southeast regional premiere of David Ives' play All in the Timing for the Piccolo Spoletto Festival USA.  Since relocating to the west coast, he directed the The Sacramento Theatre Company's world premiere of the Millennium Monologues including new works by Aviva Jane Carlin, Velina Hasu Houston, Bob Devin Jones, and Robert Daseler; Resident Alien by Stuart Spencer at the Foothill Theatre Company; The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged for Shakespeare at Stinson; and
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen for the Western Stage. He directed his adaptation/translation of Carlo Gozzi’s 18th century play The King Stag for A.C.T.'s conservatory. 

He serves on the faculty at the University of California, Davis where is an assistant professor of Theatre and Dance and where he has also directed The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt, the Kander/Ebb musical Cabaret, and Big Love by Charles Mee. 

His practical research in performance technique is titled
Anatomy of an Action, which seeks to codify the performers’ use of action, working within a model of physics and applying the approach to mainstream theatre and film practices.  He has lectured and conducted master classes and workshops the US and internationally. He received his BA from New York University and has an MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama.

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