Poland, Grotowski Center, Atelier, Song of Goat

Bryan Brown has left for Poland to participate in this year's ATELIER Source Techniques – Sources of Techniques directed by Jaroslaw Fret and Grzegorz Ziolkowski at the Grotowski Center and to train with Piesn Kozla (Song of Goat) Theatre Company.

Company continues to work on the Bulgakov Project and firming up our plans for performances in August and December. Olya is also working on her solo piece, based on Les Noces (English: The Wedding; Russian: Свадебка.)

What is ATELIER?

ATELIER consists of a series of practical and theoretical work sessions, which are part of an enterprise created for actors, musicians, singers, dancers, and theatre people. The aim of the Atelier is to work on the craft in the primary meaning of the word. The craft is a study of tools, a study of discovering creative motivation in oneself, a study of keeping the working spaces (whether them being actual spaces or the spaces of the body and/or the voice) in order. These elements build a skeleton of performer's creative preparation for work, the core of which is re-cognition – dedication.

Programme of the ATELIER includes:

• Openings – presentations of performances, concerts and demonstrations of work open for wider audiences. Presentations will be made by artists whose projects are realized within the framework of the promotional activities of the Grotowski Institute.

• Courses – work sessions divided into 4 five-day units of work which embrace three independent artistic lines (200 hours on the whole). Apart from them, the programme consists of theoretical classes and film presentations with introductions.

Commedia Night

Last night John Achorn shared with us his video collection of Commedia archives. Ariane Mnouchkine, Dario Fo, Jacques Lecoq, Piccolo Teatro, old films, Laurel & Hardy. Exquisite and ominous in its serious "life or death" demands. He said we will be leaping through the air in a few month. Oh, ok...

Beyond May

We are regrouping. Heading into the summer. Learning to be an organization, flexing our brain muscles. Boards, non-profits, money - comprehending the constructs of survival. We revised our mission statement:

ARTEL is a theater laboratory collective that creates and performs original work through investigation of cultures and histories. By building and extending our creative home we serve a community who seeks a mutual experience of joy, play and revelation.

This year is a year of a pig, the year of overcoming obstacles - and they keep hurdling at us to be overcome. It's a good year, this year, we are becoming stronger, purer, more direct. Our work is more intense, immediate and deeply satisfying. Momo left us a golden set of challenges to grapple with.