An improvisation-based physical technique for acting classes developed in the 1970s will be taught for the first time in the Middle East this month. Australian stage actor and TV presenter Blake Stemm will teach Viewpoints, a method that relies extensively on movement and gestures to convey emotions, during an acting workshop at Constellation Dubai that begins on September 30.
The method was developed by choreographer Mary Overlie, a faculty member at the Experimental Theatre Wing of New York University, to reflect a performer’s relationship with space, shape, time, emotion, movement and story. Later, theatre directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau expanded the physical “viewpoints” so that they could be adopted by stage actors.
“It is a technique that provides the actor with the vocabulary for thinking about acting through movement,” says Stemm, who studied drama and acting at Queensland University of Technology and Film & Television Studio International in Australia. “So it has components of both physical theatre and improvisation.”
Stemm's 15-year acting portfolio includes roles in musicals, including Rent, High School Musical and The Wizard of Oz in Australia, to hosting events, acting in short films and presenting radio shows in Dubai.
Each session in his six-week workshop will be dedicated to a different viewpoint and the progress of the participants will be filmed. “In the first week, we will be looking at the script from the point of the space they will be performing in,” he says.
“By space I mean the physical environment that they are going to be a part of. The spatial relationship with whatever is in the scene, with their fellow actors, the chair, the architecture, the group, and then also the topography.”
Each workshop has been designed to emphasise movement, and the method can be useful for TV, film and theatre actors alike.
Stemm says there is a dearth of professional acting courses in the UAE and these workshops are a way to help improve the quality of local talent. “The theatre scene is growing and the potential in the Middle East is astounding,” he says. “We have some very gifted actors but they need to keep educating themselves and keep practising and learning.
“I think there is a lack of good- quality workshops. What I mean by that is that it’s important to provide actors with a structured course and let them see how they are growing. “So in our workshops, we put everything down on camera so that they can go away and assess their work in class and have a record of their growth and set goals accordingly.”
With a growing number of international movies being shot in the Emirates – including Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Furious 7 and the upcoming Star Trek Beyond and War Machine – there is an urgent need for polished actors.
“We’ve had all these movies being filmed here and there’s plenty more coming,” he says. “So now, more than ever, it is important for actors in the Middle East to be on point and be able to present themselves at the right given movement.”
Stemm will also be hosting a screen-acting workshop beginning on September 15, in which participants will analyse a script for emotions and feeling.
• The six-week Viewpoints workshop will be held every Wednesday from September 30 for six weeks and the screen-acting workshop will begin on September 15. Each course costs Dh1,000, with a 10 per cent discount for those who take both. To register, email jane@constellation.ae. Visit www.constellation.ae for more details
aahmed@thenational.ae
