SITI Company Expands Actor-Training Program with Evening Classes and More

By: Sep. 22, 2017
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This autumn, Siti Company, the internationally acclaimed theater ensemble led by Co-Artistic Directors Anne Bogart, Leon Ingulsrud and Ellen Lauren, is expanding its actor-training program by offering evening classes and an expanded master class series.

In addition to their popular five-week Fall Training studio, this October 2 - November 3, SITI is offering a Movement Intensive from November 6-17, an evening Viewpoints Master Class with Anne Bogart from November 27-29 from 7-10 PM and an evening Speaking Master Class with Ellen Lauren from November 30-December 2 from 7-10 PM.

The workshops, along with a series of public lectures called SITI Thought Center, take place in the company's Zeisler Studio in Midtown Manhattan at 520 8th Avenue, Suite 310, NYC 10018.

Applications to all workshops are now open at SITI's website, and admissions are being accepted on a rolling basis. International Artists and artists from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. [Apply at www.siti.org/workshops. Fall training is $1300; movement intensive is $500; and master classes are $400.]

Co-Artistic Director Ellen Lauren explains that these expanded offerings come in response to the needs of SITI's artistic community: "We want to bring artists together to experiment, exchange and excel. The question is how to make work now that is of value to the self, while also having a shared experience with others. It is only by looking at the timeless issues of a prepared body and an awake mind, both fundamental to work for the stage, that we can create a stronger self as well as community."

For the past 25 years, Siti Company has taught two influential actor training methods: the Suzuki Method of Actor Training and the Viewpoints. Through their celebrated programs, which take an innovative approach to actor training, the company has inspired thousands of like-minded artists globally, fostering collaborations in their New York studio and around the world.

The Suzuki Method, developed by internationally acclaimed director Tadashi Suzuki and the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), is a physical discipline focusing attention on the lower body and a vocabulary of footwork that sharpens the actor's breath control, energy and concentration.

First articulated by choreographer Mary Overlie, the Viewpoints grew out of the postmodern dance world as a way of noticing and responding to the world around the artist. Emphasis is on improvisation and collaboration through the shared language of time and space. With Co-Artistic Director Anne Bogart, SITI's company members continue to honor Overlie's study, called the Six Viewpoints, as well as adapting her original language for both ensemble and individual research.

SITI's Education Manager Megan Hanley explains, "There are so many options available to theater artists in New York City. What's special about SITI's programs is that we train the whole actor: your body, voice, mind and imagination. The work is hard, collaborative and-in my experience-completely life-changing."

Siti Company, now in its 25th year, is an ensemble-based theater company founded in 1992 as the Saratoga International Theater Institute by Anne Bogart, Tadashi Suzuki and a group of like-minded artists. Led today by Co-Artistic Directors Anne Bogart, Leon Ingulsrud and Ellen Lauren, the company creates new work, trains young theater artists and has a strong commitment to international collaboration.

SITI has toured to 27 countries on five continents and created more than 45 new productions including such iconic works as Under Construction (2009), The Medium (1994), Death and the Ploughman (2004), bobrauschenbergamerica (2001), War of the Worlds-The Radio Play (1999), Hotel Cassiopeia (2006) and a triptych of solo pieces inspired by great artists: Bob (1998), Room (2000) and Score (2002).

Among the countless accolades that SITI as a whole as well as its members individually have garnered are seven OBIE awards, two Guggenheim Fellowships, Doris Duke Artist Award, USA Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, American Theatre Wing's Henry Hewes design award, Best Foreign Production at the Dublin Festival and several Drama Desk Award nominations.

For more information about Siti Company and its training programs, visit www.siti.org/workshops.

Photo by Michael Brosilow



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