Friday, August 6 -- 8:30am-12:00pm
10 minimum, 25 maximum -- $45*

With hundreds of murals, San Francisco’s public art tells a compelling tale of the city’s rich history.  After touring selected murals in the Mission District, arguably the capital of SF muralism, participants will return to the workshop space to use these images as starting points for devising original theatre.  Through interactive exercises and collective reflection, participants can expect to accumulate a range of devising strategies inspired by visual text.

* Workshop fee includes the cost of the mural tour, as well as transportation to and from the Mission District neighborhood.

A doctoral student in Teacher Education at Stanford University, Lisa Barker has taught acting, improvisation, and devising in a variety of K-12 contexts. In Chicago, she has performed with Barrel of Monkeys and the Neo-Futurists. As Director of Education at Adventure Stage Chicago, she designed and implemented arts-infused curriculum, residencies, and teacher workshops. While managing the Creative Arts Team’s Kaplan Center for Educational Drama, she helped launch the first MA in Applied Theatre in the United States.  Her current research centers on the ways in which improvisational theatre training can influence teacher practice.

Thursday, August 5 -- 9:00am-12:00pm
5 minimum, 25 maximum -- $45

Led by Company Members of Theatre of Yugen, the internationally recognized San Francisco-based company dedicated to the pursuit of the intangible essence of Yugen: an unearthly, deep, dark, quiet, and profound beauty.  This workshop will look at the ancient and on-going Japanese theatre forms of Noh (drama) and Kyogen (comedy), and will explore the many aspects of these forms as vital ways to study and create contemporary theatre.

Founded in 1978, Theatre of Yugen is an experimental ensemble dedicated to the pursuit of the intagible essence called yugen through its exploration of dramatic and literary classics and the crafting of new works of world theater.  Our investigation stems from a discipline of Japanese theatrical aesthetics - primarily the classical forms of Noh drama and Kyogen comedy.  Through training, creating, presenting, collaborating and performing we aim to foster intercultural understanding and keep theatrical discipline vital.

• Sheila Berotti first trained with Theatre of Yugen in 1998. She learned the role of Master in Busu (Sweet Poison) and was koken for the 1999 production of Sisa in Project Artaud Theater. After some time doing other things (mostly yoga classes and original comedy skits called 'Shandyland'), she reconnected with the Company and resumed her training. She has appeared in Theatre of Yugen’s original adaptations of Futari Bakama (Two in One Hakama),  Old Man and the Sea, Don Q, and was a core actor in 2007’s all-day theatre event The Cycle Plays.  She played the title role in Candide, or Optimism, and was in the recent Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Commission and Presentation of Dogsbody.  A graduate of Bard College, Sheila is a certified yoga instructor and has been a teaching associate of Pretzel's Yoga for over a decade.  She brings her experience to the class-room and is most adept at making the often-times austere traditions of Noh and Kyogen fun for young students.
• Ryan is Theatre of Yugen's newest Company Member and a recent graduate of San Francisco State University, where he completed a BA in French and a minor in theatre arts, studying the Suzuki method and Meisner technique with Yukihiro Goto and Barbara Damashek, respectively.  It is at SF State where Theatre of Yugen Artistic Director Jubilith Moore first introduced Ryan to Noh and Kyogen. His first production with the Company was the original Kyogen-style Candide, or Optimism and he is currently beginning his training by working through the stock characters of the Kyogen repertoire.  Ryan has also been instrumental in the development of new devised works such as Alice, based on the children literature classic Alice in Wonderland.  Ryan is a popular and in demand Teaching Artist in Bay Area schools.