The professional three months program is open to performers, theatre teachers, directors, playwrights, designers, choreographers, musicians with professional experience in their field, 

 

The participants  will be prompted  to explore the permanencies at the  base of any creative process, and to acquire tools and techniques to create their own poetic universe.

 

The teaching and the research are based on the idea that any expressive theatre event is:

- a physical act, with the body in an empty space, as the main instrument, essential and unavoidable.

- a creative act, which requires any artist involved (actor, director, writer, designer...) to be a creator in their role

- a poetic act,  transposition necessary for theatre to become true and direct

- a social act, necessary in the mysterious journey of humanity

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The ATELIER is directed by Matteo Destro with an international team of higly qualified artists, with whom he has collaborated in the past in various theatrical projects, and formed a strong , artistic and professional bond.

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THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE MASK

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The Mask is the guiding theme throughout the program.

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The Mask can be understood within a much broader context than its role in representing a face. The Mask is a dynamic structure that moves through space on stage; it is a spacial phenomenon through which the invisible comes to life in a tangible form. In this sense we come face to face with all of the principles that govern theatrical performance. The characters, the set, the choreography, and the text are all masks. The show itself is a mask.

 

In this sense, the Mask, having a phenomenal nature, fully manifests only when all the elements which constitute the phenomenal act are present. The structure of the Mask and the materials with which it was constructed are important. However, just as important is the person who moves and merges with the Mask, who observes the quality of physical space which supports the play, as well as the quality of the dramatic space within which the Mask may be played.

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The Mask is the most important tool within the foundation of theatrical expression at all levels: directing, acting, writing, teaching, and creating original pieces. Its profound significance, its functions, its uses, and its constant demand for authenticity require a rigorous technical practice and, simultaneously, a generous openness toward play.

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Matteo Destro developed this pedagogical program through many years of experience as a director and creator of shows; as an actor and author; as a creator of masks for the stage and for teaching. He has taught in international schools of theatre creation as well as workshops and in social projects with human beings of all ages. 

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THE THREE APPROACHES OF THE DAILY PACTICE

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ATELIER provides practical and experiential study of the mask through three approaches:

 

BECOMING THE CREATOR OF THE MASK

Design and create different kinds of masks, such as full masks, half masks, and larval masks. 

Study the form and its dynamics in space, as well as the organic creative process through which the form of the mask emerges.

 

BECOMING THE MASK

The structure of the body.

The relationship between body and space: the presence and the state. 

The body in action: movement analysis and technique.

The mask in play: the drive, the action-reaction, the articulation, the projection of the mask.

Improvisation.

Play-writing.

 

BECOMING PART OF THE MASK

The chorus as a single body: the collective mask, the common breath, the choral movement.

The bodies creating dynamic architecture in the space.

The chorus body becomes lines, planes, volumes, feelings, qualities, stories.

 

In the school-laboratory these three states of being are in constant intersection through daily practice, opening the field of theatre research so that the students may discover and derive the transversal principles that constitute mask work. In a broader sense, these “principles” are the foundation for all artistic work, as work that is born through an artistic process can be seen as a “form” or “style” through which what is essential and often imperceptible, is given to the senses. In other words, the work itself becomes a “mask”.

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