Our first goal will be for everyone to know the story well enough to tell it.

We will work with the story until everyone can tell their version of it.

We propose to adapt the biblical story of the Three Kings as an ecology show,

featuring creatures from the Sierra Gorda as the three Kings.

We will decide on a stage and build it, or find it. We will make a portable stage that we can take with us on the tour.

Next, we will undertake a series of constructions, using armatures, clay and papier maché.

In this workshop we will present the latest evolution of our mask building techniques.

We will build armatures on the tables and sculpt the clay to the image we require. This work will reveal the entire process of mask making, as we know it. There will also be some painting, and/or printing in this process.

Theatrically we will proceed with our methods, planning to make a collective creation, based on a mythic tale, the Three Kings seen as a modern drama featuring the creatures of the Sierra Gorda, in an ecological drama.

Our technique can be described by the terms of the stages:

·      Identifying the drama; personalizing it, have we had this experience?

·      Understanding the conflict in the scene.

·      Dramatizing it, using improvisation.

·      Criticizing the work collectively.

·      Then socializing it;  that is, changing the actors and doing the scene again, taking advantage of  our own critiques.

A special aspect of the theatre that we will work with here is the comic interlude.

Changing the emotional quality of the scenes. Remember we are making spectacle, perhaps closer to performance than to theatre. We will use humor to accent the drama. We will mix the two elements, serious/ drama and strong humor. Slapstick and Irony with a bit of whimsy and farce.

Typically we will work on one scene a day, our objective will be to complete one scene a day.

Towards the end we will take very important steps of finding the titles and sequencing, which we also do collectively. When we get to this work, titleing and sequencing, we will be finished with the improvisation.

After this we will be ready to rehearse on the stage, or in a more theatrical way. At this point we will have created the work, now we will prepare it for performance...

The result of this workshop, in a pedagogic way, will be to observe and practice the steps, in the building of a collective creation, and as part of a cultural exchange. We will demonstrate and discuss all of the steps that we use in our work, from conception to performance.

              One can expect to gain a new understanding of theatre,

…theatre free of the, "edifice complex",

…theatre that joins the myth with the drama of modern life.

…theatre that celebrates the natural world.

…theatre that understands the relevance and significance of humor.

More info and registration click here:

above: Alain Pinol and Maira Jimenes Desales, Puebla, Mexico, 2008

right: Tania Solomonoff, Katah and Janice Walrafen, Vermont, 2003