Workshops and Performances:

Saturday:

~ A Collaborative Improvisational Journey with elements and modalities that will include:

      ~ Theater Games with Sky Halm 

Come explore some of the most magical worlds of collaboration and imagination. They are the lands of “Letting go” of “Yes, And”, and of “What if”. Together we will explore a range of stories, characters, and places through a series of improv exercises and games from the traditions of Viola Spolin, Chicago’s second City, Keith Johnstone, and Playback Theatre. I hope that you can join us for laughs and insight in a non-judgmental and exporatory space.

Sky Halm has studied with mentor David Shepherd (founder of Compass Theater, the first improv company in the U.S.) and has a B.A. from UMass Amherst with a focus in Directing and Writing for the Theater and an M.F.A. from Goddard College with a focus in Theater and Education. She is trained in Method Acting, Directing, Playwriting, and the Improv methods of Spolin and Second City Comedy Games, Theatre of the Oppressed, Playback Theater and Life-Play. She is interested in love, peace, and happiness.

   ~ Musical Co-Creation with Glenn Smith

How can we come together with different instruments and different skill levels to make a satisfying piece of music?  Through various improv structures, we will explore how to bring our music together with others in a cohesive way.  So bring your tuba, your guitar, your drum, or just your voice, and we will co-create!  Numerous Instruments will be available if you do not have one. Glenn will be bringing a variety of instruments, esp. ones that are easy to play for people without a high skill level.

Glenn has been working as a performing musician since the late 80’s, and has been leading his Vocal Voyagers singing circles in the community since 2004.  Glenn has also led improvised creations with kids through his Instant Choir program in elementary schools and at summer camps since 2007.  Glenn currently plays improvised music for numerous dance jams in MA. Find more information at http://www.soundseeds.com.

   ~ KUNG FU CLOWNING with BrentlyMD

KUNG FU CLOWNING is exactly what is sounds like: Kung Fu + Clowning. Combining martial arts techniques with a myriad of clowning, dance, acting methods to liberate the player to be perfectly silly. Utilizing fun, and focus as tools of wellness, BrentlyMD has developed an inspiriting practice with Humor as a means of Self Defense. Clowns are genuine warriors of the heart who use the gut as a wellspring to release of tension, sadness, and stuck energies. The result is a practice of peacemaking and conflict resolution through play, discipline, and laughter.

Kung Fu has many definitions. In Kung Fu Clowning we are focusing on the simplest translation of Kung Fu as “Just So” or “Perfection.” Clowns are purposefully imperfect and so must perfectly perform dangerous stunts to dispel dark forces and inducing laughter. Kung Fu masters do the same, only in the opposite direction. Meet in the middle with BrentlyMD. Examples of Kung Fu Clowning are Jackie Chan, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Marcel Marceau, and Charlie Chaplin.

BrentlyMD has studied, practiced, and performed martial and circus arts since 1973. Brently’s mime teacher was Michael Jackson’s mime teacher, and his ballet teacher was Prince’s ballet teacher. He was Woody Harrelson’s Prop Master, the Chief Fire Clown in The Secret Circus, and is the producer of “Cirque du Salad: a Cornucopiastic Cavalcade of Salady Cirque spilling forth from a Bottomless Bowl of Buffoonery.” His practice includes Tai Chi Chuan Yang short and long styles, Chuan Ju Chou (Sichuan Opera Style Clowning), Wushu, Qigong, Kung Fu, Ali, Karate, and Judo martial arts. In clowning, dance, mime, acting, and movement he is adept at Lecoq, Marceau, Margolis, Copeau, Decroix, Grotowski, Butoh, Noh, Alexander, Contact Improv, Ballet, Tango, Blues, Jazz, Tap, Aerial, Balance, Flow Poi, Hooping, Magic, Juggling, Storytelling, and Pie Throwing. In healing arts practice includes Yoga, AnMa Massage, Trigger Point Release, Qigong, Pilates, and Kinesthetic Reconditioning techniques.

~Meal Co-Creation with Mira Nussbaum of SproutedViolet

I see cooking food as an art, taking time to consider prayer, ceremony, beauty, nourishment and optimal health. I cook so I can feed our spirits with blessing and abundance. My desire is to create food that is grounding and nourishing. My intention is that the learning that happens in the workshop or camp continues into the meal.
As the participants share community, conversation, and embodied experience around the food, I hope to inspire curiosity, sensory exploration, and connection to the source of our energy.   My mission is to offer food that is grown, harvested, transported and cooked with awareness and integrity, which honors the death that allows for our life.

Mira has spent the last 15 years bringing my love of people and respect for the sacred and personal into my work as a professional cook, artist, and home organizer/cleaner.  Since 2000, I have worked with dozens of clients cleaning, organizing, and making their home function better.  Since founding Silk Stories in 2000, I have painted over 200 silk paintings, many of them personalized or for special occasions. My catering business, Sprouted Violet, flourishes as I prepare soulful meals with mission and purpose.  Though one might think cleaning houses or cooking for people is just another job, to me these acts are pure prayer.  I have spent much of my time offering these services to people in my close community, and it is important for me to come with an open and clear heart as I bring spirit and sacredness into their homes or their bodies.

~ Workshop on Vocalization with Glenn Smith

The voice is the most flexible and spontaneous instrument of all, ideally suited for improvisation.  With a little bit of courage,  anyone can make a valuable contribution to a group vocal journey.  Drawing on the work of Bobby McFerrin, Rhiannon, and others, we will play with a variety of vocal improv structures designed to get everyone involved at their own comfort level (and maybe a little beyond!)

(see Musical Co-Creation workshop above for bio)

~ A Variety Show of the day’s co-creations that will be semi-spontaneously remixed together in the afternoon and performed on the back porch stage and/or throughout the house including any and all disciplines and modalities!

~ Improv Music and Movement Jam by the Spirit Play Collective with Special Guest Bright Hawk 
(Glenn Smith, Su Eaton, Hilary Lake, Matt Swift and Collective members)
Serene, meditative, playful, funky, other worldly, inspirational, empowering, improvised, employing a myriad of acoustic and electric instruments, voices and movement. Experience a ceremony of primordial creativity as we generate a sacred space together.
Hear some past music from the Spirit Play Collective on SoundCloud

~ DJ’d music and dancing into the night with Su Eaton and Nur Tiven