Physical Theatre Applied to Improvisation
What happens when we have no partner on stage?
We use the body. Period.
For this weekend in March, we have invited the warm, kind, and insanely skilled improviser Diego Ingold.
In this workshop, he will offer a space for research and training in physical theatre applied to improvisation. We will take the angle of playing solo, while keeping the improvisational spirit.
Improvisation is often understood as a collective art: saying yes to others’ offers, building together, reacting. But along the way, we sometimes forget something essential: saying yes to our own offers. This workshop focuses precisely on that.
The themes that will be covered are:
The body as a scene partner
We will work with the idea that body language and spoken language operate in parallel. The body does not illustrate the text; it proposes, contradicts, and expands it. This will open a central question for the workshop:
What would happen if we treated our body as our scene partner?
You will learn to listen to physical impulses, to be surprised by their own transformations, and to give dramaturgical value to what is visual, rhythmic, and active on stage.
Discovering the scene through the body
In improvisation, we often spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to solve the scene. You will probably recognize this: searching for the theme, wondering what it is really about, theorizing where it should go. This type of thinking pulls us away from what is happening here and now.
In this workshop, we will train a shift of focus: paying attention to what is physically happening, and allowing meaning to emerge from action, rhythm, and play.
The goal is not to find answers, but to discover them as the scene unfolds.
Personal language and creative empowerment
We will explore the support of physical actions to delay speech, character transformations (fregolism), and the development of a personal physical language.
The aim is to empower you to:
• trust your own ideas
• not always depend on another person on stage
• sustain a scene through the body, even in silence
Why do we invite an audience?
We will also address a key question: why do we invite an audience to watch?
Beyond speaking without purpose, we will explore tools to identify what we want to say on stage. And how to give direction and meaning to that.
Possible outcomes
You may leave the workshop with the seed of a solo format.
Or you may prefer to continue improvising with others, now having new physical, expressive, and dramaturgical tools that enrich both your play and your ability to support your partner in crime.
This weekend will be a working space to deepen your practice, share tools, and open new possibilities through the body.
You will find it easier to play solo, easier to play silent, and maybe even do both.