Saturday 12 – Sunday 13 October

Embodiment and Performance is a weekend of activity that considers physical performance and the development of character in body and voice.

Actor Gretchen Egolf and artist Adam Chodzko visit Aller Park Studios to reflect on their experience of performance and explore the ideas of Michael Chekhov, the actor, director and teacher who developed his unique form of actor training at Dartington in the 1930s – privileging the visual imagination, psychophysical exercises and ensemble, collective creation.

Gretchen Egolf is an actor, director, teacher, and co-director of The Chekhov Collective UK, a network of artists who are inspired by, and working with, the ideas of Michael Chekhov.

Adam Chodzko is an acclaimed contemporary artist who uses a wide range of media, including video, installation, photography, drawing and performance.

PROGRAMME

Performance workshop | Saturday 12 October, 10am – 4pm
Gretchen will lead a workshop exploring Michael Chekhov’s embodied performance practice in relation to cross-disciplinary arts practice. The workshop is open to everyone – to those with experience of performance as actors, dancers and artists, and to those who are new to physical performance. Read more here.

Artist talk | Saturday 12 October, 7pm
Gretchen and Adam will talk together at the studios about their experience of performance, and their respective approaches to embodiment, characterisation and voice. This artist talk is a free event, inviting donations on admission. The evening will include a presentation in the studios of material from the Dartington Hall Estate archives – documentation of the Michael Chekhov Company rehearsing and performing at Dartington between 1936 and 1939. Read more here.

Cinema screening | Sunday 13 October, 11am
Adam and Gretchen will introduce a screening of the feature film Alps in the Barn Cinema. Alps is an absurdist, darkly funny exploration of mourning and performance by Yorgos Lanthimos, director of Oscar-nominated films Dogtooth (2009), The Lobster (2015) and The Favourite (2018). This screening has been organised in partnership with the Barn, a cinema whose building housed the Chekhov Theatre Studio in the 1930s. Read more here.

______________________________________________________________________________

Find out more about Gretchen Egolf and Adam Chodzko and the story of the Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington on our LINKS page.

See our upcoming and past events at a glance on our PROGRAMME page.

______________________________________________________________________________

Aller Park, Park Road, Dartington Hall Estate TQ9 6EL

For more information about visiting the estate, directions and maps, visit the Dartington website here.

______________________________________________________________________________

Image: The Michael Chekhov Studio, ‘lightness exercises’, 1936 © Fritz Henle Estate / Dartington Hall Trust