February 13 and 14, 2016 10 am-2 pm in Area 5

Creating New Performance is a theater workshop for professional, aspiring and closet performers. The class is an introduction to the performance style and training processes of Cultural Odyssey's Co-Artistic Director, Rhodessa Jones. The workshop will utilize sound and movement exercises as the beginning of a creative exploration that includes theater games, memory exercises, autobiographical musings, and storytelling. At the end of the workshop participants will perform a five to ten minute mini-performance created during the process. This workshop will also examine the use of theatre as a "healing tool" in order to begin the process of creating a dialogue where we can begin to examine the conditions which greatly affect our daily lives, i.e. racism, sexism, homophobia, addictions, and fear. Helpful to artists, interested in creating solo or autobiographical work, this workshop is also of interest to teachers, activists, social workers, mentors, and all those engaged in some form of art as social change. Participants are asked to dress warm, soft, and fluid ready to move.

FREE! Space is limited!
RSVP at mfa@ciis.edu with “Creating New Performance” in the subject line to reserve your spot. PRIORITY GIVEN TO CIIS MFA STUDENTS.

RHODESSA JONES is Co-Artistic Director of the acclaimed San Francisco performance company Cultural Odyssey. She is an actress, teacher, director, and writer. Ms. Jones is also the Founder and Director of the award winning Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women and HIV Circle, which is a performance workshop designed to achieve personal and social transformation with incarcerated women and women living with HIV. Rhodessa just received the Theatre Practitioner Award presented by Theater Communications Group during July 2015.

*Photo of Rhodessa by LORRAINE CAPPARELL