Professor Aliya at Columbia University Thanks to Professional Development Funding

The theater is the only art form that concerns itself predominately with social issues. Can we get along? Can we get along in this room? Can we get along as a society? How might we get along better? –Anne Bogart

As the recipient of the Colorado Mountain College Professional Development Grant, I participated in a two-week Advanced Theatre training residency at Columbia University in New York City. Led by the world renowned theatre director Anne Bogart and the actors of the international theatre group SITI Company, I had the incredible fortune to collaborate with the most cutting edge theatre creators of our time.
Based on my experience and learning’s at Columbia University, I conducted an acting workshop on Viewpoints and Composition for Gary Ketzenberger’s Acting I class at CMC Spring Valley Campus.
The Viewpoints allows a group of actors to function together spontaneously and intuitively and to generate bold, theatrical work quickly. It develops flexibility, articulation, and strength in movement and makes ensemble playing possible. Composition work is an alternative to the writer sitting alone at the computer by his/herself making stuff up. Composition are assignments for small groups, who are given a list of ingredients, an overall intention or structure and a short period of time and are challenged to create a new piece a theatre.
The two essential components to Viewpoints and Composition work are a group consensus of working with an open heart and the notion of YES/AND, meaning ALL ideas thrown into the pot are valid, important and worthwhile.
The first half of the workshop was dedicated to Viewpoints. It was remarkable to witness the actor’s spontaneity and joy in their artistic exploration.
Next I divided the actors into small groups of three. Each group was given a common household object along with the following instructions: Create a 3 minute commercial selling the object. The only catch is the object can not be what the object is. For example, a wooden spoon can’t be a wooden spoon, but it can be transformed into a magic wand. They were also given the following ingredients that their compositions must include.
· YES/AND
· Use of all the Viewpoints
· A surprise entrance
· The use of light and dark
· Ten seconds of continuous unison action
· Revelation of space
· A song
You have ten minutes to create your piece. Go.

Their second assignment was to pick any fairytale of their choice, which was to be used as a spring board to create their second Composition: A Modern Day Fairytale. The actors were to include all the ingredients from the list above as well as
· Music from an unexpected source
· A verbal dual
· Narrative story telling
You have ten minutes to create your piece. Go.