INTRODUCTION TO PHYSICAL CHARACTERS

a two-day intensive with Brett Robinson

Create deeply alive, sharply drawn characters that brim with life and imaginative force, with acclaimed actor/director/teacher and Pig Iron School graduate Brett Robinson.  

In this two-day workshop, we will use multiple entry points to explore, access, and create characters that range from larger than life to deeply intimate. Each student will create 2 characters, using two physical theater approaches: elemental work, and costume- or object-based development. The class will use resonance work, improvisatory exercises and scenarios, challenge students to invigorate their performances with bold choices and quick-thinking, and ask participants to get comfortable in the unknown.

About Brett Robinson

Brett Ashley Robinson is a Barrymore Award-winning actor, director, theatremaker, and educator based in Philadelphia. She is a 2021 Pew Fellow and  the 2021 winner of the PEN America/Jean Stein Oral History Grant for her original work Re-Enactment.  She was a collaborator and performer in Lightning Rod Special’s The Appointment at New York Theatre Workshop, (Best play of 2019 in The New York Times, Vulture Magazine, Time Out New York, and New York Magazine). As an actor and devisor she has worked at The Public, Ars Nova Ant Fest, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Wilma, Lightning Rod Special, Pig Iron Theater Company, The Arden, InterAct, The Flea Theatre, Theatre Horizon, and Geva Theatre. As a director, she has created original theater and directed at The University of the Arts,

Drexel University, UNC Greensboro, Theater Exile, Tiny Dynamite, Inis Nua, The Bearded Ladies, and Theater Horizon. As Patrica! she has worked with Portland Center Stage, Jack NY, 1812 Productions, The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Lightning Rod Special, Agitated, and Ars Nova ANT Fest. She has taught acting at the University of the Arts, Desales University, Drexel University, and currently is an Assistant Professor of Acting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was a semi-finalist for the Otto F. Haas Award for Emerging Artist and a two-time nominee for the Golden Tassel Jawn, Philadelphia’s Drag and Burlesque Awards, for best comedy act. She is a company member of Applied Mechanics, an immersive theater company based in Philadelphia, and a member of the HotHouse – the Tony award-winning Wilma Theater’s resident acting company.