Physical Theatre Practitioners
Interviews
ANTHONY NIKOLCHEV
Antony Nikolchev grew up in California’s Bay Area and holds a dual degree in Theater and Bioethics from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He's an actor and writer for theater and film. He spent his first professional year on Chicago stages and producing his first one-man show, “Look, What I Don’t Understand.” Taking the momentum of a cold January run in Chicago and an international tour of “Look...” through the post-communist countries of Russia (Moscow), Armenia and Poland (basically Chicago), Anthony decided to further hone his acting living and working amongst the ghosts of European theatre. Supported by artist grants and pickled herring, he joined the Studio Matejka, training and performing for three years at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, while enjoying a transatlantic career split in Los Angeles. He has since created several award-winning solo shows as actor and/or writer, touring NYC, LA and Europe.
Anthony now acts and writes in the US, the UK and the European continent on stage and film, and leads physical training for the performer at universities (CalArts, Wesleyan University, Warsaw Theatre Academy) and for professionals (Teatr Syrena: Warsaw, Dance City: Newcastle, Centro Parraga: Spain, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble: Los Angeles). Along with performer and artist Gema Galiana, he runs the Theatre of No Theoretical Necessity, in which they create live performances, film, photography and multi-media projects. Anthony is a movement consultant for film and theater, an adjunct professor of movement at the CalArts School of Theater, and a nonhuman ape aficionado. He works; he tries; he likes to believe that somehow acting chips away at those walls built by the hopeless misconception that anything is actually as it seems.
The aim on this interview was to have a friendly conversation on the designing process that Anthony and his collaborators follow, in order to create and make the structure of their performances (text,movements) and the aims of the topics that they use in order to communicate their ideas and perspectives with the audience.
The performance that is used as the reference for the analysis is "All The Things You Said You Never Said Before You Thought You Could Ever Say" which was created and performed by Guillaumarc Froidevaux, Gema Galiana, Zuzana Kakalikova and Anthony Nikolchev.
Collaborating Artist Vivien Wood. Written by Anthony Nikolchev.
"One couple journeys between reality and the subconscious. Have you ever wondered what you would say if you had a second chance?"
(http://www.ovalhouse.com/whatson/detail/all-the-things-you-said-by-compagnie-tdu)
ALIKI DOURMAZER
Splitting her time between Greece and Switzerland Aliki Dourmazer from Thessaloniki is an experienced physical performer and singer. She teaches her own approach to integrating vocal and physical training as well as performing with Duende Ensemble and running vocal training for the company and during workshops and residencies. She has performed in “The Shattering Man”. “Collision #1, #4 & #5″ and “Performing at the Edge #1, #2 & #3″. Recently, she presented the solo performance “Medula”, based on thearchetype of Medea as presented by Euripides, in Geneva, Thessaloniki and Athens.
The aim on this interview was to have a friendly conversation on the designing process that Aliki follows, in order to create and make the structure of her performances (text,movements) and her perspective on the use of digital means as narrative elements in physical theatre practices.
Q.: ...I realised through my research that most of the Physical Theatre practices are focused on the emotional states of the character/performer, that can be translated into movements and words. According to your performance " Medula", which was based on the greek tragedy "Medea" and her inner emotional and ethical conflicts, do you believe that digital narrative would be an element that could add something more to the process of Catharsis or not?
A.: Yes, certainly. There are practitioners that use digital projections in their projects in order to embrace the emotional states. However, we have to be very careful with this new tool. It is important to create a balance between the physicality of the body and the digital image.First of all we need to clarify what digital type we will use. It will be an image? An animation? A text? From my experience with "Medula" I was fortunate to work with a poet/collage artist who created a series of collages for Medula which will be published soon, but I didn't use them in the performance, due to the fact that the story was so strong that you could feel it in your "guts". An expression of Phillip Zarrilli (UK & Wales), in order to talk about the centre of the body. This refers to the fact that the body reacts and acts as a secondary brain. When the digital image, a technical element becomes the narrator, different parts of our brain are engaged. The process of analysis becomes memory and synthesis.
Q.: Do you think that is going to be a difficult procedure for you to create this digital narrative element in relation with the symbolisms of the movents and the words?
A.: I believe that every element in a physical theatre performance is there to communicate an idea. I would be very careful in order to create a balance between the mind and the body (psychosomatic knowledge).I was intrigued to work in this area but I wasn't sure that this path would take me to the right place. However, we could use the digital element as interference. If the director, is capable to keep the meaning of the physicality clean and the digital element as a memory or a parenthesis then the outcome would be memorable and powerful.