The more tension something holds the more vibration it gives off and the more affect it has. When we feel a person ripped in two, their heart and mind tearing at each other, we are hypnotized, entranced. When the animal inside is ravenous but the prey taboo, or even illicit, our pulse quickens, and our mouths salivate. We know what it is to love and to have to let go or die, but the choice is like a knife slowly pushing into your guts. We are a vessel for the light and dark, the good and evil and when there is imbalance... tension occurs.

Our primal impulses are animal by nature and our minds have been nurtured and cultivated to harness, restrict, calm, appease, suppress, redirect, negotiate, and ultimately control what might otherwise be savage. The morality civilization and religion have endowed the modern human with is not the one that governed our impulses and drives for hundreds of thousands of years. When these two internal worlds are in battle our behavior becomes the stage for it to play out.

We will explore both sides of this battle within through a single character, first, embodying the animal, literally and figuratively. The animal is of the flesh, impulse driven and navigates purely through the senses. The modern conscious mind may seek power but navigates within a matrix of morals, principals and laws set to regulate and bring balance. When we explore the thought driven version of the character, we will seek to contain, maybe imprison, all that we had originally let live. Tectonic tension!

The characters and material will be rich in duality, polarity and the extremes from which drama loves. The work will involve two separate approaches but over the course of the session the synergy of both will be attained. Some of what we will cover is scene work, animal work, Chekhov, ritual work, Grotowski, journaling, somatic and mediation.

Be prepared to work, play and tear yourself in two.