July 28, 2018 and August 11, 2018
CHRISTINE MARIE Workshop
Exploration of the Shadow:
Creating Visual Poetry and Storytelling with Light.
Shadows are a powerfully engaging medium for exploring an emotion, an archetype, or a character. Exploration of the Shadow is ideal for all types of artists, authors, dancers, actors and anyone interested (18 years and above) in exploring light as visual poetry, and as an exploration of self.
During the workshop, participants will explore the possibilities of shadow performance through a range of means. Participants may craft masks and puppets to cast shadows, and/or use provided shapes, textures, color, figures, bodies, and props. We’ll scaffold your experience, reminding you of all the tools you possess for enlivening your imagination and creating liminal landscapes of visual and (non)verbal narrative. Experience known and newly written text come to life. Unplug from digital, pixilated, programmed images bound by screens.
The workshop is not specifically for learning how to craft a shadow puppet- yet we will do some mask work and some crafting. We'll share quotes by Carl Jung and Marshall McLuhan, as well as poems and short stories that relate to shadows and communication with light. Participants will have space to use existing poetry, music or their own writing to create a short work. Each workshop may be taken individually or take both and build upon skills.
CHRISTINE MARIE (www.4ChristineMarie.com) is an artist, inventor and director. She has taught shadow animation at Pixar and DreamWorks studios. Her work has been presented at REDCAT, the Geffen Theater, South Coast Repertory, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and other venues. She seamlessly integrates performers, objects and special effects to elicit connections with concepts, phenomenology and history in emotional and visually stimulating theatrical experiences.
Christine Marie strives to break new ground within her form while being intrinsically tied to ancient art forms and the metaphysical exploration of light. She is pioneering the use of large-scale 3D shadows by reinventing the stereoscope and casting 30’ shadows into cubic space. She studied Wayang Kulit traditional shadow puppetry in Bali and is a former 15 year member of San Francisco's ShadowLight Theater.
Christine Marie received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Puppetry, Integrated Media and Theater. She is a TED Fellow. Marie has formally received, Jukai (lay initiation) into zen buddhist practice from the San Francisco zen center.
If you take both workshops: in Workshop #2, we will revisit some of the same exercises using new prompts and texts, and we will introduce additional methods for creating effects with light (layering and color blending, etc) and their connection to meaning. Participants can expect to work both in small groups, dyads and individually, in one or both workshops.