Classes & Information

Instructor: Kevin Crawford and Caroline Boersma

Every voice has its own inimitable presence and identity, like a thumbprint : a signature quality that favours recognition. The voice is both a manifestation of the body but also an immaterial agent that expresses the whole breadth of the human psyche and experience. Chasing your unique quality brings you closer to that state of grace where impulse meets form and your authentic energy as a performer radiates outwards.This intensive workshop brings together voicework, singing and the vibratory power of the cello. Musicality in the widest sense of the term animates our vocal expression be it through text, song or improvisation.
 
Our pathway will explore the symmetries, contrasts and counterpoint between language and sound, movement and vocal timbre, music and meaning. Opening up different vocal perspectives enriches our palette of verbal texture and encourages a more embodied, less cerebral approach to text and singing.

Using both material generated during the workshop and some prepared content, participants will craft solos and duologues that reveal heightened presence and a breadth of creative and emotional range. The work aims at all times to maintain a balance between the acquisition of technique and the synergetic force of imagination.

During the workshop you will:

• Refine dynamic warming-up methods
• Develop vocal timbre, resilience, elasticity and precision
• Stimulate synergy between voice, movement and psyche
• Improvise with and be accompanied by the Cello
• Develop and present monologues, duologues, songs and chorus work

Instructor: Chiara D’Anna

This class is an introduction to Commedia dell’Arte and its legacy in contemporary performance. The Masks of Commedia are indeed an excellent tool to expand performers’ physical vocabulary, stamina, space awareness and a deep understanding of tempo-rhythm and comic timing. In this class you will learn how to create successful ensemble work, interact effectively with an audience and improvise with confidence, developing skills that are fundamental in any performance setting – not only physical comedy. 

Following an introduction on Commedia dell’Arte and its history, the class will explore how to apply Commedia’s principles and techniques in the development of character and ensemble work. Participants will have the opportunity to focus on different aspects of actor training including body awareness, improvisation, slapstick, stock characterization and half-mask technique.

On completion of this class you will be able to:

• Develop your physical and vocal vocabulary in the creation of grotesque and comic characters with and without half-mask. 
• Devise and perform scenes utilising the Masks of Commedia dell’Arte, props, music and costumes. 
• Improvise and interact with your audience with confidence. 
• Adapt key commedia principles and techniques to any performance setting. 
• Demonstrate an understanding of the historical and cultural context from which Commedia dell’Arte originated and its legacy in contemporary theatre.

Instructor: Gin Hammond and Echo Sibley

This course focuses on honing in on, and developing, an artist’s ability to write and perform new, personal work, by exploring a range of storytelling techniques. We will discover and polish each artist’s personal narrative through abstract physical theatre practices, writing prompts, voice methodologies, music and devising exercises. We will strengthen the artist’s ability to access their imaginative life, their impulses while writing, and on stage, and we will give them the skills to enhance their one-person performance practices.

• We will focus on specificity, spontaneity, honesty and creativity while emphasizing the importance of connection and listening, whether it is to other actors, or your own impulses.
• We will create original characters, monologues, moments and scenes by exploring archetypes, object work and personal narratives.
• The importance of the fundamentals of acting will also be strengthened as we explore objective, action, obstacles and characterization through physical and vocal expression and gesture. These techniques and skills are valuable creative tools that you can use to enhance your work in rehearsals, auditions, stage productions, TV, film or in devising your own unique work.

Each student who successfully completes this course will:

• Have increased sensory awareness and spontaneity on stage.
• Have developed the ability to live moment-to-moment and feel emboldened to create new characters and new work.
• Have developed greater powers of concentration, relaxation, and creativity.
• Have developed the ability to use Improvisation/impulse to enhance effectiveness in the rehearsal room and in an audition/callback.
• Have gained freedom and flexibility in emotional, physical, and vocal expression.

Instructors: André Casaca and Flavia Marco

“Practical studies in the art of clown starting from recognition of the comic, related to personal daily gesture”

This dynamic, experiential course invites students to explore and construct their unique Comic Identity of the Body—a personal, expressive space where simplicity, tenderness, and presence meet the art of comedy. Through a series of physical exercises, games, and improvisations, participants engage in a deep, playful investigation of vulnerability, presence, and folly.

The clown, far from being a fabricated character, emerges from the performer’s own sincere and often absurd human nature. This course proposes that stupidity—reframed as a form of wonder, sensitivity, and alternate understanding—is not a lack of intelligence, but a vital tool for connection. Students are encouraged to strip away performative habits and conceptual layers, allowing an honest and sincere stage presence to emerge.

Rather than building a persona, the work is about revealing what is already within: a raw, fragile, yet powerful expressive force. This process helps reconnect the contemporary performer with their own emotional core, making space for authentic laughter and genuine interaction with the audience. The clown’s gaze does not analyze or critique—it sees and responds, with open-hearted simplicity.

This course is ideal for actors, performers, and creatives seeking a profound reconnection with their body, voice, and audience through the liberating discipline of clowning.

LANDSCAPES: Between Urban and Rural

A Site-specific Laboratory

Instructor: Sam McGehee and various members of Broken Jump

In this laboratory, participants will experiment with methods for dynamically approaching site-specific work in urban and rural contexts. Over the course of five days, participants will work with principles of collaboration, urban re-mapping, and elements of dramaturgy.

The city of Arezzo and its countryside will become our site of investigation and creation. There, participants will have the opportunity to encounter all of the layered facets necessary to conceive of a site-specific event and, in particular, to interrogate the dichotomy between “town and country”. The nature of the work consists of both a conceptual and a physical approach drawing on the theoretical creativity of the participants as well as their expressive potentials.

Themes include:

• Topophilia and community (how to befriend a place);
• Organizing the work (theory, practice and context);
• Site-specific conceptual apparatuses (host, ghost, witness); and
• Dramaturgy of space

Broken Jump Theater has conceived of many different kinds of cultural events, which include theatre as its core. We have worked with all range of people, from non-actors to dancers and writers, from musicians to painters, with small communities and large with people from all over the world. We have created over two dozen site-specific events from small ensemble productions to large-scale operations with up to 50 people in both urban and rural environments. Most notably, we have created a yearly large-scale event (Promenade) that has enjoyed seven years of continued success and recently we have presented our work at the prestigious Piccolo Teatro di Milano. www.brokenjump.com