News Release

IWV Campus

Mask & Puppet Master Matthew Graham Smith Coming to Cerro Coso Community College

Ridgecrest, CA – February 8, 2006

The Cerro Coso Community College Theatre Department is hosting a free workshop in mask making and performance on Saturday, February 25th from 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm. The workshop will feature renowned physical theatre artist Matthew Graham Smith. Participants will learn about the art of mask making and will practice techniques for performing with masks.

Smith is a graduate of Wesleyan University, the Dell'arte school, Dublin's Trinity University Leqoc program, and he continues to study yearly in Bali, training in Balinese dance, mask performance, and shadow puppetry. He is a member of the Dell'arte company, a group focusing on classical and emerging physical theater forms including mask, dance-theater, circus, puppetry, ensemble creation, and pageantry. He is deeply interested in the physical dimension of today's theater, and in the physical skill development of today's actors. Working in European, Asian, and American forms, his interest is finding aesthetic fusions in different cultural forms, and connections between classical and modern approaches.

His work is based on a belief in the actor/creator, and so he pursues work as a performer, director, writer, and producer in the tradition of many populist theater forms. He has performed with the Dell'arte company both nationally and internationally including the classical mask commedia, BOTEGGA DE CAFÉ. He won a 2002 Barrymore award for his performance in EQUUS in Philadephia's MUM Puppettheater. His recent directing credits include productions at the Walnut Theater in Philadelphia, the HERE American Living Room series in New York City, and the Jon Sims Center in San Francisco, where he is currently director in residence. His critical writing about theater has appeared in LAMBDA Book Report. AMERICAN THEATER Magazine featured an article about his play SHADOW OF GIANTS in their February 2005 issue.

As an educator, he designs workshops for many groups, most recently creating and teaching a program for San Francisco's New Conservatory Theater Center. His work focuses on building group dynamics, developing an actor's physical awareness and expressiveness, teaching the art of the mask, creation through improvisation, and using theater to address social and political topics. He teaches through exercises incorporating mask, movement, clown, and principals of aesthetic dynamics.

Introducing students to mask and physical theater forms is a part of his work that he deeply enjoys.

The workshop will be held in the Cerro Coso Lecture Center and is free and open to the public. Participants should wear comfortable clothing. For more information about the workshop, please contact Melinda Fogle Oliver in the Cerro Coso Theatre Department at 384-6114. This workshop is funded by the Associated Students of Cerro Coso.
 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Joann Handeland, Director of Information, Development and Alumni Relations (760) 384-6230