Theatre Arts : Summer Workshop:RasaBoxes (TM)

RasaBoxes

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What are the RasaBoxes?
Devised by Richard Schechner based on ideas from French theorist Antonin Artaud, the classical Indian treatise on performance called the Natyasastra, and contemporary scientific studies on emotion, the RasaBoxes exercises comprise a unique psychophysical, emotion-based approach that begins with finding form for nine basic emotional-energetic archetypes through the use of body and the breath. These archetypes, known as bhavas and rasas, are: adbhuta (surprise, wonder), sringara (love, eros), bhayanaka (fear), bibhatsa (disgust, revolt), vira (courage, the heroic), hasya (laughter, the comic), karuna (sadness, compassion), raudra (rage), santa (peace, bliss),
The work then leads to sound, movement, relating to objects and others, language and text exercises, and finally to scenework and the layering and scoring of emotions to create complex characters, to explore and compose scenes, to create choreography and entire performances.
The RasaBoxes is an improvisational, rather than codified approach, offering performers specific tools and techniques for finding truthful, present, fully embodied emotional specificity through direct physical engagement. It integrates rather than separates acting, movement and voice, engaging the whole performer in one approach.

RasaBoxes Training Intensive
This workshop is an intensive, specialized, one-week training program in the RasaBoxes work taught by Paula Murray Cole. Participants develop their skill-set in this special, psychophysical approach to working with the aesthetic expression of emotion and performance composition.
Rigorous daily training includes hatha yoga, extensive breath and voice and movement work. We will work with various somato-sensory techniques and principles including those derived from pranayama, Richard Schechner, Michael Chekhov, Laban/Bartenieff, Kristen Linklater, Bioenergetics, Lecoq and others. Participants will develop solo and ensemble generated performance compositions based on the RasaBoxes material.
The workshop is designed to accommodate a range of skill levels and interests of professionals and students including actors, directors, performance artists, musicians, choreographers, playwrights and drama, movement, and dance teachers and/or therapists.
Optional readings for this course include the theories that gave rise to the formation of the RasaBoxes exercise and theories and researches which continue to foster its development as an approach to performer training:
- The theory/aesthetics of rasa, according to the classical treatise on Indian dance/theatre/drama, the Natyasastra, and Richard Schechner's use of its aesthetics and vocabulary in the formation of the RasaBoxes exercises in his essay, Rasaethetics.
- Antonin Artaud's conception of the actor as "an athlete of the heart (emotion)", his ideas about the connection between breath and the affective musculature provoking "a spontaneous reappearance of life", the notion of the "materiality of the passions".
- Current scientific research on emotion that supports and deepens our understanding and practice of the RasaBoxes approach.
- Ideas and practices coming from other acting techniques, movement education/analysis modalities such as Michael Chekhov, Laban/Bartinieff, and others.
Paula Murray Cole offers ongoing training from beginning to advanced levels in this technique, utilized by students and professionals internationally. She trains actors, directors, musicians, teachers, doctors and others in this valuable technique. With RasaBoxes co-developer and teacher Michele Minnick and Paula Murray Cole, was invited to present the RasaBoxes exercises at the International Society for Research on Emotion (ISRE) in July 2004. Since then, they have also begun to engage with scientists on psychological and sociological emotion research, and drama therapists at NYU in developing therapeutic applications for the work with drama therapists.

The Instructor

Paula Murray Cole, as Co-Director of Education for East Coast Artists (Richard Schechner, Artistic Director), she co-instructed the ECA Summer Workshop at New York University with colleague Michele Minnick. For six years she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of acting, voice, and movement at Ithaca College and as the Program Coordinator and Instructor of ECA's Summer RasaBoxes Training Intensive at Ithaca College (2005-06) and at the Dell' Arte International School for Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, CA (2005-07).
Cole has conducted RasaBoxes workshops at Dartmouth, Rutgers and Cornell and the Dell' Arte International School for Physical Theatre, and has presented the work at conferences including Concordia University in Montreal (2000), Ege University in Izmir, Turkey (2003), the International PSi conference in Singapore (2004), The International Society for Researchers on Emotion Conference (2004), and for the Association for Theatre Movement Educators Colloquium (2005). She has also taught and/or directed productions at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, New York University, Hofstra, Interlochen National Arts Camp, Trollwood Performing Arts Camp, Fargo, ND, and the Governor's Magnet School for the Arts of Norfolk, Virginia.
As a professional actor and director, her credits include work with the Houston and the Dallas Shakespeare festivals, the Alley Theatre, the Lark Theatre, and New York Theatre Workshop; with Richard Schechner and East Coast Artists (La MaMa, Darmouth, The Performing Garage); with Karin Coonrod's Arden Party (the Ohio Theatre, Knitting Factory, and Classic Stage Company); and the Phone Booth Theatre Company in the Netherlands and Germany.
Cole holds a B.F.A. in Acting from Ithaca College and an M.F.A. in Acting from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. She is a member of Actors Equity Association and The International Society for Researchers on Emotion (ISRE). Her research interests include assessing the benefits of bodywork to facilitate the progress of performers-in-training; comparative studies in psychophysical emotional expression techniques in actor training practices; the study of emotion and the brain, body, and senses, and emotional contagion as it pertains to the practice of acting and theatre making.

Publications: "The Actor As Athlete of the Emotions", by Michele Minnick and Paula Murray Cole in Movement For Actors, edited by Nicole Potter, Allworth Press, 2002.
"Rasaesthetics", by Richard Schechner with sidebars by Michele Minnick and Paula Murray Cole, TDR, Fall 2001, and Performance Theory, Routledge, 2003.