Theatre & Landscape 2016: Brittany

An Exploration of Environmental Theatre led by Bella Stewart

Dates: Saturday September 10 – Saturday September 17, 2016

Venue: Moulin La Salmoniere, St. Eloi, Brittany, France

Cost: £500 per person

(Includes: accommodation, food and drink, tuition, travel throughout the week, art materials. It doesn’t include getting there and down again, but it is often possible to share transport).

Call 01223 211451 to book your place

Environmental Theatre

Theatre and Landscape combines intensive and enjoyable artistic activity with good company, good food and attractive and peaceful surroundings.

You don’t need any special skills, you don’t need to have done any theatre before; you just need a willingness to enter enthusiastically into creative and collaborative work. Creative and fun, Theatre and Landscape will leave you invigorated, refreshed, inspired and wanting more.

We visit woods, moors, ancient monuments, islands, beaches, castles, and… sometimes we create performances in those environments themselves (although never for an outside audience – the only spectators are the other participants). At other times our visits provide a stimulus for creating theatre back at our base.

The work will not be confined to ‘acting’ in any restricted sense. There will also be opportunities for writing, painting, group-devising, movement, voice work, and installation-making. Rather than teaching any particular discipline or technique, we want to bring out the artist in people and provide structures and stimuli to allow people’s artistic powers and interests to develop. Previous performing (or any other kind of) experience is not necessary, but a willingness to plunge wholeheartedly into collaborative work is of course essential. We think the course will appeal to artists of any level of experience and in any medium (dancers, writers, musicians, painters, actors,singers) and to people in any walk of life, who enjoy doing, or would like to do, collaborative and creative work, whether they think of themselves as artists or not!

The work will be varied – ranging from warm-ups, exercises and excursions with the whole group (8 – 10 people), to work in small groups, pairs and solos.

The accommodation consists of shared rooms (mostly twins) allocated on a single-sex basis. We can accommodate some couples. All the accommodation is of a good standard and very comfortable.

The food is all prepared on site and is of a very high standard. It is predominantly vegetarian, though not vegan, but there are some options for omnivores!

Moulin La Salmoniere

Theatre and Landscape 2016 will be our first venture outside Britain and we are very excited about it.

Brittany is a beautiful and culturally and historically rich part of France. The coast is wonderful, so is the food, so are the many historic and prehistoric monuments.

During our week we will be visiting the extraordinary Stone Age monuments at Carnac, which has by far the greatest concentration of standing stones and chambered tombs anywhere in Europe. They literally run for miles and are an amazing thing to experience. A wonderful stimulus for creative work.

Brittany also has a unique tradition of religious art and in particular sculpture. Most villages have what is known as a calvary, a stone monument in the form of three crosses, depicting scenes from Christ’s Passion.

They are powerful works of art, unlike anything else in Europe or indeed the World. We will be visiting one of the oldest and most atmospheric, on the coast at Troenan.

Very near our accommodation – at a place called Kernascleden – there is a remarkable church with a terrifying and fascinating depiction of Hell and an even more fascinating depiction of the Dance of Death, where ghastly skeletons dance with the living as a reminder of what lies in wait for us all. These depictions, called the Danse Macabre in French are very rare and very unmissable.

Lots of fun and lots of food for the intellect and imagination.

Moulin la Salmoniere itself is a big attraction. A lovely, comfortable converted mill set on a river, with extensive grounds and with its own swimming pool and sauna which is much posher than anything we’ve ever had in Britain! Many interesting spaces, inside and out, for us to explore and work in. Lots of wildlife too apparently.

If you want to have a look at the accommodation for yourself, then go to:

http://www.cheznous.com/228421/moulin-de-la-salmoniere-morbihan.aspx

We are very excited about going to Brittany and introducing this new international dimension. (Venice next year!)

If you would like to participate, we need a deposit of £200 to secure your place and we would need the balance a month before (ie early August). You can give us a cheque or make a bank transfer. Get in touch with us to sort that out.

We are beginning to look at transport possibilities. The nearest larger towns are Quimper and Quimperle. We can pick people up from these places or anywhere else within a reasonable distance.

Driving and ferry

Plymouth-Roscoff is an economical option with a fairly full car load, so that is something we can start organising nearer the time.

You can find out more and contact us via the website or ring us on: 01223 211451

About Theatre & Landscape

Theatre & Landscape is devoted to the exploration of environmental or site-specific theatre. We visit woods, moors, ancient monuments, islands, beaches, castles, , sometimes creating performances in those environments (although never for an outside audience – the only spectators are the other participants). At other times our visits provide a stimulus for creating theatre back at our base.

As well as acting, there are opportunities for writing, painting, group-devising, movement, voice work, and installation-making. Rather than teaching a particular discipline or technique, we aim to bring out the artist in people and provide structures and stimuli to allow people’s artistic powers and interests to develop. Previous experience is not necessary, but a willingness to plunge whole-heartedly into collaborative work is essential.

Theatre & Landscape attracts artists of all levels of experience and in any medium (dancers, writers, musicians, painters, actors, singers) and people in any walk of life, who enjoy collaborative and creative work, whether they think of themselves as artists or not.

The work is varied – ranging from warm-ups, exercises and excursions with the whole group (8-10 people), to work in small groups, pairs and solos.

To book your place, call us on 01223 211451.