RasaBoxes Classes Start Tonight at the PlayGround Theatre

Categories: Theater

Cultist: What is RasaBoxes?

Fernando Calzadilla: It's an exercise that was devised by Richard Schechner. It's a training exercise. But it has been used for actors, and people working with therapy for performance and visual artists. It works with eight basic emotions which are taken from the Navya Shastra, a manual of how to do classical theater in India, which is 2000 years old.

We go from box to box. Schechner combined the idea of the Navya Shastra and the idea from Antonin Artaud, who said that the actors should be an athlete of emotions.

It's to get the actor to know the breeches, to know how to get to the emotion quickly and safely, and also how to return back from the emotion quickly and safely without being hurt by the emotion, because you work from the outside to the inside.
RasaBoxes work from finding sadness in the body as an abstract idea. Where do I feel the sad? Is it in my elbows, knees, eyes? Whether you feel it or not is irrelevant, it's about how you show it.

What did you find appealing about RasaBoxes?

I think that they're a very useful language for actors and directors about how to approach a scene. I think it's very safe. It doesn't hurt you emotional. You can work with a very high intensity emotion and it doesn't hurt you. You don't get emotionally involved. And also, it's a very therapeutic exercise.

You find out where you blocks are. Usually your blocks are in your body, not your mind. With RasaBoxes, you learn how to trust your instinct, with your body. Your body tells you what to do. It's about learning where you're holding tension and why.

Emotions are culturally learned. We learn how to express our emotions; it's how we communicate. The idea of the RasaBoxes is to learn those emotions and how to extend them. It's how far can I stretch that communication. Can I convey to you that I'm angry, without failing into the stereotypes of anger?

They give you the space and structure to experiment and to find out, in yourself, how you do that. So I found that it's a very useful tool for actors and directors, so now we have a language to communicate with.
So how do classes run?

We literally draw boxes on the floor with masking tape. Once you cross the line, you are in that rasa. And it's just by crossing the line that you access that emotion. Of course this is a gradual learning process.

Classes take place at the PlayGround Theatre (9806 NE Second Avenue, Miami Shores) on tonight through Saturday, July 30, 7 to 10 p.m. Registration costs $90. Visit theplaygroundtheatre.com.

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Location Info


The PlayGround Theatre - CLOSED

9806 NE Second Ave., Miami Shores, FL

Category: General

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