This weekend Auditorio de Tenerife celebrates the World Theatre Day with two days of stage activities that include performances by actors José Piris and Cristina Collado. Two hundred students of Cabildo’s Escuelas de Teatro [Drama Schools] will have the chance to attend the talks by guest specialists, who will explain theatre contents that students can then apply to their group work and, finally, showcase what they have learnt.

The event starts on Saturday, the 16th at 10:00 am with students aged under 15, who will enjoy a master class by José Piris. In this class they will work from four natural elements: water, air, earth and fire. In the actor’s opinion, “the four elements are, no doubt, an essential source of inspiration where the performance of body theatre grows”. “In every theatrical activity there’s an underlying dynamic, which comes from the effort and resistance through which our body evokes natural events and translates them into an imaginary reality”, Marcel Marceau’s student reflects.

José Piris, who was also invited last year to lead the World Theatre Day events at Auditorio de Tenerife, is the director of Escuela Internacional de Mimo y Teatro Gestual Nouveau Colombier [International School of Mime and Gestural Theatre]. He represents Marcel Marceau’s mime technique in Spain and is also the director of Compañía Internacional de Teatro Físico Mimox [Physical Theatre International Company] and honourable qualified member of Marcel Marceau’s L´Ecole Internacional de Mimodrame in Paris. He teaches at Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Madrid and at the University of Kent. His career spans over 30 years and he has created more than 65 productions in addition to taking part in a hundred of stage performances in many different countries.

The session on Sunday, the 17th is led by Cristina Collado. She will be dealing with expression by using the Viewpoints technique with her students aged over 16. The viewpoints are a working system developed by choreographer Marie Overlie, which were later on adapted to theatre by Anne Bogart. “This type of training is based on improvisation; we start from the limits and follow the guidelines that naturally generate a rich composition in the cast”, she explains, and then adds that “acting skills are not required and it’s an excellent system to develop listening on stage”.

Cristina Collado teaches Mime Style, Movement, Repertoire and Aquis at Escuela Internacional de Mimo y Teatro Gestual Nouveau Colombier. She trained in the Viewpoints technique for three years with Diana Bernedo at EIMTG Nouveau Colombier. Collado is a member of the Compañía Internacional de Teatro Físico Mimox Teatros. She has performed in some twenty shows and has also developed a gesture application for artistic creation and psychology.

The Drama Schools, part of Cabildo’s programme Tenerife Artes Escénicas under the Tenerife 2030 strategy, are carried out throughout the academic year in schools and cultural centres where children, youths and adults learn about theatre. The aim is to encourage quality artistic training and collaboration in the cultural development of their neighbourhood.  They are taught by Canarian professionals who are graduates in Drama from Escuela de Actores de Canarias (EAC) [Canarian Drama School]. Enrolment is at the beginning of the academic year.

Since 1961 the World Theatre Day has been celebrated worldwide on 27 March. It was created by the International Theatre Institute (ITI), and a figure of international scope is asked to write a manifesto every year.

This year’s it is by Carlos Celdrán, stage director, playwright, theatre educator, and winner of prestigious awards. He lives and works in Havana, Cuba. Celdrán writes about forgotten masters from the past and defends the idea of living the present of the stage experience, “with the sole expectation of reaching the transparency of an unrepeatable moment, meeting with the other in the darkness of a theatre, with only the truth of a gesture, or a revealing word to protect you”.