National Theater Institute Partners With The Wooster Group and SITI Company; Public Performance on November 19

November 2, 2005

Waterford, Connecticut - The National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center has formed an unprecedented educational partnership with two important, innovative performance companies from New York City: The Wooster Group and Anne Bogart's SITI Company. Both of these distinguished companies, known for their unique approaches to theatrical material, voice work and physical movement, will be conducting special workshops in New York and at the O'Neill Theater Center with students enrolled in NTI's training program. The SITI Company collaboration will culminate in a public lecture/demonstration and a performance of the students' work on Saturday, November 19 at the O'Neill Theater Center.

The Wooster Group is "eager to inspire the next generation of theater artists" and to "explore the process of performance discovery" with the NTI students in their workshops, according to Cynthia Hedstrom, Director of Special Projects for the Company.

The Wooster Group, described as "one of the finest, richest, most fascinating theater companies of our time" (John Rockwell/New York Times) is a theater ensemble with a 30-year history, known for its radical staging of both modern and classic texts, involving technologically sophisticated and evocative uses of sound, film and video. Founding members include Willem Dafoe, the late Spalding Gray and current Artistic Director Elizabeth LeCompte. The Wooster Group recently performed the acclaimed POOR THEATRE ("characteristically brilliant, ingenious" ­ Rockwell) featuring the work of Elizabeth LeCompte, Ari Fliakos, Scott Shepherd and Kate Valk, all of who will work with the NTI students in a collaborative experiment. Founded in 1975, the company has produced renowned interpretations of two Eugene O'Neill plays: THE HAIRY APE (1995), and THE EMPEROR JONES (1992), which was subsequently filmed.

NTI students visited The Wooster Group's Performing Garage in September, where they worked with the company members noted above in an introduction to The Wooster Group's methods of physical and textual exploration and their innovative use of sound, film and video. NTI students also attended a performance of POOR THEATRE. In October, the Wooster Group was in residence at the O'Neill Theater Center where they continued their work with the NTI students.

SITI Company was founded by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki in 1992, with a mission to redefine and revitalize contemporary theater in the United States. The Company is internationally known as a top-level artist's collective that creates groundbreaking theatre. Its training focuses on three elements: The Viewpoints, an improvisation technique; the Suzuki Method of emotional and physical training, drawn from Japanese and Greek influences; and Composition, which transforms ideas into theatrical metaphor and creates new work for the stage.

In November, leading members of SITI Company, including J. Ed Araiza, Barney O'Hanlon, and Stephen Webber, will lead a two-week intensive workshop in Suzuki, Viewpoints and Composition methods with NTI students at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. The studio sessions will culminate in two free events that are open to the public on November 19: A Suzuki/Viewpoints Lecture Demonstration from 10:00am - 1:00 pm; and, at 7:30 p.m. in the Dina Merrill Theater, NTI students will present the Composition Project, "Vaudeville Vanya." Reservations for both events are recommended; please call 860-443-5378, x0 for reservations.

The National Theater Institute, a program of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, under the direction of David Jaffe, was founded in 1970. It offers a fully accredited, conservatory-based theater training semester to college and post-graduate students each fall and spring. In addition to a rigorous schedule of classes in Acting, Directing, Movement, Voice, Playwriting and Design, led by leading theater professionals, students attend performances and meet with artists at theatres throughout southern New England and New York. The National Theater Institute also offers an accredited semester of study abroad with the Moscow Art Theater. Its summer program, Theatermakers, gives advanced students and recent graduates workshops and classes along with the opportunity to participate as assistants to professional artists during the O'Neill's Puppetry, National Playwrights and National Music Theater Conferences. For more information, please visit the National Theater Institute website, www.theoneill.org/nti.