Daniel Stein-Celebration Barn.
CELEBRATION BARN THEATER BOX OFFICE:Â 207-743-8452 |
Daniel Stein was one of my teachers. I first met him in 1993 at the Decroux celebration in Philadelphia. I took a two hour workshop with him there, and then again at another festival (maybe MotionFest?) At any rate, I thought he was a great teacher, and I endeavored to spend a month studying with him in the summer of 1997 at Dell’arte.
When I first saw his show Time Piece (which by the way, is playing at the Celebration Barn in South Paris Maine on July 23, and if you are on the East Coast, you should definitely see. See sidebar for details) I wrote down in my notes that if he were a musician, he’d be Cecil Taylor- he has incredible chops, he has incredible deep thinking about his art, and his art is stunning to partake of, but is not for everybody. (I also wrote in my notebook that if I were a musician, I want to be John Lee Hooker– much more accessible to non-expert audiences, but if you happen to be a musicalogist, you could note the flatted 13nths that he was working)
The show is astonishing, both for its way of thinking about theatre, but also by the fact that it really engages the audience to create the play in their internal mind. Daniel’s teaching would say that he’s creating truth in the physical world in order to create truth in the metaphysical world. Whatever, his work is astonishingly beautiful and precise and virtuosic. See if it if you can!
I loved working with Daniel. I spent a month with him working (with 6 other people) on a show titled Pushing The Envelope, which was basically our solo pieces with 3 or 4 group pieces together. I created a piece unlike anything I’ve done before (and I really need to digitize to Youtube)
While my work and Daniel’s work don’t resemble each others at all, it’s his teaching that really brought me there. And I feel like I really blossomed under his tutelage. He is a wonderful teacher, full of metaphors and theories about teaching. I talk about one of his theories in another post.
Since 2010 he has been the director of movement at the Trinity Rep Conservatory, another of my alma mater’s. (which is interesting, because when I went to each of them, there were no connections between the two orgs. And I studied at the Celebration Barn also when there were no connections between Dell’arte and the Barn. I don’t think that I’m the connector per se, but I like to think I did my part.)
You can get Daniel’s full biography on his website http://www.danielstein.org. You can also study with Daniel at the Celebration Barn (I believe there are still a couple of spaces available.) And there are other Barn workshops going on too, including with another of my teacher’s Avner Eisenberg, and lots of other great people. Find out more about what’s going on at the Barn this summer by clicking here for their newsletter or visiting http://www.celebrationbarn.com
While I am no longer involved in any sort of physical theatre – unless you count the raising of a 4-year-old – I still consider Daniel among the most talented, challenging and responsible teachers with whom I have had the pleasure of studying. He is also the only connection I know of between Dell’Arte and Sarah Lawrence, my two alma maters!