MASK PERFORMANCE TRAINING

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Want to take MASK PERFORMANCE classes with us?

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We are planning workshops in the Baltimore/DC / Philly region for the coming year!

You can bring Tara Cariaso and Parker Matthews to your university, college, high school or company for unique-to-the-field physical theatre and mask performance training.  You supply the venue, we bring the masks!

At present, we are booking for Winter/Spring 2024, offering the following workshops:

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• Larval Mask Training

• Physical Theatre 101:  Neutral mask, Larval mask and the Body Mask

• Emotion Masks:  Somatic embodiment and liberation through the body

• Reimagining Commedia: A joyful new lens on a traditional form

• Embodying Archetypes: Somatic engagement for character creation! 

• Solo Clown Play!

• Red Nose for the Ensemble Clown

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Contact Tara@waxingmoonmasks.com to discuss more!

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About the facilitators:

Tara Cariaso is a Filipina-American, Baltimore-based educator of physical theatre, archetypes, somatic acting, mask performance, and is founder/designer for Waxing Moon Masks Education and Fabrication Company. Tara earned her MFA from Dell’Arte Int'l School of Physical Theatre, and has received funding from GRIT FUND, Baltimore BASE Grant, and Alternate Roots to support her work in anti-oppressive organizing for DMV area educators. Cariaso and her mask fabrication and education company, Waxing Moon Masks, received a grant from the city of Baltimore in 2022 to recalibrate all their offerings around creating greater cultural diversity in theatrical mask performance and addressing inequitable practices in the theatre field. Her ongoing work with non-profit B4 Youth Theatre uses Somatic Acting practices for social justice play-making in Liberia, West Africa, and her pedagogy “Embodying Archetypes” is being used in devised theater practices across Maryland. She has been resident mask maker and consultant for Faction of Fools since 2021, reimagining an anti-oppressive Commedia Dell'Arte framework, character creation processes and masks for the next generation of comic actors.

 

Parker Matthews serves as the Education Director of Single Carrot Theatre and is a Baltimore-based theatre artist, teacher, mime, and storyteller. As an educator and performer, he has brought physical comedy and dramatic performance to audiences across North and South America. His works have been seen in settings as diverse as urban schools, mountain villages, exclusive private clubs, and agrarian community centers. While working with Baltimore City Public schools, Matthews originated the experiential-learning “Story Journeys: Live!” pedagogy and curriculum, which helps young students develop literacy and critical thinking skills through theatrical, imaginative play. Centering student empowerment, agency, and creation, this approach invites students into the role as co-creators and collaborators, so that everything created in the classroom reflects the varied perspectives and wild imaginations of the participants. He holds an MFA in Devised Physical Performance from the University of the Arts.

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