Theatre Arts Professors, Kevin Connell and Ellen Orenstein, bring master teachers for unique training opportunity

In conjunction with Marymount Manhattan College, Pacific Performance Project (P3) is now offering a Physical Acting Intensive Workshop during the January 2013 Session, which will synthesize the techniques of Tadashi Suzuki, Shogo Ohta and modern dance with training methods more familiar to western performers, such as those of Stanislavski, Meisner and Alexander. Marymount Manhattan is pleased to welcome Robyn Hunt and J. Steven Pearson to its community, and we invite you to take advantage of this unique opportunity to study with these three master teachers.

P3 was founded by Robyn Hunt and J. Steven Pearson in response to the heightened need for an expanding dialogue about culture and theater. Hunt and Pearson began working with the noted Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki and his company in 1982, studying his performance techniques, and, over a span of twelve years, acting in four productions in Japan. After several years of study, Suzuki encouraged them to be among the first to teach his techniques in the United States. Suzuki training is now on the leading edge of contemporary actor training in the US, receiving considerable attention in such national publications as American Theatre magazine and The Drama Review, as well as The New York Times and other major newspapers. 

Robyn Hunt: A member of Actor’s Equity, Hunt has acted professionally in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. She worked for over a decade with Tadashi Suzuki, performed in Tokyo and Kanazawa in Opium, a joint Pacific Performance Project/Theatre Group Tao production under the direction of Kenji Suzuki, studied and performed in Kyoto under the direction of Shogo Ohta, and between 1994 and 2000 performed frequently at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, under the direction of Jon Jory. Hunt was co-founder and first artistic director of the San Diego Public Theatre and co-heads the Pacific Performance Project/east, now based in Columbia, SC. In 2001, she received the University of Washington Distinguished Teaching Award. Most recent acting roles include Dottie in Noises Off, the title role in Mother Courage and Ranevskaya in both Gravity (Connelly Theatre, NYC) and The Cherry Orchard Sequel at LaMaMa. Hunt performed in the New York debut of Peter Kyle Dance as Miss Haversham in To What Extent at the Henry Street Settlement/Abrons Arts Center inFall 2007, and in 2000, appeared in another Kyle dance, Going. She has created several evening length dance/theatre pieces, including the trilogy Suite For Strangers, which had its Seattle debut in 2004. Other dance/theatre collaborations (with Peter Kyle and Steven Pearson) include: Myra’s War, Prix Fixe, and Shogo Ohta’s The Water Station (Mizu No Eki). She appears in the January 2008 article “Shaping the Independent Actor,” in American Theatre Magazine. Her Work can be viewed at the Pacific Performance Project/east website (P3east.com).

Steven Pearson: Professor Pearson has acted and directed professionally in the US, Japan, Canada and Europe. A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University with degrees in acting and directing, and a 10-year student of Tadashi Suzuki, Professor Pearson was head of the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Washington from 1992 to 2003, and previously taught in and headed the acting program at the University of California, San Diego. He is an Artistic Director of the Pacific Performance Project/East, and recent professional work includes directing at On the Boards in Seattle, LaMaMa in New York, in Sibiu, Romania, in Chicago and Minneapolis; and acting in Seattle and Kyoto, Japan.

Published: January 08, 2013