William Layton en España

This year 2015 marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment in Spain of the first theatre academy whose methodological principles for actors were based on the Stanislavski system —although transformed by the perspective of the Method, developed in America by the Group Theatre during the 1930s and then implanted in some famous schools such as the Actor’s Studio—. It was in October 1960 when the American actor, teacher and director William Layton (1913-1995) opened the Teatro Estudio de Madrid (TEM). By then, he had already been living in Spain for two years. In that adventure Layton was accompanied by the Spanish Miguel Narros (a stage director) and the American Elizabeth H. Buckley. This private academy began its activity by offering the Method, a discipline that Layton had learned in his country with Sandford Meisner; one member of the Group Theatre along with Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Harold Clurmann or Elia Kazan. Thanks to the TEM, concepts till then completely unknown in Spanish academic venues for actors such as organicity, truth, mood, sensory memory, etc., started being implemented in the theatrical interpretation. Firstly, in exercises of improvisation; secondly, in scenes and characters; and finally, after a time of performing, those concepts were tested in the scenarios, by display to the public, which is the biggest challenge for any actor, author or director. That way, a singular model of interpretation, a naturalistic type, which have prevailed in the West over other ways of interpreting, came to Spain. A system (which could be defined as organic interpretation) that had been systematized by the Russian Konstantin Stanislavski in the early twentieth century and rapidly was exported abroad by some of his first students: Richard Boleslavsky, Maria Ouspenskaya, Michael Chekhov, Pietro Scharoff, P. Pauloff... Its popularity in the USA increased mainly due to the Actor’s Studio and also thanks to professor Lee Strasberg, through the famous Method working. While in 1960 Layton founded in Madrid the TEM, together with Narros and Buckley, the Brechtian technique was arriving to Barcelona. In that city, Ricard Salvat —who had trained in Germany— and Maria Aurélia Capmany opened the School of Dramatic Art Adrià Gual (EADAG). From Catalonia and over the years, this center will project the first formulas about “distancing”. That way, after decades of delay, that same year 1960 landed in Spain two key trends that shaped and influenced the development of Western theatrical art in the first half of the twentieth century. SYNTHESIS: The knowledge and deep analysis of William Layton’s work as acting teacher in Spain will allow us to get closer to a major figure in the history of theater education in our country. Our main goal is to demonstrate that he was responsible for breaking the isolation that, from secular times, suffered the training of actors in Spain. Layton not only did achieve that, but did it consistently, without interruption. Also, by analyzing his work as stage manager, we will discover how this methodology was implemented in two aspects regarding the theatrical play: in the actor himself and in the dramatic text...

Análisis de la respuesta educativa desde la escuela a los menores en acogimiento residencial: un estudio de caso en la Comunidad de Madrid

The reality of children living in foster homes is clearly linked to the professionals that surround them both in the educational and residentialsphere. These are children who in all aspects of their livesat all hours, are exposed to the professionalism of those who work with them and not the affection of a family; their development is fully mediated by institutions. It is therefore a priority that teachers have specific training on children living infoster care, that general government (Education and Social Services) provide guidelines for action agreed to allow the coordination between the different professionals involved with children in foster care, considering the complexity of this coordination, as there are many institutions involved with these children: Social Services, schools, foster residences foster ... among others. Educational professionals have an important role in this intervention process, being their good professional work the one that favors a tight development of children in the educational field, but this intervention takes place generally from the ignorance of the specific situation faced by children living inresidential care and from the failure of the educational administration into sharing protocols, time and space, necessary for a proper coordination. In the event children incustody, and because of the uniqueness of their situation and the importance of a good intervention, there should be no space for improvisation.In addition intervention with children in residential care has to be based on a training and intervention from the complementary roles that is to be structured, systematic and evaluated in a continuously way by the professionals involved.We understand that the principle of equality in education requires to offer these minors an opportunity based on an appropriate intervention with formed professionals, knowledgeable and with the time and the necessary conditions...

Pathfinder. Performance at the Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music 2016

Pathfinder (2016) is an audiovisual performance-game for a solo drummer,exploring the synergies between multiple contemporary creative practices.The work navigates between music composition, improvisation, projection/ light art and game art. At its heart lies a bespoke electro-acoustic instrument,the augmented drum-kit, used not only to provide the sonic content of the work in real-time, but also as a highly expressive game controller that interacts with an instrument-specific game. The musical instrument offers a much wider range of expressive possibilities, control and tactile feedback in comparison to a traditional general-purpose game controller, and as a result it affords a very diverse and nuanced gameplay performance. Live electronics, lights, projections and the drum-kit all make up the performance-game’s universe, within which the performer has to explore, adjust, navigate and complete a journey.

Playing in the dark of winter

This poem is an output of a collaborative improvisation session.

Creatrix: artist in residence performance at birthing the mother 14

Digitally projected improvised creative writing performance art.

Manifesto of a defeated poet

This feature-length experimental film is the result of an intimate collaboration between Bosnian filmmaker/poet/painter/musician/performace artist Saidin Salkic (On Karasevdah: Srebrenica Blues, 2007 & Konvent 2010) and veteran Australian experimental filmmaker and film educator John Cumming (Obsession, Recognition & Sabotage 1985-87, First time Tragedy Second Tome Farce, 1989, The Hollow Centre 1999). Created over a period of four years it draws on the traditions and possibilities of improvisation – in cinematography, experimental cinema, dance, music and performance – with moments of intensity and repose, fluidity and halting re-composure. Cumming’s camera and Salkic’s movement work in front of it are at once expressionistic and in dialectical tension as are Salkic’s poetry, his haunting improvisations on piano and melodica and Cumming’s industrial soundscapes. SYNOPSIS: In the midst of fascist-capitalist madness, the Foreigner (a poet/dancer with sun on his palms and blood from his dreams on his face) hovers in neon twilight with last whispers of sanity on his lips, guarding and protecting the world – forever. REVIEW: ‘Full of mystery and beauty, punctuated by strange eruptions of silent cinema, of Chaplin, of film history made personal … not the film of a dance but a dance itself around pure presence … something unique and precious.’ Maximilian Le Cain, http://lecain.blogspot.com.au/2015/11/a-few-reflections-on-manifesto-of.html

Music of Today Series February 24, 2015

Concert Program

Un aporte a la comprensión de las estrategias emergentes en las organizaciones a través del concepto de improvisación y la metáfora musical

Este trabajo se inscribe en uno de los grandes campos de los estudios organizacionales: la estrategia. La perspectiva clásica en este campo promovió la idea de que proyectarse hacia el futuro implica diseñar un plan (una serie de acciones deliberadas). Avances posteriores mostraron que la estrategia podía ser comprendida de otras formas. Sin embargo, la evolución del campo privilegió en alguna medida la mirada clásica estableciendo, por ejemplo, múltiples modelos para ‘formular’ una estrategia, pero dejando en segundo lugar la manera en la que esta puede ‘emerger’. El propósito de esta investigación es, entonces, aportar al actual nivel de comprensión respecto a las estrategias emergentes en las organizaciones. Para hacerlo, se consideró un concepto opuesto —aunque complementario— al de ‘planeación’ y, de hecho, muy cercano en su naturaleza a ese tipo de estrategias: la improvisación. Dado que este se ha nutrido de valiosos aportes del mundo de la música, se acudió al saber propio de este dominio, recurriendo al uso de ‘la metáfora’ como recurso teórico para entenderlo y alcanzar el objetivo propuesto. Los resultados muestran que 1) las estrategias deliberadas y las emergentes coexisten y se complementan, 2) la improvisación está siempre presente en el contexto organizacional, 3) existe una mayor intensidad de la improvisación en el ‘como’ de la estrategia que en el ‘qué’ y, en oposición a la idea convencional al respecto, 4) se requiere cierta preparación para poder improvisar de manera adecuada.

La construcción de sentido (‘sensemaking’) de un entorno estratégico turbulento por parte de los altos directivos: un estudio en una multinacional automotriz

Este artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación realizada al interior de dos contextos. Por un lado, el teórico, en el marco de uno de los discursos más relevantes en los campos de la estrategia organizacional, de la managerial and organizational cognition (MOC) y, en general, de los estudios organizacionales (organization studies): la construcción de sentido (sensemaking). Por el otro, el empírico, en una de las grandes compañías multinacionales del sector automotriz con presencia global. Esta corporación enfrenta una permanente tensión entre lo que dicta la casa matriz, en relación con el cumplimiento de metas y estándares específicos, considerando el mundo entero, y los retos que, teniendo en cuenta lo regional y lo local, experimentan los altos directivos encargados de hacer prosperar la empresa en estos lugares. La aproximación implementada fue cualitativa. Esto en atención a la naturaleza de la problemática abordada y la tradición del campo. Los resultados permiten ampliar el actual nivel de comprensión acerca de los procesos de sensemaking de los altos directivos al enfrentar un entorno estratégico turbulento.