Day 2 I saw the House of Bilqis Bibi three years ago and I was struck by the emphasis of geometry not just in the beautiful set, but also in the marking of the actors. Today I watched Kristine have a conversation with someone from Graeae, whilst absentmindedly arranging pots of tea, coffee and sugar on the countertop into a symmetrically imperfect, but geometrically sound formation. It made me think that when humans or animals are engaged with each other, the dynamic of space is defined, and each party is always aware of this. Yesterday when working with my text, Kristine created distance between me and Assad, who I was working with; to create a cleaner, more engaged speech. The difference was marked, and suddenly I found new urgency and purpose to the words I was speaking- incredible.
Isobel Mascarenhas-Whitman
Day 3
Here I am working with Kristine again and with a wonderful group of actors from different cultural backgrounds. It is very nice to start every session with the exciting Kristine’s warm-ups that make us feel ready and confident to start working with the texts. Kristine proposes a few games for the warm up then she joins and plays with us. According to her, games that involve some kind of competition are the best ones to get the actor ready. After having played a couple of Kristine’s games, she usually asks the actors what game would be suitable to keep going with the warm up and increasing the actors needs to feel completely ready to play the scenes. She wants to see as well how the person that chooses an appropriate game sets it up and explain how it works and the rules to the rest of the company. It is very interesting to see and analyze why some games are not a good option for the company.
To finish the warm-up we did some breathing and voice exercises that were very useful and very good material for the actors to keep for ourselves. Thanks to these very exciting warm-ups, the rehearsal room becomes a pleasant place to work and help the actors in their challenging scenes that they will be performing later. Besides, it is always very nice to start the day with a smile and with that energy that the games provide plus their function to unite the people.
After the warm-up we started working in the texts. Day 3 was quite pleasant with both classical and modern scenes but very intense as well. I worked with Anna-Maria and thanks to Kristine’s guidance and directions we achieved an excellent result. We did an improvisation from a Shakespeare’s text and it was very rewarding to see how applying Kristine’s corrections the scene got better and better.
Last November I took part in The Actor & Director Lab and I also worked with Kristine last July when she was directing our 2nd year ensemble at Circus Space. I realized how beneficial and effective Kristine’s method is and her capacity to obtain the best from every actor. Kristine analyzes and focuses in every single detail at all the levels of the performance – text, voice, breathe and movement. What I really like from Kristine is the empathy she establishes with her actors and she is very good at keeping us calm and passing on to us her support; that way the actor feels confident and achieves incredible outcomes. It is very pleasant to take part in this workshop as you can see these amazing scenes from other actors and you can learn a lot as well from them. To sum up, the Acting Masterclass is being an amazing learning experience. Thank you very much Kristine!
Marcos Tajadura
I have taken the course recommended by friend. I am so glad to be working along with Kristine who is an absolutely fantastic teacher and helps a lot in order to make sure that a sensitivity of acting can be performed naturally. I love being around her. Her pushing, criticising, understanding is brilliant. I have learned a lot. It has helped me in many ways being an actor and model. I would love to work with her again.
Laila Khalid