Reading the Theatre
WORKSHOPS
DIRECTED BY Jean-Paul Denizon
three appointments: 15-22 February; 25 April-1 May; 4-15 July 2025
The Associazione Culturale Dello Scompiglio presents a workshop directed by Jean-Paul Denizon aimed at staging A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare.
This edition - consisting of three sessions scheduled in 2025 - is aimed at staging a real performance, so please bear in mind that this time attendance cannot be occasional. The project will start with the enrolment of minimum 12 participants.
This offer represents the follow-up of a work begun in October 2022, proceeded in July 2023 in a residential form and continued in 2024 with four sessions. The aim of the sessions was to consolidate the skills acquired, establish continuity, deepen the texts already covered and integrate new ones.
The workshop is aimed at actors, directors, authors and pedagogues, but is open to all interested people.
2024_02_Denizon
Jean-Paul Denizon affirms: “Unlike a novel, where the story, page after page, leads us into a wonderful journey, especially if the author is a great one, a theatrical text is much harder to read and requires real work. There are few descriptions, rare or non-existent stage directions, as in Shakespeare for example. We are in front of a series of words, sentences, monologues, dialogues between people who simply talk.
Even if it is true that the text can give us some information (places, moods, feelings, emotions, movements...), the deep meaning of the story, its “raison d’être”, often eludes us: it is hard to understand what we are reading.
The difficulty lies largely in the fact that we do not know how to imagine the lives of characters who, unlike those in novels, will come to life on stage. In fact, the characters in a play seem to have no substance, if you simply read the text: they do not exist yet, just as the relationships between them, the thoughts that inhabit them, the emotions that shake them and the meaning they give to what they are talking about do not exist yet.
However, it is possible to find between the lines of the text some indications that can allow us to give body and life to a character. By reading the theatre, one is able to learn.”
Bio
Jean-Paul Denizon began his career with Peter Brook, who directed him in 'La Cerisaie', 'La tragédie de Carmen', 'The Mahabharata' and 'La tempête'. In addition to his work as an actor, he very soon became an assistant director, again with the Maestro, before embarking on an independent career as a director, playwright and teacher. With his productions (in France, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden, Greece, Italy, etc.), conferences, workshops, also all over Europe, Jean-Paul Denizon proposes a sensitive approach to the text and the relationship between actor and stage. According to Jean-Paul Denizon, the work of the actor, “a human being who tells about other human beings”, consists in creating a balanced and intelligent relationship between the constituent elements of our being: the affective world, mind and body. "Seeking and finding this balance, which allows the actor to free his expression, is the basis of our work". Concrete work and practice aimed at searching for the unexpected nuances hidden between the lines of each text, in order to propose a lively and profound reading and interpretation of characters.
Information
Session schedule
1st session: 15 – 22 February 2025
2nd session: 25 April – 1st May 2025
3rd session: 4 – 15 July 2025
3 sessions in total, with final staging of a performance on 15 July 2025
non-occasional attendance at the 3 sessions is required
the project will take place only with a minimum number of 12 participants
Working sessions
First day of each session: 3.00-6.00 p.m.
Weekdays: 10.00-1.00 a.m./ 2.30-6.00 p.m.
Sundays and holidays: 10.00 a.m. - 4.00 p.m.
Location
Tenuta Dello Scompiglio
Via di Vorno, 67 | 55012 Vorno – Capannori, Lucca (Italy)
Fees
1st session euro 170,00
2nd session euro 160,00
3rd session euro 240,00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to participate
Please send us the following documentation (only if you did not participate in the previous workshops):
Curriculum Vitae
Motivation letter
Application form properly completed and signed (see attached form),
How to apply
via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Deadline for applications
31 JANUARY 2025
The Artistic Direction of the Associazione Culturale Dello Scompiglio will decide on the selection of applications on the basis of irrefutably expressed evaluations, notifying all interested parties by publication on its website and by communication via e-mail.
Download the application form and privacy policy
Further Information
Associazione Culturale Dello Scompiglio
artistic director Cecilia Bertoni
Via di Vorno, 67 | 55012 Vorno, Capannori (LU)
tel. 0583 971475 | 0583 971125
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tenuta Dello Scompiglio
