Spring 2023
Connecting up : online. Connecting the Body,Voice imagination and Feelings. tutor Max Hafler
The Shakespeare Connection: online. The Character and the Audience.
Tutors Max Hafler and guest tutor Liz Shipman
Inspiration and Impulse: Sligo In-The-Room workshop for Creatives and Makers. Tutor Declan Drohan

Connecting up: four weeks online. International class ! focussing on the body
Feb 8th - March 1st 16.00 - 18.00 Irish Time.
Tutor Max Hafler
Connecting up: a four week international class online with tutor Max Hafler on the principle of connection. Michael Chekhov believed that Body,Imagination, Voice and Feelings are connected up. This is an incredibly holistic thing and great to explore online, where it is paradoxically easier to focus and explore these connections because of the privacy it affords us as performers. We often dare more in our own space.
Cost 80€/ 65€ low waged/50 unwaged.
The Shakespeare Connection

In Shakespeare more than any other playwright, we the audience are friends and collaborators in the characters and we, the actors are friend and collaborators with the audience. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Richard the Third as we accompany him on his dark journey of villainy. As actors and lovers of Shakespeare we might explore these questions; “Is the audience a character?””Can we be sensitive to the audiences energy and can we allow that to affect the character themselves?” “Is the audience complicit in the character’s journey?” “In soliloquies, how does the audience energy affect the actors choices of direct address or introspection?” “How do we as artists make these decisions?” Through exploration of the text, and Michael Chekhov’s exercises we will try to explore these questions which take us to the heart of what must be a live event.
Fee 120€/ 130$
Liz Shipman—Director/Choreographer, Specialist in Psychophysical Actor Training, Acting Shakespeare and Active Integrations.
Co-Artistic Director of the Meisner/Chekhov Integrated Training Studio in San Diego (2013-present),Co-Artistic Director of the Kings County Shakespeare Company (NYC) where she directed and/or choreographed over 50 productions (1983-2001),Certified Laban Movement Analyst, self-taught & trained in the Chekhov work
(1987-present). Her approach integrates the work of Michael Chekhov, Rudolph Laban, Irmgard Bartenieff and Arthur Lessac.
In 2020, she launched Virtually Shakespeare, a recurring course on Zoom. Liz relishes working with language-rich texts & creating work that engages both the actor & the audience through heightened atmospheres & fully committed performances.
Max Hafler is the author of Teaching Voice, and “What Country Friends is This?” both published by Nick Hern books. His work on Shakespeare with young people using the Chekhov Technique is documented in the second book . Max trained at LAMDA and worked as an actor for several years before expanding into play writing, teaching and directing. His company Theatrecorp was dedicated to presenting classical work in the West of Ireland, which included Shakespeare, Beckett, Lorca, Marlowe and Webster. .
Inspiration and Impulse

Where do ideas come from?
What is the connection between the body and the imagination ?
How can i step outside my usual habits , shortcuts and comfort zones to find the impetus to make new work?
Chekhov Training and Performance Ireland invite you to an immersive day where we will explore the unexpected, astonishing and the joyful resources of your own breath, body and imagination in space.... and the places it can take us!
Please bring sketch pads , or other small resources so you can respond through your own artform.
Workshop @ Murrow House, 1 Teeling Street Abeeyquarter North , Sligo F91 TH29 ( Louise Waters Natural Therapies Yoga Studio)
Fee : € 50