Ahmet Avkiran, Turkey - Sigrid Seberich, Italy
Ahmet Avkiran, born in 1966 in Trabzon, Turkey, is working as clown, actor and director and is currently giving various drama workshops and is directing plays in Turkey and Italy. He played and directed the children’s program Karamelas Kindersendung, broadcasted by the South-Tyrolean TV station RAI Sender Bozen (Italy). Ahmet Avkiran worked for XXX years as a clown for Medicus Comicus and was engaged in different productions of the Vereinigte Bühnen Bozen (Italy), Carambolage (Bolzano, Italy), Kellertheater Innsbruck (Austria) and Neue Bühne Villach (Austria). He wrote his master theses at the Scuola Teatro Dimitri – SUPSI (Verscio, Swiss) on The Poetics of the Clown.
Sigrid Seberich, born in 1961 in Bolzano, Italy, started her career as a clown in 1987. Over the years she has been part of numerous solo performances and two-man plays and worked as a clown for Medicus Comicus. Sigrid Seberich also played and directed the children’s program Karamelas Kindersendung, which is still being broadcasted by the South-Tyrolean TV station RAI Sender Bozen (Italy). Alongside her acting career she also receives training in cranio-sacral therapy and is giving workshops on pelvic floor exercises and body awareness. Sigrid Seberich studied rhythmics and music education at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna (Austria) and wrote her master theses on The Rhythmics in a Clown’s Play.
The neutral mask
The neutral mask stimulates physical dialogues. By concealing the face with a white mask, the body language is being unveiled and every inner motion becomes visible. This emphasizes the power of physical expression and establishes a dialogue between inner world and surrounding space. The aim of this workshop is to create awareness for physical mannerism and minimal body language. Teaching methods are in style of Lecoq’s theatre pedagogy combined with elements from rhythmical and musical education principles. Body work based on Ilse Middendorf’s perceptible breath is also part of the workshop.