Jean-Rene Toussaint Presents 3 Primitive Voice Workshops in NYC, Fall 2012

Jean-Rene Toussaint is a French-born director, actor, and voice teacher. He is the creator of a distinct school of vocal training for performing artists and therapists - a technique he has dubbed Stemwerk in Dutch - and is the founder and head of a training center in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and in Avanos-Cappadocie in Turkey.

He has been professionally active in theater since 1973, and has worked with major theatrical companies and artists such as The Wilma Theater, Pig Iron Theatre, the Living Theatre, the Roy HArt Theatre, Robert Wilson, and the Polish Laboratory Theatre. His vocal theory and technique are inspired by the work of Antonin Artaud, Jerzy Grotowski, and Roy Hart, which are all defining figures in contemporary theater and, in the cases of Grotowski and Hart, of voice technique. Toussaint has traveled through parts of Asia and India, studying diverse ancient vocal practices, from Afghan Sufi to Mongolian, Tibetan, and Japanese vocal traditions.

Primitive Voice Work seeks to reconnect each person to his/her primitive voice - a voice that is deeply physical and wonderfully versatile. This “primitive” voice can be used in performance training for actors, singers, and dancers, and in personal development to loosen psychological blocks and to discover more fully one's own personality. The roots of Toussaint's approach are found in his extensive work with deaf children. Through this experience he discovered the importance of the physical embodiment of sound and became fascinated with the raw and nomadic qualities of the human voice, unpolished by Western societal norms, values, and culture.

This Fall, Toussaint will present 3 workshops in New York City:

Workshop for Beginners (Acting and expression)

September 15th-16th in New York City (Midtown)

Your VOICE and BEING YOURSELVES

Workshop for Beginners (Personal development and creativity)

October 13rd-14th in New York City (Midtown)

A VOICE FOR DOING, A VOICE FOR BEING

Workshop for Advanced (‘Being’ on stage instead of ‘Doing’)

November 10th-11th in New York City (Midtown)

For more information or to register, contact: primitivevoice@gmail.com.