Claudio Massimo Paterno Launches Acting Workshop in Istanbul

Italian director and actor Claudio Massimo Paterno has launched a four-day acting workshop at the Üsküdar Kerem Yılmazer Stage, hosted by the IMM City Theatres. Featuring 20 participants selected from within and outside the City Theatres, the workshop brings Meyerhold's Theatre Biomechanics System together with stage practice.

IMM City Theatres is hosting one of the international meetings shaping the performing arts. Claudio Massimo Paterno, known for his directing and acting work in Italy, met with aspiring actors on the first day of the four-day workshop at the Üsküdar Kerem Yılmazer Stage. In the workshop featuring 20 participants selected from within and outside the City Theatres, the fundamental and deep principles of Meyerhold's Theatre Biomechanics System were addressed through stage practice. The sessions were conducted under the coordination of City Theatres artist Selim Can Yalçın, with Valeria Covella, known for her work in research theatre and dance, accompanying the team. Cem Taylan, noted for his background in philosophy and theatre, provided simultaneous translation throughout the workshop.

In the first day's sessions, alongside physical exercises, preparatory games providing control, energy, and agility to actors, voice-body awareness, dramaturgy, and integration with space and objects were covered. Paterno emphasized that the actor must build a narrative that also encompasses the audience, and that pain, sorrow, and happiness should not merely be enacted but truly felt and lived. At the end of the four-day marathon, participants will transfer the techniques they learned and the physical awareness they acquired onto the stage through a small performance composition.