THIS EVEN HAS BEEN CANCELED

Join the Casts, Masks and Play Workshop and Unmask Your Creative Self!
All performing,visual, multimedia artists and all creatives, from professional to beginners (18 and up) are welcome!

Casts Mask and Play is a 2-day mask making and mask performance workshop led by Barbara Gregson, theater artist and author. You will learn the ancient art of papier mache mask making using a plaster cast of your face and then learn how to create original theater and mask vignettes for your own future work.

Barbara Gregson, studied the ancient art of Renaissance leather and papier mache mask making with Donato Sartori in Italy and with leather mask maker Lauren Raine in the US. She studied mime in Paris France with Ella Jarozewic and neutral masks with Jaque Lecoq. She has been performing and working with masks since 1987 and uses masks in many of the original productions that she writes and directs with groups of people of all ages and abilities.

Day 1: You will make a plaster cast of your face using plaster strips, then make a papier mache neutral or character mask using either the inside (the negative) or outside (the positive) of the cast. While the mask is drying we will work on how to use a mask on stage mime techniques and in small groups begin to create a mask and mime piece.

Day 2: We will remove the papier-mache mask from the cast, paint, and finish it. While it is drying, we will continue to work on our mask performance improvisations to make it into a short mask and theater piece.

Please note: All workshop participants of The Mask Arts Symposium workshops will be able to join our free in-house “Finding Funding & Grants for Artists Workshop!” Also, all participants of any of our workshops will be invited to display their masks in our gallery during our open house.

Showtimes

Health & Safety

Proof of vaccination is required to attend this event. For the safety of audiences, artists, staff, and our greater community, you must be fully vaccinated to attend this event. Fully vaccinated means two weeks after your second dose. You will be asked to show proof of vaccination before entering the venue. Accepted forms for proof of vaccination include: a physical vaccine card with your name on it or a digital photo of your vaccine card on a cell phone. Please plan accordingly.

Masks must also be worn for the duration of the performance.

Content Considerations

Audience Instructions

Proof of  Covid 19 vaccination is required at the door for all Mask Arts Symposium workshops and on the Open House days as well.

On the first day of our workshop, we will make a plaster cast of your face so you will need to bring hair clips, to keep your hair back from your face and towels to drape over your shoulders, to keep your clothes dry. Also please wear comfortable clothes as we will be moving.

About the Artists

Barbara L. Gregson is a theater artist, director, and author of “Theater Artists Play, a Theater Artists Guide
to Making and Creating your Own Theater work!” She has been creating and making her own theatre work since she was age 10 when she produced and performed her own version of “Mary Poppins” for her elementary school. From 1972-1980 Barbara lived and worked in Europe. She studied theater in London at Studio 68 and The Drama Studio, then to study mime with Ella Jaroszewicz. After studying mime in Paris she moved to Hamburg Germany and started “Theater Wunderwurm”, (1975-1979), an award-winning street theater troupe, performing mime, with an actor and musician performing in festivals and cabarets in Europe.

Barbara Gregson returned to the States in 1980 and moved to Philadelphia, PA. Since 1980, she has been creating original theater work and productions with people of all ages and abilities in prisons, schools, hospitals, and community centers. She has received Arts in Education grants and Community Artist grants from DE, NJ, PA and NY State Arts Councils, local arts organizations and foundations. She has won many awards for her work such as the “Transformation Award” 2007 from the Leeway Foundation in Philadelphia, PA.

She began performing with masks in Philadelphia, PA, in 1984 while working with her mime and music company “Mimsik.” Loving the versatility and freedom of performing with masks, she studied neutral masks with Jacques Lecoq, 1987, then leather and papier-mache mask making in Italy, 1997 with Renaissance mask maker Donato Sartori and leather mask making with Lauren Raine, in NY. 2000. She continues to create masks for her own performance work, as well as teach mask-making workshops, masks performance and incorporate masks n her original production.