Introduction to Larval Masks Workshop

Acclaimed physical theatre maker and performer Ruxy Cantir is offering a taster Larval Mask Workshop this July at Surge that will help develop and refine your physical and theatre making practice.

​Larval masks are playful, curious and will take up every opportunity to be distracted. Elegant in their simplicity and child-like in their expression, these masks are a great tool for performance training and devising theatre. We'll explore basic mask technique that cultivates physical awareness, clarity/economy of movement, and gestural work. We'll also look at what it takes to bring a mask to life.

No matter your style or medium of performance, this mask workshop will hone your performance skills, training awareness, physicality, movement, and capacity to create distinct characters. 

Open to established and emerging (including students) artists alike, this is a taster workshop, deliberately kept at small numbers. 

 When: 13 and 14 July 2024, 11am to 5pm (Participants are required to come to both days of the workshop.)

Where: Surge, 51 Cadogan Square, Glasgow

Price: £70 for established artists, £30 for students/emerging artists. 

How to sign up: please send Ruxy (ruxy.cantir@gmail.com) a paragraph stating briefly why you'd like to take this workshop, what you hope to get out of it, and your experience in performance.

 
Note from Ruxy: I'm excited to share this workshop with the performance community in Scotland. I've found masks to be hugely useful in cultivating acting chops because of their focus on body and physicality. Sometimes called the toddlers of the mask world, Larval Masks are a great gateway into more complex mask work. Whether you'll use masks in your creative practice or not, they equip you with the most fundamental tools for acting: listening with your whole body and reacting physically to what's around you. This will increase confidence in your practice (it has done for me anyway!) because you become more rooted in the present. Having used mask in both training and performance, I'm always pleasantly surprised by the potential they hold for discovery. 

About Ruxy: “[one] of Scotland’s leading visual theatre makers,” Ruxy Cantir is a Moldova-born, US-trained, Glasgow-based physical theatre maker, performer, and teacher. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre from Dell'Arte International (California, US), a rigorous 3-year training programme in Lecoq and Copeau based physical theatre techniques. Ruxy devises and performs original work for all ages ranging from spectacle-based outdoor theatre to intimate indoor work using Contemporary Devising practices, Puppetry, Clown and Physical and Visual Theatre. Most recently, Ruxy toured her solo show Pickled Republic across Scotland and at manipulate Festival 2024 - a show rooted in Mask, clown, bouffon, and movement - to great critical acclaim.