impulsetheatre.com.au

The company was established in 2002 by a core group of theatre practitioners headed by
Stephen Wallace and Michael Gillett to not only produce dramatic works but also to explore ways of
training that might enable actors to find more truth in performance.

In 2002 this group of twelve actors trained in a Grotowski workshop for 5 months in an old abandoned church in Glebe. In the last months the training group was joined by Jeff Freeman, an American who had trained with the Grotowski group in the USA. He took the group deeper into the spacial  and movement exercises than they’d ever been before. The group then performed Oedipus The King at the old church for three weeks towards the end of 2002, performing an hour of Grotowski exercises beforehand that an audience could watch.

Most of the original group stayed with the company to perform in a productions of
OEDIPUS THE KING (Burton Street Theatre 2003), LYSISTRATA (Burton Street Theatre
2004), COSI (Newtown Theatre 2006), AWAY(Newtown Theatre, 2007, 2008) and
THE SHOEHORN SONATA (Newtown Theatre 2009). Our production of the short play
STOLEN at the Short and Sweet Festival in 2006 won the Best Actress Award for one
of our members, Majella O’Shea. Impulse has produced four more Short and Sweet productions, CHE  GUEVARA WOULD NEVER GO TO STARBUCKS (2006), A QUIET DINNER FOR FOUR (2007) , NIGHT VISION (2009) and MUM (2011) We have also produced a short film, DISCONNECTED,
the first in a number of planned film projects.

Our training workshops start with intensive physical training combined with ritual and
group impulse exercises based on the teachings of Jerzy Grotowski, who devised a
system to eliminate resistance to the creative process, allowing the actor to react
completely and spontaneously in performance. We also incorporate techniques and
exercises derived from Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Bryan Syron and Hayes
Gordon.

In 2009 we performed Shakespeare’s AS YOU LIKE IT at the PACT Theatre,
Erskineville, Sydney which ran from the 13th of May for a 3 week season. This was a production done after Grotowski training workshops every week of rehearsals where we utilised movement and dance as well as singing from the workshop. Schoolkids responded  well to the production. Nine actors played all the parts and used live musical instruments during the performance.

Particularly notable was Graeme Rhodes as Jaques, with his “all the world’s a stage” speech. Note that we have an excellent filmed recording of this production of AS YOU LIKE IT, available for $25, including postage.

In 2011 we produced  John Misto’s THE SHOEHORN SONATA at the Newtown Theatre with Genevieve Mooy and Mary Haire.

This year we will produce THE SHOEHORN SONATA at the Figtree Theatre, High Street, Kensington UNNSW with a different cast. The show will run from March 5 to March 29 weekdays at 10.30 am and there will be a show also on March 17 at 2pm. Any school wishing to book should contact The School Performance Tours at 9516 1613 or 1800221509 or email at spt@schoolperformancetours.com.au.