Producer

LEANNIE AALGAARD

On behalf of BLUE EGG® Entertainment, producer of Alive Body Grotowski Performer Retreat and the Grotowski Praxis Workshop, I am honoured to be continuing in collaboration with Raïna and Wendy.  I am an entrepreneur, producer, coach, and artist. I could say that my education and involvement in the physical and performing arts began when my life began; I am a fifth generation dancer and forever grateful to have been born into a family that espouses the value of the arts. Through my company, BLUE EGG® I have been designing and producing integrated training programs as well as filmed and live performances in collaboration with artists and teachers for more than ten years. BLUE EGG® has provided training to hundreds of students. I am honoured and proud of the success of BLUE EGG® and the artists with whom we have worked, who’s achievements include: guest starring roles on television series, cast in touring productions of Broadway musicals, performing live on CiTR Radio, founder of successful dance-based performance art touring company, and award-winning Fringe Festival shows. Other artists have gone on to achieve acceptance into competitive university theatre arts programs at Columbia University, Capilano University and Toronto Film School. BLUE EGG® has helped launched careers of dancers, actors, singer-songwriters, musicians, and teachers. For all of this, I am grateful.

Associate Producer / Teaching Apprentice

Scott Rodrigue

Scott Rodrigue is a psychophysical movement researcher, collaborative theatre maker, and facilitative artist who has been training in Grotowski and experimental performance techniques for the past decade. He is currently based in Philly where he has been co-presented by Plays & Players Theatre as a performing artist, and The Whole Shebang as a teaching artist. In March he will perform Elli in Shepard's Curse of The Starving Class as his inaugural role with EgoPo Classic Theatre. In NYC he was Co-Artistic Director of AliveWire Theatrics (2009-2013), alongside playwright & collaborator Chana Porter. The company held artistic residencies at Dixon Place, Space on White, and Cave home of Leimay. In NYC his work has been presented as part of Jeffery Jones' Little Theatre at Dixon Place, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Theater Jam, Primary Stages' studios, La Mama E.T.C., and PS122's former 9th St. Theatre. In addition to the staff and guest teachers at ALIVE BODY Scott has trained directly under, Anne Bogart and SITI Company, Rena Mirecka, Stephen Wangh and the faculty of Acrobatics of the Heart, Jonathan Hart, Mary Overlie, Jean-René Toussaint, Massimiliano Balduzzi, and Mario Biagini.

Guest Teacher

LINDA PUTNAM

Linda is the founder and artistic director of Evergreen Theater and School. She has been a performing member of many theater companies, including New World Theater, Reality Theater, Theater Workshop Boston, Appleseed Traveling Circus, New York Free Theater, and Gut Theater of Harlem. She has been invited to perform in various festivals and has received several awards for acting. She has authored two ensemble plays and three solo pieces. Her teaching career spans more than forty years during which time, in addition to directing a full-time acting school, she has taught residencies at Baltimore Theater Project, Skidmore College, Naropa Institute, Smith College, Simon Fraser University, The Canadian National Voice Intensive, Women In View (Vancouver and Boston), and Mascall Dance Society, among others. She has taught workshops for a long list of theater and dance companies, and has acted as a performance coach for numerous individuals and companies. She received an MFA in Theater from New York University in 1968. She studied with Peter Kass, Lloyd Richards, Andre Gregory, Jerzy Grotowski, and Kristin Linklater, among others. Her teaching is a blend of physical acting techniques and traditional acting methodology.

Past Guest Teachers

David MacMurray Smith

David MacMurray Smith is an independent educator with 45 years of professional experience in the areas of Theatre, Ballet, Opera, Mime, and Clown. He is a movement specialist and experienced counselor whose special interest is in how memory moves and patterns itself through our bodies and affects our perceptions, behavior, and communication. His experience drew him to develop his own body-centered, humanist approach to personal and professional development through creative studies in the psychology of human performance; very often collectively focused through the convention of Clown. David was the Associate Director and Head Instructor at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre School, Movement Director for the Music Theatre and Opera Programs at the Banff Centre of the Arts, Program Director and Core Trainer for the Ensemble Training Program of Full Circle: First Nations Performance, and 20 years on faculty in the Douglas College Theatre Program. He is a Founding Faculty member and instructor in the Expressive Arts Therapy Training Program through Langara College Continuing Education, Co-Creator, and Director with the award winning James and Jamsey comedy clown duo, and runs his own courses through Fantastic Space Enterprises, which he founded in 1995 to assist in expanding dimensions in self knowledge and communication.

Gabriella Minnes Brandes

Gabriella Minnes Brandes, Ph.D. has been teaching the Alexander Technique for over 30 years and is currently teaching the Technique both in the Theatre Department at Capilano University and at the Alexander Technique Centre in Vancouver. Gaby also teaches in the Young Artists Program at the Vancouver Opera, and at the Pender Island Flute Retreat. Gaby works extensively in collaboration with musicians, voice, movement and acting instructors. Gaby’s workshops and private lessons are experiential, focusing on the application of the Alexander Technique in different contexts.  She encourages students to explore, experiment with, and reflect on their habitual patterns, and seek effective and efficient ways of using themselves in any activity that they take on.  Much of Gaby's current work and research focuses on exploring the connections between Alexander Technique and creativity as it pertains to performers. For more information see http://alexandertechniquecentre.com

REBECCA (RAE) MACEACHERN-EASTWOOD (SHE/HER)

Rae is an emerging artist who was born and raised on the unceded Coast Salish Territories. She holds her BA in English and theatre from the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. From 2018, Rae has been the primary photographer for Alive Body and Grotowski Praxis; as well as the content creator and graphic designer for Instagram in 2018 to 2019. She is a self-trained photographer who has been shooting for over ten years. Her style primarily focuses on intimacy, presence, and raw emotion. This style echoes what she has learned in theatre; following graduation, she received training at Alive Body (2018) to specialize in physical expression. In 2019, she worked with under-privileged youth as a devising instructor for Green Room theatre and directed 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane for Vancouver Fringe. Due to the personal nature of her photography work, she has been reluctant to curate content for an Instagram page or website. If you have questions or would like to learn more about her work, you can contact her directly at rebecca.maceacherne@gmail.com