Please note: Under productions there are still bits & parts of this webpage under construction ...

Productions for 2012 ...

The Echo Chamber 27-28 January; 2-4 February 2012 Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff please click to download poster and/or flyer. See trailer one below.

Trailer One - Warming Up from Kaite O'Reilly on Vimeo.

Told by the Wind available for touring 2012/2013 Last performance on tour to Chicago, USA, May 2011 Click here for information about Told by the Wind

The Beckett Project available for touring 2012/2013 Phillip Zarrilli in Act Without Words I Patricia Boyette in Rockaby Click here for information about The Beckett Project

Forthcoming workshops ...

Summer Intensive Training in Wales 2012:
Beginner's Intensive:
1-10 July, 2012
in Malta (see below).

Intermediate & Advanced Intensive:
14-28 July, 2012
at Tyn-y-Parc Studio in Llanarth, Wales, UK.

Precise schedule to be provided later.
The two week intensive will, if possible, include a trip to Cardiff to see the premiere of Kaite O'Reilly's In Water I'm Weightless with National Theatre Wales—at the Millenium Centre.

As part of a residency by THE LLANARTH GROUP at the Malta Arts Festival 2012, we are pleased to announce the following beginner's workshop: "MAKING THE BODY ALL EYES" Body, breath, activation and performance Intensive beginner's workshop: from 1-9 July, 2012 in MALTA

Overview: This workshop introduces participants to a psychophysical paradigm and approach to awakening the actor's bodymind for performance. It focuses on developing the contemporary actor's interiority, i.e., how the actor might discover, awaken, shape, understand, and deploy 'energy', awareness, focus/concentration, and feeling to the 'matter' of performance—the impulses, structure, contours, and texture of the tasks or actions that constitute a specific performance score shaped by particular dramaturgies.

The workshop begins with pre-performative psychophysical training to prepare and awaken the bodymind through Asian martial/meditation arts--Chinese taiqiquan, Indian yoga, and the closely related martial art, kalarippayattu. Bodymind connections are practically elabored through the exercises as are a sense of activation through breath in movement, the development of focus/concentration, circulation of energy through the body and awakening the bodymind to partners, ensemble, and the performance environment.

Over long-term practice, this work ideally enables participants' bodies to 'become all eyes', i.e. to develop an intuitive awareness necessary for performance.
The first few days will concentrate on basic psychophysical training through repetition of exercises and introduction of underlying principles.
We then begin to 'apply' a few of the principles-in-practice through structured improvisations—exercises in which the elements and principles of the psychophysical training are applied to exercises that start to looking like performances.
During the final part of the workshop, participants will begin to explore application of the principles and techniques of training to some of Beckett's later dramas.
A full schedule will be announced as soon as possible, along with costs, information on local accommodation, travel, etc.

The workshop will be led by Phillip Zarrilli, assisted daily by long-term practitioner/teacher/performer Jeungsook Yoo (Korea/UK). Workshop participants will also receive input from long-term Beckett collaborators, Patricia Boyette and Andy Crook, as they are available in and around rehearsals and performances.


Publications ...
Psychophysical Acting: an intercultural approach after Stanislavski has been selected as the recipient of the 2010 ATHE Outstanding Book Award. Jonathan Chambers, Chair of the Review Committee said: "we found your melding of scholarly, artistic, and pedagogical concerns to be incredibly useful. We are certain that your study will find a wide and welcoming audience."
The award will be made on August 3, 2010 at the ATHE Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles.

Psychophysical Acting: an intercultural approach after Stanislavski
Zarrilli’s long-awaited book on the process of training actors through a psychophysical approach based on Asian martial arts and yoga will be published in September, 2008 by Routledge Press (London). The book will include a DVD-ROM by Peter Hulton.



THEATRE TOPICS (19, #2, 2009: p. 223), review by Keven McFillen.
Psychophysical Acting is "a powerful tool for those interested in exploring the theory, philosophy, and practice of methods of psychophysical acting. The detailed case studies by themselves should warrant critical attention for the volume from theatre scholars and practitioners alike, and accompanied by both Zarrilli's insights into teaching and practice of psychophysical acting and the supplementary materials provided by the DVD-ROM, the volume as a whole is an immediate, important, and vital addition to discourses on psychophysical theory and practice in performance."

NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY (25, #3, 2009: p. 296), review by Sarah Gorman.
Psychophysical Acting "...provides a detailed and fascinating insight into the potential benefit of psychophysical training for the contemporary actor...[It will] appeal to a wide range of readers...Each case study provides a detailed and simulating overview of the production and an insight into how Zarrilli implemented his chosen techniques in rehearsal. The introductions to The Beckett Project and 4:48 Psychosis in particular, provide an insightful and intelligent way of contextualizing what is important and difficult about the work of Samuel Beckett and Sarah Kane."



2008 “ Embodying Imagining and Performing Displacement and Trauma in Central Europe Today”
in Theatre Quarterly Review, Volume 24, Issue 01, Feb 2008, pp 24-40, ed. Maria Shevtsova, Simon Trussler. Cambridge University Press .




Recent production ...
The World Premiere of Kaite O’Reilly’s
The Almond and the Seahorse
Phillip Zarrilli directed the world premiere of Kaite O’Reilly’s most recent play, The Almond and the Seahorse, at Sherman-Cymru Theatre (Cardiff and on tour). The production previewed February 29, ran until March 15, and then is on toured Wales and England.
See the video-trailer, photographs (coming soon), and production reviews.

“Unmissable drama...Tremendous... extraordinary scenarios are tenderly drawn and powerfully realised in Phillip Zarrilli's beautifully judged production." ***** The Guardian

“A powerful drama, beautifully written…Phillip Zarrilli's insightful direction ensures that the performances have absolute authenticity.”
The British Theatre Guide

“A fascinating work, totally engaging… The cast is faultless, giving impeccable performances, sympathetically given and true.”
**** Western Mail

“…Wonderful…a masterly and captivating performance…writing with such sensitive beauty and delicate understanding….what real theatre is all about.”
Michael Kelligan Theatre Wales website

For Gwennan, it’s always 1985. The face in the mirror is unfamiliar and there’s a strange man at the door claiming to be her husband. Joe’s past is coming undone and his partner, Sarah, fears she will be forgotten. What happens when you’re ambushed by time – your memories deleting, relationships erasing?
The play focuses on those who have survived Traumatic Brain Injury, informed by a Disability perspective.

Korean Production of 4:48 Psychosis opens in Seoul
Phillip Zarrilli was in residence at KNUA in Seoul, Korea from early March through mid May. He taught his psychophysical approach to acting, applied to directing a new translation of Sarah Kane's 4:48 Psychosis. The production had six performances, May 15-17, 2008.




Also ...
Resident Fellow in Berlin: Phillip Zarrilli has been invited to become a resident Fellow for a major new research project on intercultural theatre (“Interweaving Theatre Cultures”) at the Institute for Theatre Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, led by Professor Erika Fischer-Lichte. The project begins in 2008-09. Zarrilli will be a resident in Berlin for two or three substantive periods between 2010-11.