The master teacher and craftsman leads a mask intensive

Torborjn Alstrom has worked as an actor, instructor and maskmaker in USA and Scandinavia since 1985. In USA with San Diego Repertory Theatre and Dell’Arte Players Company, in Sweden with a number of theatre groups. As a teacher he has worked regularly at the National School of Theatre and Music in Gothenburg and led workshops at the Dramatic Institute in Stockholm.

This fall Torbjorn joined the students for an intensive in leather mask making and half mask performance workshop. Torbjorn’s method allows students to conceive, sculpt and mould their masks in such a way that the result is a well-made leather mask ( very individual versions of the Commedia traditional masks), eminently suitable for studio and in some cases performance work. A considerable achievement in only a 10 day period.

Twinned with the mask-making, Torbjorn facilitated a series of labs where students played with masks made in wood and drum skin, discovering how voice and mask can compliment, contrast and counterpoint each other. In a final presentation of their work in the Accademia, students used the mask they personally had constructed, enabling them to understand how their mask works when exposed to audience reaction.

This Fall he led the MFA students in a leather mask making and performance intensive. Over the course of

Torbjorn has taught at the University of North Carolina, University of South Carolina, Colombia and University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale. He has given lectures and performed at the 1st National Conference on masked theatre in IOWA 2001, SETC- Chattanooga 2003, and the International Conference on Masks and Transformation, Illinois 2005. He has also been invited to show masks at WSD-05 in Toronto, Canada.

Learn more about Torbjorn’s work at www.artmask.com