It’s the final stretch for MFA Cohort III! Having just arrived in the Czech Republic, Soo Jung and Sam McGehee speak out regarding their recent residency with Familie Flöz in Berlin, and their newly begun module with Continuo in Malovice.

Soo Jung creating her mask with Familie Flöz

Soo Jung:

You’re now embarking on the final module of your MFA journey. How does the setting of Malovice compare to Berlin?

Berlin is a big city, and obviously when we needed or wanted anything we could get it, but here in Malovice it is a different world. We cannot get much of anything reminiscent of normal city life unless we can get a ride into town. One thing to mention is that the water in Malovice is from a subterranean source and superior to Berlin water. Living in the countryside in caravans is fun yet quite rustic—only a few steps away from camping.

How would you describe your cohort’s performance, “Dinner for 11”?

It was a new experience for me. It was a collection or series of scene/vignettes that we created from improvisation and material we gathered from detailed research on an ancestor of our choice. We had three performances. Though we all felt under rehearsed in the long run it was very well received by the audience and a lot of fun!

As you move forward as an artist and performer, what will you take with you from Familie Flöz and Berlin?

Mask work is amazing, I feel now that I want to continue working with full mask and I am excited about continuing to make my own masks in the near future. I would also love to continue to study and possibly work with Flöz in the future as well. The restaurants in Berlin I most liked were Vietnamese. Something we have not been able to get in Italy.

MFA Cohort IV recently arrived in Arezzo and began classes a few days ago. What words of wisdom do you have for them?

• Make Italian connections from the Arezzo community and make Italian friends!
• Make the time to learn the language and don’t hesitate to immerse yourselves into the Arettini culture!
• Buy a bike.
• Hiking is great in the area.
• Go to the festivals. There are many in Arezzo.
• Frequent the antique shows.
• Frequent Sunflower, the best Gelateria, but know it is closed on Wednesdays.

Sam McGehee:

You’re now embarking on the final module of your MFA journey. How does the setting of Malovice compare to Berlin?

Malovice is in south Bohemia on a farm in between two very small villages with one pub. This situation suits me very much. The air and cozy feeling on the farm is very conducive to creating and the pub is a modest distraction on the weekend. It becomes more clear being here how one can live and do theatre as these become one and the same. Berlin, like lots of large cities, is exciting and has a lot of options to offer at all times. I would say it it is a place where anybody catering to their personal taste can find something special. For instance, I found and joined very quickly the experimental music scene, something that simply doesn’t exist in Malovice or Arezzo. The work there was fantastic, but I am not such a city boy…

What was most exciting thing for you about performing “Dinner for 11”? Most challenging?

Working with masks more than other forms of performance requires experience in front of an audience, in order to get a sense from the spectators what reads and what doesn’t. We got to perform three nights in a row and so it was exciting and challenging working with a new partner every night: the audience.

You’re just a few days into your work with Continuo, but how would you describe it so far? What has a typical day been like?

Typical day with Continuo… Train, train, train, the center, the impulse, the animal, train, train, train, and sometimes talk about theatre with Pavel…so far so good!

The Accademia is moving from Biennial to Annual enrollment for the MFA in Physical Theatre (i.e. we’ll now be admitting a new MFA cohort every year). One of the many new things that will come from this is two MFA cohorts will be in Arezzo at the same time. What collaborations and projects would you like to see come from this new opportunity?

I would like to see the two cohorts pool their efforts and found a juggling club at the Prato every Friday to push each other and the city of Arezzo to excel at juggling, and put Arezzo on the map!

MFA Cohort III at work in Malovice, Czech Republic
Photo Credit: Alyse Neubert