The Resonating Actor: From Physical Impulse to Theatrical Action

How can the body and music lead us towards unexpected theatrical discoveries?

The Resonating Actor is a two-day practical acting workshop exploring what physical and musical experience can bring to theatrical performance. Through movement, improvisation and play, we investigate how the body and music can open up possibilities for action, imagination and dramatic meaning.

We begin by developing openness and receptivity: listening to space, to ourselves and to other performers, while loosening the hold of habitual physical responses. We explore different energies, rhythms and physical states, allowing unexpected gestures, intentions and relationships to emerge. These discoveries can enrich work with a script just as much as improvisation or devised performance.

Music is an active force in this work, not simply accompaniment or a way to make movement more expressive. It has its own rhythms, energies and direction. It can hold us in a moment we might otherwise rush through, carry an impulse further than we would ordinarily allow, or alter the timing and stakes of an encounter. We can follow it, resist it or play against it. In responding, we experience theatrical possibilities we might not have discovered on our own.

What happens when the music stops? The aim is not to reproduce its rhythm or intensity, but to discover what remains available to us: the capacity to stay engaged with a moment, to follow an impulse beyond our first response, and to make more imaginative and precise choices. How can a change in timing, energy or the use of space transform a simple dramatic encounter? How does the body communicate, and how can we become more sensitive to the theatre taking shape before us?

Over two days, we explore how physical and imaginative discoveries can inform gesture, intention, relationships and theatrical situations. The work is rigorous and playful: an invitation to enjoy the freedom of exploration while discovering how that freedom can become theatrically specific.

Who the workshop is for

For professional and emerging actors, singers and theatre-makers, including students in professional performance training. No previous physical theatre or musical training is required. This is an acting workshop, not a singing workshop. Participants should be comfortable engaging in physical exploration, improvisation and ensemble work.

Practical information

Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 February 2027

10am - 5pm each day, including a one-hour lunch break

ReadyMade Works · Ultimo, Sydney

Standard $330  |  Student $280

Maximum 16 participants

About Mitch Riley

Mitch Riley is a Sydney-based performer, theatre-maker and educator working across opera, physical theatre and devised performance. He trained at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School, with further training in clowning and object theatre. His work explores how music, movement, imagination and collaboration can generate theatrical expression. He has worked extensively with Sydney Chamber Opera and with artists and ensembles in Australia and Europe.