Vol. 13 No.2

VASTA

The Lessac Institute

Gets ready For the new millennium!

by Marth Munro

Arthur Lessac, recipient of the 1998 ATHE Lifetime Achievement Award, lives for the future! Arthur has always proclaimed that the Lessac System as a Bio- dynamic Approach to Vocal Life is an evolving, growing system which should never stagnate. By initiating the first Lessac Conference, Arthur has proved that this body of knowledge belongs to the people who are teaching, learning, living, breathing it, and not to the man himself who has developed it.

In the picturesque town of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, on 12-14 of June 1998, people who have a passion for this work got together to plan, share and grow. Arthur was there, so was Sue-Ann Park, to encourage, to seek and not to preach. They reveled in the evolution of the work. It was revolutionary to listen how other people have been using the Lessac System. The work, as it investigates the essence of kinesensic development, allows people to come to it from diverse paradigms, apply it in various different situations, various combinations with other systems, and still be honest to the work itself.

This Conference was organized by Nancy Krebs with help from Fred Nelson. The people who attended were teachers and performers from across America and abroad. The aim of this Conference was to get the Lessac "house" streamlined for the next millennium. And streamlined it got: An organizational board was set up. The people serving on this board are: Erica Tobolski (chair), Arthur Lessac, Yanci Bukovec (International), Richard Cuyler, Diane Gaary, Anne-Marie Jodoin, Ruth McKenney, Dorothy Mennen, Marth Munro (International), Fred Nelson, Maryane Vandivier and Kitty Verdolini (Research). The immediate purpose of this board is to set up by-laws and get the Lessac Institute of Voice and Body Training to function as a legal organization. After that their job will focus in Communicationãyou can already visit the Lessac Institute at its website: http :llartemis. austinc. edu/lessac/lessachome.html. The website director is Kathleen Campbell. In specific terms their job will be to market the Lessac work, to set up conferences, and to establish workshops in conjunction with the Mentor Board. The organizational board will also encourage Research programs which will be focused on three different levels: Application, Internalization and Verification. On the historical side, a decision has already been made to collect all the archival material that exists about the work. Arthur, as well as some of the earlier teachers, has a lot of unpublished articles, research projects, video and audio tapes. Anne-Marie Jodoin will head this project. Some graduate students who want to become Certified Lessac Teachers will be involved.

A Mentor Board has been set-up. People on this board are: Barry Kur (Chair), Sue-Ann Park, Kathleen Campbell, Saundra Cuyler, Debra Kinghorn, Nancy Krebs and Kathy Dunn Mancuso. This board will serve as the teacher certification granting body of the Lessac Institute. They have composed an application procedure which is outlined below, and currently available on the website or by contacting Barry Kur.

In the future, the Institute will work to extend workshop offerings creating more diverse means of training. The consensus at the conference at Swarthmore indicated a desire to make the Lessac work more accessible to students in North America and abroad.

Lessac Institute Teacher Certification Procedures

By Barry Kur

The Board of Mentors of the Lessac Institute of Voice and Body Training has adopted formal procedures for Lessac Teacher Certification. At this time, the procedures are based upon study at the current Lessac Intensive Workshops held each summer (Summer 1999 at SUNY Fredondia, June 14-July 16). In the future, equivalent venues of intensive study may be applied.

After completion of one intensive workshop, a candidate may apply for certification. With the appropriate recommendations from the workshop teachers, the candidate will be accepted and a mentor will be appointed to assist the candidate through the remaining procedures which should be completed within a two to four year period.

During this period, a certification dossier will be completed for each candidate which will include correspondence between the Mentor and the Candidate, record of successful completion of a second intensive workshop, record of successful completion of a written/ vocal exam administered at the end of the second workshop, a minimum of six months teaching, record of on-site observation of teaching by members of the Board of Mentors, record of completion of two field related college courses taken during this certification period and a final assessment report by the Board of Mentors.

The new Lessac Website offers these procedures in detail including the application form and a suggested time line. The website address is: http://artemis.austinc.edu/lessac/lessachome.html.

You may also receive this information from the current chair of the Board of Mentors, Barry Kur at Penn State University, School of Theatre, 103 Arts Blg., University Park, PA 16802.

VASTA'S INTERNATIONAL VOICE CONFERENCE

'"GLOBAL VOICES"

WASHINGTON, D.C. AUGUST 6-9 2000

Hosted by George Mason University
Conference Planner: Barbara Acker
Assistants: Dorothy Runk Mennen Carolyn Blackinton
On site: Naomi Frenkel

Plan to attend and listen to Moices Around the World!