LAPA continues to organize the Theater Retreat workshops under the supervision of Arab and International theater artists. American theater artist Mandy Fox has finally finished her "Foundations in Voice" workshop. "I thank LAPA and its trainees for the warm welcome and kindness", Fox said. She added, "I hope that soon I will have the opportunity to cooperate directly with" LAPA "and not only via the Internet."
After completing the workshop, Bahraini artist Ahmed Saeed said: "The workshop completely exceeded expectations. Workshops at Zoom are challenging, and their success is not easy as they require patience, cohesion, and constant communication with the trainees. Training with Mandy Fox was so successful that I personally learned a lot and really enjoyed it". And he continued, "As a professional actor, I believe it is important to understand the basics of this profession.
As a self-taught actor, I have worked all my life on research and physical exercise. And this workshop proved that there are unlimited possibilities for Voice development after Fox excelled at teaching us this. Moreover, we not only learned to warm up efficiently, but also to prepare, understand and connect our physical tools; Body, limbs, muscles, lungs and back, all the way to effective breathing techniques that open the whole body through vibrations.
The possibility of our body and mind playing a specific role becomes greater through "thinking with breathing" techniques that increase the ability to express with sound in the simplest way. These simple techniques if remembered can be very helpful to the actor". Saeed concluded by saying: "I thank Mandy Fox and LAPA for this wonderful opportunity, and I am sure that these contributions will add a lot to the artist community and will definitely create artistic enlightenment as it did for me in these four consecutive days".
From Kuwait, the artist Farah Al-Hajli said: "what is distinctive about this workshop is that it was not routine, as it was based on understanding what is required of the voice and employing it and training it on that. The workshop increased my knowledge and understanding of vocal performance and how to warm up the sound in various ways that combine it with the mind and body to achieve the required safely and thoughtfully".
Artist Abdul-Malik Al-Shizawi from the Sultanate of Oman said: "The voice is one of the important elements of theater work. The workshop was useful, and I benefited greatly on the personal level. I learned many of the ways and methods that we benefit from in the theater and in our daily life situations. I would like to thank the instructor Mandy for this opportunity, and I wish the workshop had been longer so that we could learn more and more. Thanks also to LAPA for this opportunity".
The designer, Hessa Al-Abbad, said: "The workshop was smooth and unique, in which I learned a lot on the practical level, and I hope in the future to employ what I learned in self-development".