Overview
It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of our dear colleague Phillip Zarrilli in April 2020.
Celebrations of his life and work have appeared across the world.
Phillip Zarrilli was appointed Professor of Drama in 2000. As the faculty expanded, and other professors were appointed, Zarrilli's title was altered to Professor of Performance Practice to better reflect his extensive experience and research in intercultural performance and contemporary acting practice. In 2013 Zarrilli became Emeritus Professor of Performance Practice. Prior to joining the faculty at Exeter, he was Professor of Theatre, Folklore, and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for many years. He also taught at U.C.L.A., Northwestern, N.Y.U, and the University of Surrey.
Zarrilli was internationally known as a director, actor, and actor trainer. He developed a unique, intensive pre-performative process for training actors which combines form training selected from the practices of yoga and Asian martial arts—kalarippayattu from Kerala, India, and taiqiquan Wu style from China. He taught this pre-performative process of training actors at his private studio in Wales, and throughout the world, at the Intercultural Theatre Institute (Singapore) and the Norwegian Theatre Academy. Other residencies included the Lyceum (Athens/Epidavros Festival, Greece), Taipei Arts Festival, the BEYOND Intercultural dance festival/programme (ICK Amsterdam), Malta Arts Festival, Pas de Dieux Physical Theatre (Paris), Escrita na Paisagam Festival (Evora, Portugal), BITE Festival (USA), KNUA (Seoul, Korea). His book about this process of training, Psychophysical Acting: an intercultural approach after Stanislavski (Routledge Press, 2009) received the 2010 ATHE Outstanding Book of the Year Award at the ATHE convention in Los Angeles, August, 2010. The book was published in Mandarin translation as part of Zarrilli’s residency as a guest director at the 2014 Taipei Arts Festival. His training is also featured in the Practitioner series as part of the Routledge Digital Archive.
THE LLANARTH GROUP
When he moved to the UK in 2000, he established THE LLANARTH GROUP and the Tyn y parc CVN Kalari/Studio in West Wales. The Llanarth Group is an association of theatre/performance artists dedicated to producing international theatre of the highest quality through in-depth psychophysical training of actors from all cultures. Each production brought together a specific group of collaborators relevant to the aesthetic of a specific project. Small scale collaborations and new work were developed, rehearsed, and shared with local audiences (in preview free of charge) at the Ty’n y parc studio in West Wales. The work was created for audiences in Wales, the UK and beyond, and invited intercultural sharing of techniques, approaches to, and aesthetics of performance. Kaite O'Reilly is resident dramaturg.
The work of The Llanarth Group includes productions across a wide variety of aesthetics and dramaturgies, including:
2018 richard III redux OR Sara Beer [IS/NOT] Richard III, co-written with Kaite O’Reilly, Directed by Phillip Zarrilli, featuring Sara Beer. World premiere, March, 2018 and on tour in Wales, and on tour to Germany.
2018 And Suddenly I Disappear: The Singapore/UK ‘d’ Monologues by Kaite O’Reilly, Directed by Phillip Zarrilli, co-produced with Access-Pathways Productions (Singapore)—a Kaite O’Reilly Unlimited International commission.
2016: World premiere of Kaite O’Reilly’s Cosy. An Unlimited production in association with Wales Millennium Centre. Premiere: 08 March, with a tour of Wales.
2015 playing ‘the maids’: a creative response to Jean Genet’s the Maids, this entirely new co-created work is co-created with Gaitkrash (Ireland), Theatre P’yut (Korea) and two independent artists. Premiered at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. Funded by Arts Council of Wales. Features four performers who are Exeter graduates including Jeungsook Yoo, Sunhee Kim, Jing Hong Okorn-Kuo, and Bernadette Cronin, as well as current faculty member, Adrian Curtin. Directed by Phillip Zarrilli. Dramaturg: Kaite O’Reilly
2012 The Echo Chamber: co-created by Kaite O’Reilly, Ian Morgan, Peader Kirk, and Phillip Zarrilli with Arts Council of Wales funding. Premiered at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff. [Youtube]
2010-2016 Told by the Wind: East Asian inspired work co-created by Kaite O’Reilly, Jo Shapland, and Phillip Zarrilli with funding from Arts Council of Wales and AHRC. Previewed at Evora Festival Portugal (2009) and has toured to Berlin, Chicago, Wroclaw, and most recently in 2013 to Tokyo Theatre Babylon. [Vimeo].
2010 The Evora Books: a library of hands: commissioned by Escrita na Paisagem Festival de Performance e Artes da Terra, Evora, Portugal (curated by Jose Alberto Ferreira). Co-created by Phillip Zarrilli and Kaite O’Reilly. A site-specific performance at the Evora Library Reading Room.
2000-2012 The Beckett Project: productions of eight of Beckett’s 20 plays from 2000. Most recently: Play+ at Cork Opera House; Happy Days and 4shorts: on invitation of the Malta Arts Festival, 2012).
OTHER INTERNATIONAL WORK AS A DIRECTOR
2018: Beckett’s Footfalls and Play The National Theatre, Costa Rica, and in 2017 with The National Theatre Company, Costa Rica.
2015: Directed a major new production of Ota Shogo’s The Water Station with an international cast. Nordland Teater and on tour in Norway. Premiered 24 September.
2014 (and 2016) Invited Guest Director to the Taipei Arts Festival. Directed the world premiere of Kaite O’Reilly’s the 9 fridas with Mobius Strip Theatre in association with Hong Kong Rep. In October 2016 the production was re-rehearsed and performed at the Hong Kong Rep as part of the International Black Box Festival.
2010-2011: ...sweet...dry...bitter...plaintive' (Corpo-realities commission, 2010, also performed at the Manchester DECIBEL Festival, 2011). A Sankalpam production performanced at Laban Theatre, London, and on national tour throughout the UK.
2006: 4:48 Psychosis at KNUA (Seoul, Korea).
2004: The Dance of The Drunken Monk. A Sankalpam performed at the Percell Room, South Bank Centre, and on UK national tour.
1999-2008: Collaborations with bharatanatyam choreographers/dancer, Gitanjali Kolanad: Walking Naked and The Flowering Tree with Gitanjali Kolanad, 1999-2008 [premieres in Chennai, performances inToronto, UK, and world-wide].
2004 & 2008: Directed The Water Station and Attempts on her life in Singapore at Esplanade Theatres on the Bay for TTRP/ITI.
RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS
'[Toward] a Phenomenology of acting'. This new book will further his considerations of acting/performance from phenomenological perspectives, also informed by dynamic systems theory of cognitive science.
Co-edited with T. Sasitharan and Anuradha Kapur, ‘Intercultural Acting and Actor/Performer Training’. An expanded version of the 2017 special issue of TDPT with the same title.
2010-2018 In 2010 Zarrilli was invited to join The International Research Institute, ‘Interweaving Performance Cultures’ at Freie Universitat, Berlin, as a Fellow. Since 2010 he has been resident in Berlin annually or bi-annually between one and three months. In 2012 he worked with the IRC on co-planning two international symposia on ‘Actor Training: Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives’—the first at ITI in Singapore in 2012, and the 2nd in Berlin later in 2013.
Research
Principal Research Interests: Actor/performer training and practice; non-western and intercultural performance; performance theory; directing. Phenomenologies of acting/performance.
Practice-led productions:
- playing ‘the maids’: collaborative production between The Llanarth Group (Phillip Zarrilli, director; Kaite O’Reilly dramaturg) and Theatre P’yut (Seoul), and Gaitkrash (Cork, Ireland). Arts Council of Wales Theatre Development funded work-in-progress, August-September, 2013 toward a future full performance on tour.
- Told by the Wind: a Llanarth Group production co-created by Kaite O’Reilly, Jo Shapland and Phillip Zarrilli with initial Arts Council of Wales and AHRC funding. Preview: Evora, Portugal (2009); premiere run Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff, 2010); performances on tour between 2010-2013: Berlin, Wroclaw (Poland, Grotowski Institute), Chicago (Dance Center), Theatre Babylon Tokyo (with funding from WAI, DAIWA).
- The Echo Chamber: a Llanarth Group production co-created by Kaite O’Reilly, Peader Kirk, Ian Morgan, and Phillip Zarrilli (Arts Council of Wales funding), work-in-progress performances at Chapter Arts Centre (January, 2012).
- ‘…sweet…dry…bitter…plaintive…’ part of Corpo-realities commission, Sankalpam. Director: Phillip Zarrilli. UK Tour with ACE funding including performances at The Laban Centre Theatre, London, and part of decibel Festival Manchester, 2010.
- The Almond and the Seahorse by Kaite O’Reilly. World premiere (Sherman Cymru, Cardiff) and UK national Tour. March-April, 2008. Directed by Phillip Zarrilli
- 4:48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane. KNUA: Seoul, Korea: new translation by Yoo Jeungsook.
- Attempts on her Life by Martin Crimp. Singapore premiere. Esplanade Theatre Studio: TTRP production, August-September, 2007.
- The Beckett Project (with Patricia Boyette and Peader Kirk): opened Grove Theater, Los Angeles, April 1999 followed by UK performances, April, 2000, performances at Granary Theatre (Cork, Ireland), 2004; Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore (August, 2006); Gilbert Hemsley Theatre, Madison, Wisconsin USA (September, 2006); on tour USA 2009. At the Malta Arts Festival 2012 with performances of Ohio Impromptu, Not I, Act Without Words I, Rockaby, Happy Days.
- An Evening of Beckett with Theatre Asou: Graz, Austria, 1999.
- The Flowering Tree with Gitanjali Kolanad, opened May, 2006, Toronto Canada. Currently on tour.
- Die Zofen with Theatre Asou, Graz, Austria, September, 2005.
- The Water Station by Ota Shogo. Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, Singapore, with TTRP, August, 2004.
- Speaking Stones with Theatre Asou, Graz, Austria, premiered 2002. 2nd staging Aflenz, 2002. English Premiere 2003 Wroclaw, Poland, sponsored by the Grotowski Centre.
- Walking Naked with Gitanjali Kolanad opened Museum Theatre, Chinnai, India 1999 toured extensively internationally including the U.S., Canada, Korea and the UK.
