BIO:
Alyssa Ravenwood is a physical theater artist and mask designer. Her masks have been seen in productions and used as drama training tools in the United States, Norway, Japan, South Korea, England and France.

Alyssa began performing in regional theaters as a teenager. As a member of the Pacific Art Center Theatre Company in Arcata, California, she was encouraged to try every facet of theatrical production. Opportunities opened for Alyssa as a designer and a director that set the stage for her professional career. While performing the role of Cat in a production of The Blue Bird in 1988, Alyssa was also asked by the director to design masks for the show. Mask-making came naturally to the daughter of visual artists who created elaborate costumes each Halloween.

Love of physical theater led Alyssa to intensive studies in Commedia Dell’Arte, corporeal mime, clown and mask performance at the Dell’Arte School in Blue Lake, California, from which she graduated in 1992. She further advanced her skills in master classes with Sue Morrison, Ole Brekke, Ping Chong, and Scott Kelman.

With numerous directing credits to her name including Scapin, Reckless, Parallel Lives, and Marvin’s Room, Alyssa wrote and directed Orlando Eats Children with Wine as well. She is now developing her own company, the Ravenwood Performance Group. Award-winning director, teacher, mask designer, and actor, Alyssa Ravenwood brings the dynamic and specialized art of physical theater to today’s stage. Her productions inspire the actors she directs in clowning, mime, slapstick, and mask technique, and the audiences who delight in watching a unique theatrical experience.

Alyssa consistently receives rave reviews for her workshops. The physical theater and mask technique expert works on location to share her knowledge with actors, producers, directors, and school-age children. She innovated her popular Physical Theater Boot Camp ™, individualized to the needs of each production, to provide actors with the necessary training to achieve excellent “in the moment” results.

Her mask designs have been awarded the Portland Drama Critics Drammy Award and she is a two time winner of the Best Performance Mask Award from the Ink People Center for the Arts Maskibition. Ravenwood Mask Studio is located at the Brewery Arts Complex in Los Angeles, California.

- Ellen Seiden

 

ARTIST STATEMENT :
I see faces in everything, in the folds of a curtain, in a pile of rocks. Shapes and shadows transform into eyes, a nose, a mouth. As a sculptor I am fascinated with faces. Simply changing the tilt of an eyebrow can radically change the feeling of a sculpture :

A face can be exaggerated, distorted or reduced to it's simplest form and still be recognizable as a face. When you are sculpting a face you are speaking in a visual language that everyone can understand.

I work as a physical theatre director and educator. I enjoy introducing people to mask performance for the first time. Performing in mask ignites a fire in people and I love seeing that fire light in their eyes when they tell me how much fun they had working in mask.

People talk about masks as a method to hide or disguise. I believe the opposite, that wearing a mask is a way to reveal parts of yourself that are hidden behind your everyday face. Masks create an opportunity to explore our sense of self in a new way and release hidden qualities.

– Alyssa Ravenwood