Patrick Carriere to deliver Feb. 8 Honors Council Lecture

BEMIDJI, Minn. (Jan. 27, 2011) — How does a culture define what is possible with art, and what accounts for true “creativity?” Patrick Carriere, assistant professor of theatre at Bemidji State University, will seek to answer these questions and determine what it means to “create from the soul” as part of the University’s Honors Council Lecture series.

Carriere’s lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8, in Hagg-Sauer Hall 107 on the Bemidji State campus.

Carriere will explore the work of Russian actor and theatre director Constantin Stanislavski, who compiled and published one of the first “systems” for developing and training actors.

“Both in theory and practice, Stanislavski maintained a real sense of the spiritual presence of the actor,” Carriere said. “This attitude allowed him to construct a paradigm that developed a mode of communication he characterized as “the umediated personal interaction, soul to soul,” to be used as a tool for actor training.”

Carriere also will explore the concept of the soul from Russia’s Silver Age, influenced by Orthodox Christianity, occult science and speculative psychology that inundated Russia’s culture of the intelligentsia at the dawn of the 20th century. Carriere will apply that concept to Stanislavski’s work published in English as “An Actor Prepares” and “Building Character.”

Carriere has worked as an actor, director, designer and fight choreographer in over 40 productions and in four different languages — Japanese, Russian, Greek and English — on three different continents. He is the director of the theatre program in Bemidji State’s Department of Humanities. His research investigates the spirituality of performance and is currently focused on the congruity between the spirituality of Stanislavski’s and Michael Chekov’s approaches to acting. He is also currently the vice chair for the Region V National Playwriting Programs for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Carriere is delivering the second of six Honors Council lectures offered as part of the Spring 2011 schedule. The Honors Council Lecture Series is hosted by the Bemidji State University Honors Council. The council is the advisory group to the Honors Program comprised of 12 faculty members from all three of the University’s colleges. Student representatives also are elected to the council by their cohorts for one-year terms.

2011 Spring Honors Council Lecture Series schedule
Feb. 8 – 7 p.m. – Patrick Carriere, theatre, “The Creative Power of the Soul in Stanislavski’s The Work of the Actor Him/Herself: Orthodox Mysticism, Mainstream Occultism, Psychology and the System in the Russian Silver Age.” Hagg-Sauer 107.
Feb. 23 – 7 p.m. – Angela Fournier, psychology, “Alchohol and the Social Network: The Psychology of College Alcohol Use and Modern Technology.” Hagg-Sauer 102.
March 15 – 7 p.m. – Susan Cook, English, “Naming Places and Displacing Names: The Counter-Imperialism of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex and Charlotte Brönte’s Villette.” Hagg-Sauer 107.
March 30 – 7 p.m. – Brian Donovan, English, “Platonic Solid: Plato’s Gorgias – 464b-465c, as a Cube.” Bridgeman 100.
April 12 – 7 p.m. – Chris Robertson, English, “Managing Apocalypse: A Cultural History of the Mormon Cricket.” Hagg-Sauer 107.
April 19 – 7 p.m. – Colleen Greer & Deb Peterson, sociology, “Caregiving ‘Talk’ and the Reproduction of Caregiving Inequalities.” Hagg-Sauer 107.

For more information about the Honors Council Lecture Series, please contact the honors program at (218) 755-3984.

FOR YOUR CALENDAR
Feb. 8
– 7 p.m. – Honors Council Lecture Series: Patrick Carriere, assistant professor of theatre, presents “ Creative Power of the Soul in Stanislavski’s The Work of the Actor Him/Herself: Orthodox Mysticism, Mainstream Occultism, Psychology and the System in the Russian Silver Age.” Location: Hagg-Sauer 107. Admission: free. Information: (218) 755-3984.

About the Honors Council
The Bemidji State University Honors Council selects participants on a competitive basis for the University’s honors program. Honors program participants have the ability and desire to engage in academic challenges extending beyond their majors and the University’s liberal education requirements. These students can participate in the Honors Program, an interdisciplinary program of study culminating in an Honors thesis or project. As members of this community, honors students collaborate with a faculty advisor and the Honors Council to plan their studies and manage the responsibilities that correspond with the program’s freedoms.