After a Year with a Master
Nahuel Perez Biscayart Talks about His Year as a Rolex Protégé
What is the single most important thing you have learned through working with Kate Valk and The Wooster Group?
It’s hard to mention only a single one. The experience has been more about enjoying the distance from my country, learning by understanding the contrasts, living the daily life in the theatre, rather than learning specific subjects. I’m sure everything is swirling around and finding their own places in my brain. I could mention the collaborative way The Wooster Group works, their persistent and consistent daily work. That taught me that inspiration comes as a result of producing, trying, failing and finding the beauty in accidents.
Is there anything you have learned that you can take into your film and television work as well?
Yes, definitely -- the task-oriented way of approaching the work. The fact that doing performance art is related to image composition, as well as the individual emotional experience. Kate could either be the star of the show, or be among a bunch of guys shadowing the images in the monitors, putting her sounds into the music of the opera, and still you can tell she is a part of a huge thing. She’s surrounded by people who are working towards something to which she also belongs.
The Group's working process is very collaborative. Besides acting, did the mentorship teach you about anything else -- design, directing – that you'll bring into your own future art?
I’m not aware of anything specific I might include in my future works. Of course I’ve learnt specific ways of dealing with certain things on stage, different ways of approaching the activity, aesthetic decisions you can take. But most of all I’m so happy I could be an observer, learning the minimal decisions that build the whole, perceiving what the actors might be feeling while on stage and then finding out what they were actually going through. I feel I’ve had intensive eye training that will be useful for when I direct. Knowing the overall craft makes you, as an actor, feel assured that the art of performance is not only an individual process. Sometimes it’s about negotiating with others towards a common goal.
About the partnership and Kate Valk's work with you -- has it made you want to share your experience and lessons with your peers and younger people starting out? Can you see yourself one day as a mentor yourself?
Partnership! You said it, thanks for the word. I don’t really think of a "mentor and protégé" relationship when I’m with Kate. We are two people in a certain part of the world spending time together….I share my experience with everyone interested in hearing about it, whether they’re younger, older, just starting out, finishing, bored or actively alert. We’re all able to share our experience as long as there’s something to tell and someone listening. Kate and I have been mentor and protégé and vice versa. The roles disappear when there’s a true exchange and interaction. To me, learning implies exchange.
What would be your single piece of advice for any potential protégés entering the programme?
Make the adventure yours and enjoy.