Zen Zen Zen Theatre

1. ZEN ZEN ZO
Making Theatre Then and Now
TH5611 Lighting Design
Sarah Lawler
11/10/15

2. Who are they?
• ZEN ZEN ZO is a Brisbane-
based physical theatre
company in Australia.
• Founded by Lynne Bradley
& Simon Woods in 1992.
• Zen Zen Zo has created
over 50 new
productions ranging from
radical reinterpretations of
the classics to innovative
self-devised works.

3. Simon Woods - Visual
• SIMON WOODS co-founded Zen Zen Zo with Lynne Bradley in 1992.
• From 2011-2015 Simon worked as a Producer at the Queensland Performing Arts
Centre (QPAC) and Brisbane Powerhouse delivering productions and festivals across
all genres.
• Simon directed over 20 productions for Zen Zen Zo, including the multiple award-
winning Macbeth: As Told by the Weird Sisters (Brisbane, Townsville, Singapore 98-
02), The Cult of Dionysus (Japan 94, Brisbane Festival 96), Sub-Con Warrior 2.0(08),
The Odyssey (QPAC 04), and The Man Who Sold the World (Brisbane Festival 2000).
• Simon is one of Australia’s leading instructors in the Suzuki Actor Training Method.
• Over 15 years of teaching and directing, Simon has also run numerous Suzuki Actor
Training programs in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada. As well as leading
ongoing training with Zen Zen Zo.
• Simon received First Class Honours in Drama at QUT (1996) and was awarded anAPA
Research Scholarship in 1997.
• He received a Master of Arts in Drama (UQ) in 2006 for research on the application
of the Suzuki Method for Western performers.
• In 1998 he was a recipient of the Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor’s Performing
Arts Fellowship to continue practical training in Japan then studied the Suzuki
Method, Viewpoints and Composition with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company. Simon
again attended the International Masterclass with the Suzuki Company of Toga in
Japan in 2007.
• In addition to training performers at Zen Zen Zo, Simon was on staff in the
Strength and Conditioning Department of the Brisbane Lions Football Club under
Leigh Matthews developing programs in flexibility, core strength and mental skills
from 2001-2008.

4. Lynne Bradley - Physical
• Has worked as a director, choreographer, performer and actor-trainer in Brisbane and abroad for the past
25 years.
• In 1992 she founded Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre with Simon Woods, and has spent the past two decades
building Zen Zen Zo into an internationally renowned performance and training centre.
• Lynne is currently involved in two major intercultural exchanges with world-renowned Butoh company
Dairakudakan in Japan, and the International Schools throughout Asia.
• As a director, choreographer and performer, Lynne has won a number of awards, including most recently
Matilda Awards for Cabaret (Best Musical), and The Tempest (Best Independent Production). Zeitgeist was
also short-listed for a prestigious Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009.
• After 20 years as Artistic Director, Lynne has recently moved into the role of Training Centre Director of
Zen Zen Zo.
• Lynne is also a principal instructor specializing in movement and physical theatre, and has founded all of
Zen Zen Zo’s flagship training programs, including Stomping Ground, Company Internship and The Actor’s
Dojo.
• Her training includes the Suzuki Method, Noh, Nihon Buyo and Butoh, which she studied.
• In 1998 she received a scholarship to study the Viewpoints with Anne Bogart and the SITI company in New
York, and she and Simon Woods subsequently became the first teachers of this actor training method in
Australia.
• She is also a qualified teacher of Ashtanga Yoga (1st series). Lynne received a first-class Honours degree
from the University of Queensland, is currently completing her PhD on Physical Theatre in Australia, and
lecturers regularly in Australian universities around the country.
• She also leads many of Zen Zen Zo’s courses and classes in the Brisbane and Melbourne Training Centres,
where she mentors over 50 students each year.

5. Butoh Dance
• is a form of Japanese dance
theatre.
• The art form is known to "resist
fixity“ and be difficult to
define.
• Common features of the art
form include playful and
grotesque imagery, taboo
topics, extreme or absurd
environments, and it is
traditionally performed in white
body makeup with slow hyper-
controlled motion.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ms7
MGs2Nh8

6. Noh Theatre
• Noh is often based on tales from
traditional literature with a
supernatural being transformed into
human form as a hero narrating a
story.
• Noh integrates masks, costumes and
various props in a dance-based
performance, requiring highly trained
actors and musicians.
• Emotions are primarily conveyed by
stylized conventional gestures while
the iconic masks represent the roles
such as ghosts, women, children, and
old people. • https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=blOzH842IYg

7. Who are they? Cont.
• Zen Zen Zo’s aesthetic was forged between the ancient Asian
dance-theatre traditions, the European avant-garde theatre
movement, and contemporary pop culture, where sound, light,
movement and spectacle communicate meaning and experience.
• Zen Zen Zo believes in a theatre of contact, in which the
relationship between the actors and the audience is at
once intimate and shocking, compelling and confrontational,
ritualistic and profane.

8. First Production
• 1992 – Never the Elephant (loose translation of Zen Zen Zo)
• After debuting with the production Never the Elephant the
company went on to produce Galileo , The Zoo Story and The Way
of Mud (presented as a part of the 1993 Brisbane Fringe Festival).
• Between 1993 and 1995 the company relocated to Kyoto, Japan,
where we participated in a cross-cultural collaboration with local
Japanese artists resulting in two large-scale bilingual productions,
The Cult of Dionysus and Macbeth: As Told by the Weird Sisters .
This period was critical in establishing the company's key aesthetic
philosophies and training methodologies.

9. First International Tour
• Macbeth: As Told by the Weird Sisters
• Originally a bilingual work created in Japan in
1995Remounted in Brisbane in 1998, 1999 and
again in 2002 at QPAC, the show then toured
internationally, headlining the Singapore Youth
Festival.
• Featuring a chorus of 8 witches, this promenade
production plunged the audience into the midst of
Macbeth's increasing madness, sweeping them up
(literally) into the action.
• This was the first of many Zen Zen Zo shows to
intimately explore the actor-audience relationship
using the promenade convention of allowing the
viewers to move around the space.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxmY
leDhI6M

10. Production Highlights
• The Odyssey , which went on
to win 3 Matilda Awards.
• 2006 and 2007 brought the
large-scale promenade
performances of Sub Con
Warrior 1 (my personal
favorite) and the Matilda
Award-nominated production
Dracula , both playing to
sold-out houses.
• Sub Con
• https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=_JeFnBa4VW8

11. Sample of Script - The Tempest
• https://australianplays.org/script/PL-179/extract

12. Performances 2015
• Unfortunately, due to government funding cuts, there are no
performances in 2015.
• Also, Zen Zen Zo is currently working on their production gallery
page. So photos from previous productions are hard to come by.

13. Stomping Ground Summer School
• 2014 will mark Stomping Ground's
16th year.
• The aim of the program is to
introduce artists to a range of
physical theatre disciplines including
Zen Zen Zo's specialty areas of the
Suzuki Method, Butoh, and the
Viewpoints.
• Stomping Ground will provide a solid
base in these approaches focusing on
developing the performer's physical,
vocal and ensemble skills.
It is also a journey of transformation -
- both personally and professionally -
as participants begin the new year by
refining their goals for 2014, shaping
their craft, and meeting fellow artists
with similar interests and beliefs.
• https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=n_mDHbKoPLA