Led by Dr. Budi Miller with Dr. Taylor Barfield
June 14 – June 20
This laboratory offers an opportunity for actors of the global majority to reclaim their powers of embodied greatness onstage.
An internationally renowned master teacher, Dr. Budi Miller guides actors through five days of rigorous training, drawing on ancient and modern approaches to acting, including Michael Chekhov, Balinese performing arts training, maskwork, Budi Miler Taksu Training (BMTT) and more. These techniques and traditions serve as the foundation for scene study, ancestral knowledge, spiritual embodiment of the imagination, communal ensemble training and physical storytelling. Working as an ensemble, students will find renewed energy in their performance through movement, maskwork, and performing scenes from plays by BIPOC writers.
In addition to liberating their acting practice, participants will find a community of fellow actors committed both to deepening their artistry and to supporting their colleagues as they navigate the challenges of their profession.
This workshop is designed for BIPOC actors who have completed or are pursuing advanced training in acting, such as a conservatory or graduate school program.
Apply to Take This Workshop
Admission to the Visit is awarded through an application process.
Applications received by April 1 will be given priority for admission and scholarship funding.
Applications can be accessed by clicking “Apply” below.
The application asks you to upload an artistic resume, which we prefer as a PDF.
Applicants will be notified about the status of their application and scholarship funding on or around April 15. (See “Scholarships” below for more information.)
All applications received after April 1 will be considered on a rolling basis.
Cost
Workshop with standard double-occupancy room: $700
If you are accepted into the Visit, you will have four weeks to pay your deposit of $250, unless your deposit is covered by scholarship funding.
Scholarships
Each year, Celebration Barn and the Visit raise funds to provide scholarships to students. Historically, most students have received partial scholarships between $150 and $450.
If you would like to be considered for scholarship funding, you will need to answer a set of questions in the application, including, “How will the Visit advance my artistic or professional practice?”
When you are notified about whether or not you have been accepted into the workshop, we will also notify you about any available scholarship funding we are able to offer you.
Dr. Budi Miller
Dr. Budi Miller is the former head of acting at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne (UoM), Australia (the first black person to hold this position at one of the top three drama schools in Australia). He is the co-artistic director of The Theatre of Others; a lead teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, a certified integrative studies practitioner; and an UNESCO designated master teacher of mask work. He teaches acting through Balinese Performing Art Training (BPAT) with Mask Work, Fitzmaurice Voicework, Michael Chekhov, clown, PEM, viewpoints, and Grotowski. He holds a BFA. in theatre from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and a PhD in practice-as-research from the University of Melbourne.
He has been an actor-director-writer-teacher in the United States, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, and Indonesia since 1992. He is a Balinese mask dancer and the first teacher to bring Fitzmaurice Voicework to Denmark, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Malaysia, China, and Indonesia.
He coached Michelle Williams for her Academy Award-nominated performance in Ang Lee’s movie Brokeback Mountain; Yao (Sinners: Warner Bros); Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country: HBO, The Harder They Fall: Netflix, Ant-Man III: Marvel, Creed III: MGM, Magazine Dreams: Tall Street Productions); and works extensively with Julian Elijah Martinez (Wu-Tang: An American Saga: Hulu). He has had the privilege of coaching and inspiring actors in many mediums: Broadway, HBO, Marvel Films, Warner Bros, Netflix, Showtime, major international film markets, and theaters around the world.
He has been on the faculties of the Victorian College of the Arts UoM (2017–2023), the Chautauqua Theater Company (2004–2018), and LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore (2009–2017). He has taught at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, the Juilliard School, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, the Actors Center, Wayne State (MFA), the New School (MFA), SUNY Purchase College, University of Southern California, the Bill Esper Studio, Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts, the National Theatre Institute, Howard University, Western Michigan University, the National University of Singapore, the Queensland Theatre Company (Brisbane), Curtin University (Perth), and the Michael Chekhov Conference 2002.
He was the executive director of the International Antonin Artaud Fringe Theatre Festival 2008. He was a featured presenter at the International VASTA conference in Mexico City in 2010 and London in 2014. He was the conference director for the first VASTA conference in Asia (Singapore) in 2017.
Dr. Taylor Barfield
Dr. Taylor Barfield is a dramaturg, writer, and theater artist from Baltimore, MD. He served as the acting literary manager at Yale Repertory Theatre, where he still serves as an artistic & season planning consultant. Before that he was the literary manager at Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ and the associate artistic director for Collaboraction Theatre Company in Chicago, IL. Taylor currently works as a freelance dramaturg and consultant working with organizations such as the Guthrie, BMG, Portland Center Stage, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, and Yale Repertory Theatre.
Taylor received his BA in molecular/cellular biology and English literature from Johns Hopkins University and is a graduate of the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, where he earned his MFA and DFA in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism. His scholarly work explores how contemporary Black American playwrights re-imagine and re-stage Black theater history. His writing has been published in 3Views, Vulture, TDF Stages, and The Marginalia Review of Books. He is currently a visiting assistant arts professor in the Rita & Burton Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch. taylorjamalbarfield.com