MEET YOUR DEMONS – Acting for Camera & Stage with Elisabet Sevholt

DEMONS workshop

– Acting for Camera & Stage with Elisabet Sevholt

This workshop is nothing short of a rollercoaster ride!

We’ll dive into the realm of our inner DEMONS and shadow selves - all in the name of creating complex, authentic, modern characters for screen and stage. This work will challenge everything: from our beliefs about who we think we are, to what truly drives us as humans and artists.

The technique builds on the principles of Stanislavski, has its heart in the Chubbuck Technique, and draws inspiration from Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic legacy.

We’ll work on contemporary and classical scenes from film, TV, and stage - and our DEMONS will help us do it!

Three weeks before the workshop, you will get a scene and a scene partner. Two weeks before, you’ll receive a video with exercises to begin the process. About a week before, Elisabet Sevholt will meet with you and your scene partner online for a 45-minute session where you’ll explore the basic drives within your scene - and within yourself. Finally, we’ll all meet up for a three-day workshop. You’ll meet one or more of your DEMONS, give them a name and a life, and enlist their help to play your scene and reach your goal.

This work is analytical, emotional, physical, and intuitive - engaging the full range of your abilities as an actor and as a human being. It can be overwhelming at times, but more importantly, it is deeply rewarding. How you see yourself and your mission as an actor will likely change forever.

The primary working language of this course is English.

WORKING WITH THE DEMONS

A DEMON is a concept found in nearly every culture around the world. In Western thought, Carl Jung described it as “the Shadow.” A DEMON is essentially a hidden part of ourselves that deeply influences our behaviours and reactions - a part of the unconscious that we’ve rejected, denied, or disowned.

We often think of our DEMONS as negative traits: shame, fear, phobias, past traumas. But they can also be positive qualities - qualities we may feel we don’t deserve or struggle to own. Our DEMONS reveal every facet of the human experience. They challenge our self-perceptions and expand our understanding of what art can be. Though hidden, they are powerful sources of energy. When we connect with them, we can unlock a surge of creativity, break through artistic blocks, and view our artistic path in a whole new light.

THE COURSE PROCESS

PREPARE

Three weeks before the workshop, you’ll receive an email with your assigned scene and scene partner. To prepare, you’ll need to watch the related film or TV series, or read the provided play script. Alongside this, you’ll receive a selection of relevant texts and exercises. Please take time to engage deeply with these materials.

Two weeks before the workshop, you’ll receive a video instruction with exercises. About a week before, you’ll have a 45-minute online session together with your scene partner and Elisabet. In this session, we’ll explore scene analysis, inner drives, and the given circumstances - focusing on how all of it relates to you. We’ll draw from Stanislavski, the 12 Steps of the Chubbuck Technique, and other contemporary acting approaches.

MEET YOUR DEMONS - workshop in copenhagen on march 1-3, 2027.

At last, we meet in person for a three-day journey. Together, we’ll delve into our inner worlds to discover, reveal, and integrate our DEMONS through a creative process that turns what we’ve rejected in ourselves into gold - all the way to the moment when your character takes power over their own life, and you over yours.