Physical
theatreCourses

ITACA Leiden - Physical Theatre & Improvisation

ITACA Leiden is all about the fun of discovering one's own unique style of physical acting.
Marina Raat gives course theatre leiden english

About Itaca

ITACA Leiden offers courses in Physical Theatre & Improvisation for international students and expats.

Founder Marina Raat is specialised in physical theatre. She has taught theatre at many different places, including the Arts Centre of Leiden University. In recent years, she taught mainly international students and expats at the Arts Centre. It became clear that there was a great need for theatre courses in English, especially for this specific group.

In 2024, an international group led by Marina, presented the performance Life Unpacked. A visual and heartwarming performance about finding direction in a complex world. The performance ended with the Greek poem Ithaca, adapted to the lives of the actors. The essence of the poem is that it's not the destination of the journey that is the goal, but the journey itself.

This performance was the inspiration for the start of ITACA Leiden, a new and welcoming academy offering international courses in physical theatre. The name ITACA refers to the poem Ithaca by P.C. Cavafy and comes from the initials of "International Theatre Academy".

As from 2025, international students and expats will be able to take several courses in English, varying from basic, performance, advanced to masks.
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Feel free to join!

Marina
Founder Marina Raat is specialised in physical theater
As you set out for Ithaca hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery.
Theather

Courses in Physical Theatre & Improvisation

Physical theatre is a beautiful, powerful and visual way of telling a story to an audience. It touches, it captivates and watching it is a true pleasure for all your senses.

This is why it’s so much fun to take a course in physical theatre. It’s fascinating to learn the techniques that allow you to create a living, breathing and existing world on stage.

As a physical actor your body is always the starting point. In improvisation, you follow your physical impulses and translate them into relatable situations on stage. When acting together, you are all responsible for translating these impulses into scenes that touch the audience. Different techniques will teach you how to do so. You then take these situations to the extreme, making stereotypical situations exciting, dramatic or comical, and certainly more authentic.

In order to do all this, it’s important to be in touch with your own body, its impulses and emotions. These are your creative tools. You can't change your body into that of a physical character if you don't know your body and how it moves. You have to know what you are changing. In short, there is a whole range of exciting and fun techniques you can learn in a physical theatre course. The end result is that you can create fascinating scenes and visually engaging performances.

internationals

ITACA Leiden offers four different courses. The Fundamental Course teaches ITACA's style of physical theatre and improvisation. This course is a necessary stepping stone to the Performance, Intensive and Theatre Mask Course.

Who is it for

For those who want to enjoy the stage and find their authenticity as an actor.

The course is a mixed-level course and a necessary stepping stone to the other courses (due to ITACA's own style). It therefore welcomes intermediate and advanced actors, as well as those with little experience. Some prior experience with acting or movement/dance is required.

What you will learn

In this course, you will learn ITACA's style of physical theatre and improvisation. You will act in improvisation exercises using a combination of fun, spontaneity and technical skills. In ten weeks, you will discover how to play scenes in which body and text come together naturally, which results in the audience being fascinated and moved. The course is also about finding a personal style as a physical actor and experiencing how this individual style enhances group improvisations on stage. Theatre elements highlighted are: standing on stage with full conviction, body and space awareness, listening and reacting to your physical impulses, using space theatrically, acting fluently together in duo and group scenes, and making action/reaction/internalisation part of your play.

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Upcoming Course
10 classes on Monday evenings, 19.00-21.00
October 12 - December 14, 2026
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Price
Students €
250
Others €
275
Where
Scheltema Leiden
The trial class for this course is on September the 7th. To sign up for this trial class please contact marina@itacaleiden.nl
HOW TO REGISTERmeet the teacher

Who is it for

For those who have done the Fundamental Course and want to discover how to use improvisation to create a performance. Over several months you will work towards a physical performance in a dynamic and engaging way.

What you will learn

This course consists of fun and inspiring physical theatre classes where you will first revisit all the basics of physical theatre and improvisation. From there you will learn new techniques like creating conflict, finding smallness and grandeur in physicality, deepening emotions, using body tension, discovering physical characters, exploring chorus (group) scenes and the alignment of text and body.

This time we will also take improvisation a step further. You will be given dramatic themes to improvise on and we will also choose personal themes to work with. From these themes you will improvise on stage using all the techniques you have learned so far. You will then learn how to make these improvisations repeatable for scenes in a performance. How do you keep spontaneity alive while repeating improvisations? As you create the performance, your own qualities as a physical actor will be developed and strengthened. The performance will be performed several times in a theatre with an audience.‍‍

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Upcoming Course
25 classes (including a weekend & 3 performances)
Wednesday evenings, 19.00-21.00
September 29, 2027 - March 8, 2028
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(There will be a fall break and a Christmas break)
Price
Students €
545
Others €
595
Where
To be announced
HOW TO REGISTERmeet the teacher

Who is it for

For those who want to explore their own unique qualities as a physical actor even more. This course is for those who have done the Fundamental Course or both the Fundamental Course and Performance Course.

What you will learn

This course focuses specifically on your own unique qualities as a physical actor.

Through new and challenging exercises, you will discover more about what makes your individual performance strong on stage. By being true to your own physicality and becoming more aware of what makes your performance genuine, you will not only be more confident on stage, but you will also enjoy acting even more.

During the first classes we will refresh the techniques learned in the basic or the performance course, such as action-reaction-internalisation, saying yes, building to climaxes and acting together in duo and group scenes. After attending a physical theatre performance together and observing the strong individual moments of the actors, you will begin to work on physical solo scenes yourself. As the group then reinforces what you are doing on stage, impactful scenes appear in which your solo acting is even more strengthened. To support this process, you will learn how to turn stereotypical situations into more authentic physical scenes. As a chorus you will learn more in depth how to act on stage while supporting a soloist.

If you have done the Fundamental Course, then this course is also a nice preparation for the Performance Course. If you have already done the Performance Course, then this course will give you the chance to specialise even more in your own qualities as an actor.

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Upcoming Course
10 classes on Monday evenings, 19.00-22.00
February 1 - April 12, 2027
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(There will be a spring break)
Price
Students €
250
Others €
275
Where
Scheltema Leiden
HOW TO REGISTERmeet the teacher

Who is it for

This course is for those who would like to experience mask acting, using different kind of special theatre masks. This course is for those who have done the Fundamental Course or who have prior experience in physical theatre or movement/dance elsewhere.

What you will learn

During this course you will learn to act with the basic Trestle masks. You will also be introduced to the advanced performance masks originally made by the mask maker of the Familie Flöz Theatre Company (Thomas Rascher).

The Trestle Theatre Company in England has developed a range of theatre masks to practice physical acting in a playful and engaging way. The masks invite the actor to react directly to first impulses and to use the whole body on stage. In this course you will explore through various acting and mask improvisations how to follow these first physical impulses and how to use action-internalisation-reaction to bring your mask to life. The added value of acting with the advanced (Rascher) masks is that you deepen and train the use of physical acting techniques. These masks in particular make your qualities as an actor directly visible on stage. You will therefore be coached to find out what these individual qualities are and how to use them in mask acting.

Acting with masks helps to make your performance more spontaneous, powerful and present.

Upcoming Course
A one-day workshop from 10.00-17.00
Saturday January 23, 2027
Price
Students €
95
Others €
120
Where
Scheltema Leiden
HOW TO REGISTERmeet the teacher

How to register for the courses

You can register for an upcoming course by filling in the form below. You will then receive confirmation of your registration and information on how to pay. It is possible to pay in instalments.

If you're interested in joining a course but still have a question, please call 06-27978573. You can also send an email to marina@itacaleiden.nl

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Marina Raat

Marina Raat

With a great passion for theatre and a strong interest in people, Marina attended the HKU Academy for Theatre Arts in Utrecht. She graduated as a first-degree drama teacher. While studying at the HKU, she attended a one-year program at the California State University with a focus on acting and directing. Her passion for theatre deepened into physical theatre and she specialised in this field at the Kleine Academie in Brussels (pedagogy Lecoq). Her focus became the authenticity and true impulses of the actor and the creation of visual performances. After her studies, she began to develop her own courses and workshops in physical theatre and improvisation. She did this based on her belief that such courses would empower students not only in the field of theatre, but also in a wider area of their lives.

After many years and a wide range of experience as a teacher, mentor and trainer in the field of theatre education, Marina now offers these courses at ITACA Leiden. She has an international background and is bilingual in English and Dutch.

Arts and educational organisations where Marina has worked as a freelancer or employee include among others, the LAK (Leiden University), Gymnasium Felisenum, University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam, Rijnlands Lyceum, Youth Theatre Rabarber, HKU Academy for Theatre Arts, Sipario (ESA-ESTEC), Master in Theatre Maastricht, Jeetje Mila Foundation (Founder).

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