Mystery Drama Events: Portal of Initiation

AT LIGHTFORMS ART CENTER WITH LAURIE PORTOCARRERO

Friday, September 5 – Sunday, September 7, 2025: Workshop on Portal of Initiation
Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 7 pm: Story of Portal of Initiation
Saturday, September 13, 2025, at 3 pm: A performance of speech and eurythmy (workshopped)

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• Laurie Portocarrero will present a workshop on Rudolf Steiner’s Portal of Initiation mystery drama from September 5 through September 7, 2025, at Lightforms Art Center, 743 Columbia St, Hudson, NY 12534.
  
  A new creative way of experiencing Rudolf Steiner’s mystery dramas, these workshops have been developing since 2014, becoming in demand in more cities each year on the East and West Coasts. Through Laurie’s facilitation, participants move and speak their way together through an entire play, taking turns, experiencing all the parts, all the lines, utilizing the many tools of the dramatic arts, including speech chorus, play, and ensemble-building. This is an enlivening, inspiring, experiential journey through the great gift of this mighty play.
  
  To sign up for this 3-day workshop, please contact Laurie Portocarrero at laurieportostories@gmail.com

• On Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 7 pm, Laurie Portocarrero will tell the story of Portal of Initiation at Lightforms Art Center.

• On Saturday, September 13, 2025, at 3 pm, Clifford Venho, Ivilisse Esguerra Venho, and Laurie Portocarrero will present a new, in-progress performance piece relating to Portal of Initiation at Lightforms Art Center.
  
  Join their process and take part in the workshopping of this original exploratory piece in development, a quilt of several speeches and verses from Portal of Initiation, done in eurythmy, speech, and acting, woven together with music.
  
  Join the eurythmists in moving the verses, and join the actress in speaking the dramatic speeches. Get a taste of the new performance that will take place in the spring!

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ABOUT THE MYSTERY DRAMAS
Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Dramas are four plays that follow the initiation journeys of a group of characters through a series of different incarnations. These plays were intended to be modern mystery plays, the form deriving from the medieval religious mystery plays (also called “miracle plays”). The original mystery plays during the medieval times were popular forms of drama in Europe, often depicting famous religious passages, and could take up to 20 hours to perform.

ABOUT LAURIE PORTOCARRERO
Laurie Portocarrero is an actor, storyteller, director, and teacher of the dramatic arts. She trained in the Chekhov method of acting, speech formation, and Spacial Dynamics. She is a longtime associate member of The Actors’ Ensemble and Walking the Dog Theater Company, also touring many countries in solo and two-person plays. She is a member of Spring Valley’s Mystery Drama Group, and played the role of Maria in all four of Rudolf Steiner’s mystery dramas. Laurie has taught all ages in Guatemala, China, Australia, and Canada, as well as in the US. Her workshops on Rudolf Steiner’s mystery dramas and on the power of the dramatic arts to open healing social spaces, are gaining interest in more communities across the US each year. When at home in Upstate New York, she leads a speech chorus, conducts an exploratory mystery drama group, directs children’s and young people’s plays, gives one-on-one drama coaching, and with various colleagues creates new performance pieces bringing together drama, speech, eurythmy, and music.

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For more information and to register, please contact Laurie Portocarrero at laurieportostories@gmail.com