Ensemble

Performance Ensemble

How do we become the artists we want to be?
We want to be present and passionate on stage consistently. We want to play with natural, heightened emotions without the burden of showing off. We want to create scripts that explore new structures of storytelling. We want to experiment and explore. We want to be Awake and Alive, onstage and off.

We believe anyone can learn these skills.

Our process works physically to allow the actor to become more intimate, immediate, and spontaneous.

• Intimate: Open to give and receive emotion
• Immediate: Right here, right now.
• Spontaneous: Your own unique reaction.

If you are intimate and immediate, spontaneity occurs naturally.

Our process shows people how to find stillness in their mind so their heart opens. When the chatter of judgement, ego and doubt quiets, there is space for inspiration and growth.

Guess what?
This also helps us become the people we want to be.
The same skills necessary to be virtuoso artists also allow us to be confident, creative, compassionate human beings.

NeuroKitchen students learn emotional flow acting technique, yoga, meditation, contact improvisation, creative writing and music skills. The unique creative process practiced at NeuroKitchen developed by director Ron Bieganski has been the subject of books, research papers, and even a documentary. We have shared our training methods at local, national, and international universities and theaters.

While students gain valuable knowledge, confidence, and freedom of expression they also are eligible to earn a stipend through our partnership with After School Matters.

Rehearsals are Thursdays 4:30-7:00 and Saturdays 11:00-3:00 during the school year. During the summer, rehearsals are Tuesday - Friday from 3:00-7:00 for six weeks.

If you are not eligible to participate thru ASM, you may still take the workshop directly with us. Contact us!

NeuroKitchen at Independence Park

Independence Park (2nd floor)
3801 W. Irving Park Road
Chicago, IL

The park is a near the Blue Line stop at Irving Park (Irving Park and Pulaski) The theater is on the 2nd floor, with elevator access. The space (70 feet by 40 feet) has warm wood floors, storage room and a nice park staff. There is a safe walk between the train and theater.

We are in the Avondale Neighborhood. Our partnering schools for the youth ensemble are Schurz High School, Thurgood Marshall Middle School, Disney II Magnet School, Lakeview High School and Lane Tech High School. Thank you to all these schools for opening their doors to NeuroKitchen so we could have discuss our work with their students.

Ensemble Member Testimony

"I would not have gotten this far, this quickly, without the careful consideration that was offered me as a young artist. I know that life is incredibly rich and raw. Life will be unbearable at times, yet I was taught to, “still”, and want it NOW.

I was taught to live on the brink. I was taught that there is a way to live on the brink and be in charge of life …and be meaningful. And I can be dangerously brilliant, because that is what a virtuoso human being is - daringly, dangerously, beautifully brilliant."

- Christoph Horton Abiel, professional actor and graduate of the Professional Actor Training Program of the Drama Division at The Juilliard School. Only 18 students are accepted into this program each year.

“Ron Bieganski changed my life the day I arrived, the first day of collaborating with the youth he worked with. He threw a notebook down and told me to write and I’m like, “Write, what?” Up to that point I had only written essays for school and such and here he was asking me to write something out of thin air. I later learned that this thin air was actually writing from the heart and the soul in a completely uninhibited way.

Ron taught me, not to judge myself and to let my imagination run wild. Anything is possible. It was his dynamic and passionate way of teaching that inspired me to become a professional screenwriter, and now, 15 years later, I have written my first film and am developing my second web series.

Ron is not only and amazing teacher but an inspirational life-changing force. The kind of mentor/teacher that changes your life forever.”

-Carmen Corral, played the love interest to star, Ben Mckenzie,on Southland. Carmen's dance film, Clave, which she wrote, produced, directed and starred screens at the Chicago Latino Film Festival in 2016.