Play Production I:
Students participate in various aspects of a theater production, including performance in project, stage management, member of crew, or assignment as designer or assistant on production. Additional fees may apply.
Play Production II:
Authentic conditions of the performance of a staged production provide a window of opportunity for entry into the acting profession. All aspects of performance, booking the theatre, marketing the show, and networking are included in class. Additional fees may apply.
Audition Technique:
This is a practical performance course where students will learn auditioning skills for theatre, television and film. Through the choice and preparation of monologues, instruction on how to develop a cold reading technique and exercises in pre-read auditions, producer call backs and screen tests, the instructor will illustrate the steps involved in ensuring the best result. Original scripts from film and televisions projects currently being cast will be used in class as learning tools in the simulated audition exercises. Monologues will be prepared for theatre auditions.
Demo Reel:
Building on the previous on camera classes, the student will read and rehearse contemporary scenes in preparation for the production of an individual demonstration reel. The material for the demonstration reel will be chosen and partially rehearsed in the class room. Through further rehearsal and filming both scenes and monologues, the student will learn the basic techniques used in editing a show reel and will finish the course with a hard copy of the work.
Musical Cabaret:
This course uses the synthesis of three elements of theatre: music/singing, dialogue/acting, and choreography/dance to create a series of vignettes of musical cabaret. The course is designed to reinforce rehearsal preparedness and character development as students will be expected to memorize both music and dance pieces within the character.
Stage Performance Intensive:
Works are created, critiqued, and performed by each actor, to establish reverence for the written word. This also helps the actor develop a dialogue with the writer, and understand character development.
Scriptwriting:
This class teaches the proper way to format a script. Students learn through a step-by-step approach how to command the written word, power through writer’s block, and differentiate between drafts and a polished script.
Playwriting:
This class teaches the proper way to format a scene for stage. Each script will be 'work shopped' in class allow the authors to hear and view their work in a performance context. Feedback and constructive critique from fellow classmates will aid the author in rewriting and refining his/her script.
Method and Acting:
Students will be paired with a partner and assigned a scene in class. After an initial first read and discussion of the text, the students will be expected to rehearse the scene outside of class and 'bring it back' for performance and discussion the following week. The focus is to teach students that, as an actor, perfecting a performance is more important than perfecting a technique or method. Various schools of acting will be discussed both for their merits and their drawbacks. The final lesson being that a contemporary actor must draw from ALL areas and use whatever 'tools' work best when creating a performance or role. The last class will be a 'final performance' where the students mount a scene they've rehearsed and brought as close as possible to performance using all that they've learned during the term.
Tools of the Trade:
Website design, internet submissions, acting workshops, networking, related performing arts classes and alternative sources of income are all reviewed to prepare the student for a proactive and fulfilling career.
Broadway Style Dance:
Mainstreamed by actors like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, this style of dance combines techniques used in ballet, tap, and ballroom dancing. Used to improve expression, teamwork, and syncopated rhythm.
Voice Over Workshop:
An introduction to the world of voice over acting. Students will be conducted through the production of their own voice reel demo.
Make-Up:
The student will learn the basics of theatrical make up, both straight and character, and study how makeup is applied for film and television production. Throughout the course, students will discover how special effects through makeup techniques are achieved, including the ageing process, the fashions of specific historic periods and the creation of wounds and scars.
Voice-Over/ADR Workshop:
This course will introduce the student to the microphone and vocal techniques used in film and television, radio and recording studios in the industry today. Voiceovers for commercials, video games, looping for films, cartoon character creation and documentary narration are all aspects of this highly specialized and technically demanding component of the modern actor’s work.
Dialects:
The purpose of this class is to encourage the student actor to listen carefully to the different vowels, consonant placement, breathing and vocal rhythms and pace of a wide variety of domestic and international dialects. The vocal technique required to reproduce these sounds is then taught and applied to monologues and scene work where the characters are specifically written with different geographical backgrounds.
