Theatre & Drama - SOA 2008

Acting (F53) - only 3 spots left

with Robin Mello
Skill Level: All
3:15-4:45 pm
Explore the basics of acting through the development of stage presence, characters, group awareness, improvisation, role-playing, and theatre games, and some scene study. Participants will also explore some of the more widely accepted theories and practices of the actor's art and craft. Build on your own innate talents and capacities to become more mentally flexible, emotionally fluent and physically expressive.

Instructor Bio:
Robin Mello teaches storytelling and directs the K-12 Theatre Education Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Department of Theatre Peck School of the Arts and now tours the Midwest with "Spinning Tales", a presentation sponsored by Wisconsin Humanities Council's Speakers Bureau.

Introduction to Improvisation (E46)

with Frank Peot
Skill Level: All
1:30-3 pm
Have fun and lose your inhibitions, all while learning the fine art of improvisation. You will learn the fundamentals of improvisation while developing teamwork and listening skills. Whether you're a wallflower or a class clown, this class will leave you energized, laughing, and much more comfortable appearing before groups of people.

Instructor Bio:
Frank Peot, a freelance theatrre director and designer, has worked with all aspects of theatre on the national and international levels and with all ages. He has designed makeup, sets, lighting, and special effects for more than one 100 productions in addition to acting, directing, and adjudicating numerous other productions. He is now North America’s representative to the International Amateur Theatre Association and is secretary of the American Association of Community Theatre.

Introduction to Playwriting (E45)

with Liz Bussey Fentress
Skill Level: Beginning and Intermediate
1:30-3 pm
Explore the fundamentals of writing for the stage. This class, for beginning playwrights, takes participants through the steps of writing a play: developing a theme, creating characters, structuring a plot, writing dialogue, and crafting scenes. Participants learn through in-class writing exercises and take-home assignments.

Instructor Bio:
Liz Bussey Fentress is a professional playwright and actor. Liz's Circus Story, a televised theatrical production she wrote and performed, won the 2005 National Educational Television Association Award for Best Dramatic Narrative.

Playwriting Lab for Actors (C26)

with Bob Curry
Skill Level: All
10:15-11:45 am
Actors and aspiring actors get the rare opportunity to be essential contributors to the organic creation of new work. The playwrights bring in their scenes and plays, the actors cook up the characters, and we all test drive these original pieces. Actors focus on personal interpretation of characters and making the bold choices that bring them to life. Everyone participates in penetrating, supportive feedback sessions.

Instructor Bio:
Robert Curry is a professional actor and writer of fiction, plays, and screenplays. He has performed at The Old Globe Theatre in San Francisco and American Players Theatre in Spring Green. His plays and a screenplay, starring Ernest Borgnine, have been professionally produced.

Playwriting Lab for Writers (A12)

with Liz Bussey Fentress
Skill Level: Intermediate and advanced
8:30-11:45 am

This workshop, for both beginning playwrights and those with plays-in-progress, offers a review of playwriting basics as well as an opportunity to develop a play. Participants will discuss theme, creating characters, structuring the plot, and writing and revising dialogue. If you have a script in progress, bring it along, or consider sending your script to the instructor prior to SOA. Be prepared to read and discuss one another's work as well as to work with actors during the Playwriting Lab for Actors held in conjunction with this class. Materials Fee: $5

Spinning Tales (C28)

with Robin Mello
Skill Level: All
10:15–11:45 am
Spinning Tales is an exciting and interactive workshop for writers, performers, storytellers, and playwrights designed to encourage the 'voice' of the narrator by connecting with our own life story. We will work reflectively and improvisationally through a combination of story activities, theatre games, journal writing, and cultural representations to explore the ways that oral history and personal memory is used as the basis for performance or written work. Participants will work with autobiographical and historical material to collect and create life histories, storytelling, and fiction. The workshop will also investigate how life-story is connected to deeper underlying archetypes and mythic structures found in world-tales.