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2008-09 Adult
and Senior
Educational
Offerings
CLASS
SIZES ARE LIMITED! REGISTER NOW TO SAVE YOUR SPACE!
Mastering
the Monologue (Grade 8 - Adult)
Sun
1 – 3 pm (2 hrs/week)
Fall
Session, 9/14 – 11/16 (10 weeks)
Instructor:
Michael Shoeman
Class
#FS-MTM-8A-SU;
Tuition: $190
Class
Description: The
monologue is an art form unto itself. In this class, the actor will
learn how to choose an appropriate monologue and deliver it with
clarity and authentic emotional content. Each student will choose 2
pieces from a variety of genres (comedy, drama, contemporary, or
classical) in order to work towards having a monologue appropriate for
a variety of situations. The course will cover acting techniques not
only useful in monologue development but also in scene work. This class is appropriate for students
who are new to theater as well as those with experience or returning
for multiple sessions of Mastering the Monologue to continue enhancing
their monologue and scene study skills.
Audition
Techniques for Actors (Grades 8 - Adult)
Sun
1 – 5 pm (4 hrs/week)
Mid-Session
12/7 & 12/14 (2 weeks)
Instructor:
Michael Shoeman
Class
# MS-AT-8A-SU; Tuition: $79
Class
Description: In
this class, you will learn how to approach an audition through a
combination of interview skills (including audition etiquette and
understanding expectations), and cold readings. Students will learn how
to give a great audition by demonstrating that they can act, as opposed
to merely surviving the audition process. Interview skills will focus
on how to "read" a director and provide the student with powerful
questions to ask in order to find a director's vision. Cold reading
skills will help the actor approach new material quickly, establish
connection, chemistry, and authenticity, all with the view to helping
the actor make an audition entirely their own and establish unlimited
potential in the director's mind.
Acting
with the Meisner Technique (Age 16 - Adult)
Mon
7 – 9 pm (2 hrs/week)
Fall
Session, 9/15 – 11/17 (10 weeks)
Instructor:
Michael Shoeman
Class
#FS-AMT-8A-M;
Tuition: $190
Class
Description: This
class offers the advanced actor the opportunity to explore and practice
the acting concepts of Sanford Meisner, innovative 21st
century acting teacher and theorist. The goal of the Meisner technique has often been
described as getting actors to “live truthfully under imaginary
circumstances.” Silverberg, Larry. The Sanford Meisner
Approach: An Actor’s Workbook. New Hampshire:
Smith and Kraus, Inc., 1994, p. 9. The
primary tool of Meisner is spontaneous repetition, through which the
actor seeks to react truthfully to the immediate experience, rather
than make a change based on an intellectual response because the actor
feels the change is needed. The technique of basic repetition involves
spontaneous comment between acting partners based on what is happening,
what is being done, and where the actors are situated, with the phrase
being repeated between two actors until it changes spontaneously. A
goal of the Meisner technique is to allow actors to move beyond the
lines in a script and discover the underlying emotional and
philosophical concepts. In this class, students also will have the
opportunity to apply the Meisner technique to the improv, monologue,
and scene work settings. This
class is appropriate for advanced actors who are new to Meisner
technique as well as those returning for multiple sessions over time to
continue enhancing their skills.
Character
in Song – Presenting a Musical Theater Piece (Grades 8 through Adult)
Tues,
7 – 8 pm (1 hr/week)
Fall
Session, 9/16 – 11/18 (10 weeks)
Instructor:
John D. Smitherman/Deborah Stimson Snow
Class
# FS-CIS-8A-TU;
Tuition: $95
Class
Description: This
class will show you how to bring out the very best in you and your
presentation of musical theatre repertoire. Singing is so much more
than just having a nice voice. Learn how to make an immediate
connection with your audience, find musical continuity without losing
the meaning of the words, shape the drama inherent in each song through
your phrasing and physicality, and find a vocal style that exhibits
your unique gifts. Explore various character types and musical theatre
genres such as torch songs or comic numbers to consider which types are
most comfortable for you, those that you can present most convincingly,
and those that may be a “stretch” but provide growth opportunities
towards longer-term performance goals. The class will also touch upon
how to approach a musical theater audition to create a positive and
lasting impression.
British
and American Traditional Dancing (Grades 5 – Adult)
2nd
Tues of Every Month: 7 – 8:30 pm (1.5 hrs/class)
First
Semester – 10/14, 11/11, 12/9 (3 classes) Second Semester – 1/13,
2/10, 3/10, 5/12, 6/9 (5 classes)
Instructor:
Mary Lee Slemmer
Class
#1STS-BATD-TU; Total Tuition (First/Second Semester): $89
Course
Description: Join
the fun, creating beautiful community dances without being a trained
dancer. History provides us with many examples of community dancing
that range from the high style performed by the Victorian
English (used in the B.B.C. production of Pride and
Prejudice), to the rollicking folk styles used in Appalachia. These dances are
both fun to watch and to perform. They were invented by communities as
a form of celebration, socialization, a diversion from hardship, and as
a way to free one's body and spirit in a safe, ritualized manner.
Performing traditional community dances serves the same function today!
Join an energetic evening of walking or skipping in formations of
Longways Set, a Sicilian Circle
or Contra lines with partners. No dancing skill is required; just a
love of movement, music, and good society.
Monthly
Senior Forum – Brown Bag Lunch Discussion (Age 55+)
Wed
12 – 1 pm
First
Wed of each month
Facilitator:
Tri-PAC Staff
Class
# XX-SF-55-W;
Fees: No Charge
Program
Description: Have
some great ideas that you’d like to share? Curious about trying an
acting or music class? How about helping with sets or costumes? Ever
thought about volunteering as a docent, or helping with concessions,
retail and box office? Once a month, adults age 55 and older are
invited to sit down for a chat with Tri-PAC staff members to talk about
your personal interests and goals, and discover the various programs
and volunteer opportunities that fit your lifestyle and interests. This
is a great opportunity to talk directly with staff members such as Robb Hutter (Senior Theater
Program Director), Debbie Snow (Artistic Director), Marta Kiesling (Executive
Director), Rebecca Shoemaker
(Assistant to the Director) and others. Staff members facilitating the
discussion will vary by month. Please bring your BAG LUNCH and your
friends, and come as often as you like!
Movement
for Actors (Grade 8 – Adult)
Wed
7 – 8 pm (1 hr/week)
Fall
Session, 9/17 – 11/19 (10 weeks)
Instructor:
Latasha
Whitmore
Class
# FS-MFA-8A-W;
Tuition: $95
Class
Description: This
class is designed to help the actor discover how to use body language
as a tool in communicating the emotional state and intentions of a
character. The best of actors can leave a lasting impression on the
audience without ever saying a word. Some refer to this as
“physicality”, “connection”, “authenticity”, or the ability to
“telegraph” to the audience. Regardless of the terminology, actors who
understand how to use their bodies are able to create a more complete
presentation for the audience in which the character’s carriage,
movement, gestures, articulated words, and guttural sounds are part of
a single, integrated entity. In this class, students will learn ways of
using their physicality to express the physical, emotional, and mental
impulses and intentions of a character through the body. Using
isolations, balancing, breathing exercises, and other movement and
acting exercises to find emotional connections, students will gain
awareness of their selves and discover how the body helps convey a
character’s “drama”, often with the most subtle of movement. Students
will work towards gaining more freedom of emotional and physical
expressiveness, with the goal of greater authenticity within their
characters. This class is
appropriate for students who are new to theater as well as those with
experience or returning for multiple sessions of Movement for Actors to
continue enhancing their skills.
Senior
Follies (Performance Troupe for Older Adults)
Dates and
Times to be announced
Instructors:
Nancie Sanderson and Christine Cieplinski
Program Description: Village
Productions is continuing its Senior Theater Program which culminated last
season with performances at the Pottstown
Senior Center
and Frederick of Mennonite Assisted Living Facility. We will now be offering workshops
and classes to prepare Seniors who want to perform and/or work backstage, for a
production this Spring. This production will reflect your unique talents and
may include a variety of disciplines such as comedy skits, dramatic readings, singing,
playing instruments, dancing, writing, or set and costume design, for example.
Our Directors will be contacting last season's participants and looking
for new talents in the upcoming weeks. Whether you are a seasoned performer or
you have yet to find your individual artistic niche, now is the time to
explore the creative process!
Playwriting
Club (Age 16 – Adult)
Thurs
7 – 8:30 pm (1.5 hrs/week)
First
Semester, 9/18 – 12/18 (13 weeks)
Instructor/Facilitator:
Christine
Emmert
Class
#1STS-PC-16A-TH; Tuition $125
Program
Description: If
“all the world's a stage”, then there are many dramas and comedies
still to be written. Our lives provide the material. We just
need to learn how to shape it. This class is an introduction to some,
and a continuation to others, of the writing process of making a play
come alive on the page. In this class we will learn the language of the
stage, read the many kinds of plays from a single page to lengthy
pieces -- comedy, tragedy, satire and all the variations, and try our
own hand at making a script.
Guitar
Calisthenics (Age 10 through Adult)
Sat
10 am – 12 pm (2 hours/week)
Fall
Session 9/20 – 11/22 (10 weeks)
Instructor:
Russ Ferrara
Class
# FS-GC-5A-SA;
Tuition: $190
Class
Description: Guitar
Calisthenics is a group based, style neutral, technique building course
which introduces and reinforces basic left and right hand technique,
tuning the guitar, the elements of rhythmic single line and chordal
playing, ensemble playing and sight reading all in the style of an
aerobics class. Guitar Calisthenics is an excellent way to begin the
study of the guitar but is also beneficial for experienced players,
intermediate students taking private lessons and anyone wanting to
improve their technical and musical skills. Russell Ferrara developed
the course over a period of twenty years of teaching guitar classes at
the college level. It was developed as a solution to the problem of
presenting what had been historically a lesson-based style-oriented
curriculum to a group of students with varied skill levels and style
interests. The class begins with a warm-up and proceeds to execute the
material at hand together. Because it is completely neutral in terms of
musical style, pick style, and finger style, classical, jazz, rock and
folk players will benefit and all can participate in the same class. At
the end of the course, students will have a thorough understanding of
rhythmic fingering/picking, and will be able to sight read and execute
scales and chords in eighth note patterns in first position. A second
and third level course would progress toward scales/chords in all the
keys and playing in all of the positions.
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