ACING YOUR MONOLOGUE AND INTERVIEW

• Faculty Quin Gordon

• University of North Carolina School of the Arts

In this class, we will discover the art of shaping a story within your monologue. How does the moment before inform the moment we are seeing? How do we respond to the invisible partner? What changes in the character over the course of the monologue? What drives the piece and what do the stakes build to? Acting is the art of storytelling and every audition comes down to who can tell the most interesting story with their text.
How does one talk about their own journey as an artist? In this workshop we will also uncover the inner workings of the conservatory interview. This workshop will illuminate the process of walking into a room with an unfamiliar person, sharing your work, and then having to hold a conversation with said person. Your monologues are just one piece of the puzzle, and an excellent interview can help secure your spot. We'll discover typical questions and what they are meant to reveal about you as a candidate.

WHAT TO PREPARE

One contemporary monologue, if you are singer you make be asked to sing 16-Bars acapella. Please bring your updated Headshot and Resume. A clear photo of yourself or a school photo will suffice if you don’t have a professional headshot.

THE COLLEGE AUDITION CALLBACK

• Faculty Kevin Ramsey

• Hartt School

So, you have made it past the pre-screens...now what? This masterclass will demystify the college callback process and instill confidence and a better sense of self within the auditioner. In our time together, we will examine how a student reveals not only their amazing performing skills, but also who they are as amazing humans too! Through a mock audition process, each student will show their callback material, perfect their college interview technique, and further investigate what they, themselves, offer a conservatory program like Hartt. We will examine audition material in greater detail, discuss best practices while in the audition room, and unearth confidence building techniques while under the pressure of getting into the college program of their dreams!

WHAT TO PREPARE

Two contrasting monologues that best show you and your artistry. If you would like to sing, please bring in a monologue and song with recorded accompaniment. Please also bring a headshot and resume.

PLAYING WITH THE BARD

• Faculty Leonard Leibowitz

• Otterbien University

Shakespeare, the greatest of all writers, wrote for actors! And acting Shakespeare is not advanced, but fundamental. Learn to play Shakespeare's language with clarity, honesty, freedom, courage, and passion through techniques and Laban movement!

 WHAT TO PREPARE

Please prepare a 1-Minute Classical Monologue – Gender Bending is totally fine!

ACTING PRE-SCREEN BOOT CAMP

•  Faculty Jason Beck

• DePaul

Learn both the basics and inside pro tips of preparing and completing prescreen auditions for college submissions, while also demystifying the process. Through a combination of information, instruction, and practical experience, you will get prepped to tackle your college acting pre-screen videos. Material selection, styling, recording techniques, and other best practices will be covered.

The student should prepare the following prescreen requirements, mirroring pretty standard actual application requirements (These do not need to be recorded in advance!)

WHAT TO PREPARE

1. Prepare an introduction of yourself, stating your name, where you are from, and an interesting fact about yourself. This should be no longer than 30 seconds.

2. One contemporary monologue no longer than 60 seconds

3. One classical monologue no longer than 60 seconds

One of the two pieces should be prepared for a head and shoulders “close up” recording. The other piece should be prepared for a “full body” recording.

SCENE WORK: ABC

• Faculty Grant Kretchik

• Pace

This Class will consist of introductory movement work connecting into group monologue exercises as it relates to the body and breath. The course will spring into the value of story telling through the Importance of intention and finish off with blaNk scenes and circumstances.

 WHAT TO PREPARE

Please prepare a 1-Minute Contemporary Monologue

THE YOUNG ACTORS’S CREATIVE JOURNEY!

• Faculty Marilyn Fox

• UCLA 

The purpose of this class is to develop the acting student’s ability to experience their imagination, free their physical body, and promote their overall artistic growth. Through the use of exercises, improvisation, and scene work, the class will explore and enrich the student’s freedom, honesty, and ability to be present. By giving the young actors the tools to uncover their character’s given circumstances, psychological truths, and overall intention - the students will begin to develop a technique for looking at a script and crafting a theater/film performance.

 WHAT TO PREPARE

Please bring a 1-2 minute monologue of your choice.

ALL THEATRE IS PHYSICAL THEATRE

• Faculty Malcolm Tulip

• University of Michigan

Very often physical gestures made by actors are instinctual. Often this means we use habitual or default gestures that can indicate feelings and thought or “attitudes” but do not fully embody them. At the heart of Jacques Lecoq’s teachings is the ability to observe the world around us to increase our physical vocabulary and then through our bodies to reveal the rich inner of our characters: making thoughts and feelings concrete. We will play with strategies to approach character though a physical lens.

WHAT TO PREPARE

Bring one or two monologues to play around with. Wear clothing that you can move easily in (preferably no jeans, tight pants, no skirts or short shorts). Try to avoid bright colors or distracting images or logos. Have a water bottle close by.

WHO’S GOT THE POWER

• Faculty Christine Albrecht-Tufts

• Syracuse University

In this Master Class we will focus on status and power shifts in your audition monologues.

WHAT TO PREPARE

Please prepare a one-minute contemporary monologue in your age range.

APPROACHING YOUR CLASSICAL TEXT:   WORDS, WORDS, WORDS!

• Faculty Laura Flanagan

• USC

A three day workshop on approaching text written before 1900 and contemporary writers writing in Verse.   In this workshop we will play with techniques, concepts and experiences that will allow you to discover the joys of heightened text.  For some young performers, complicated rich text feels scary and burdensome, for others, it is inspiring and electrifying.  For all performers, rich language provides us more opportunities.  It asks us, quite literally, to use more of ourselves to communicate; it asks that we delve deep into the dilemmas of the human condition and express thoughts more eloquently than we get to in our regular lives; it asks that we embrace language as a thrilling experience of sensation, discovery, action and meaning. Through exercises, games, lessons and explorations you will find yourself more grounded, active, specific, spontaneous and wholly original in your performances of Shakespeare, Moliere, Parks, and whichever Classical or contemporary verse playwrights you choose. We will find our personal and collective passion for words: for what they can do, how we use them and how they use us in return.

WHAT TO PREPARE AND BRING:

We will be working with two Shakespeare texts over the course of our three days together. Please bring your own classical piece which we will workshop on day 3. “Words, Words, Words….” - Hamlet, Act II, ii

PROFESSIONAL AUDITION TECHNIQUES & EFFECTIVE MONOLOGUE ANALYSIS

• Faculty Tamiko Washington

• Chapman University

PROFESSIONAL AUDITION TECHNIQUES & EFFECTIVE MONOLOGUE ANALYSIS

Students will engage in the practice of professional audition techniques while utilizing effective monologue analysis (beats, tactics, object of attention, moments, silence, and stillness) and the proper use of vocal production in monologue performance/presentation.

WHAT TO PREPARE

·      Prepare one 1 minute monologue (contemporary or Shakespeare) - Monologue must be from a published play.  No film monologues. - Monologue must be fully memorized.  No exceptions. Read the play/script of audition monologue. Please have water available during class.

THE ACTOR’S JOURNEY OF EXPLORATION!

• Faculty Cameron Knight

• Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts

The mission of this workshop is to awaken the imagination, emotion, and intellect of the students by making them aware of the transforming power and universality of theatre. It will serve as the beginning of the actor’s journey of exploration to uncover the meaning and vision of any playwright in order to discover the “who, why, where, when and how” of characters. It will also impress upon the student the necessity of learning the craft of the theatre which requires a disciplined commitment to the training of voice, speech, and movement, as well as an intellectual rigor in dissecting text, and uncovering subtext. The methods used to accomplish this are: Collaborative Games, Improv, and Voice and Speech Exercises

WHAT TO PREPARE

Please prepare one contemporary and one classical monologue. Each should be 1-1.5 minutes.

VOICE & SPEECH/ARTICULATION

• Faculty Lisa Velten-Smith

• Carnegie Mellon University

This workshop will introduce the young actor to a series of exercises designed to strengthen and expand their vocal range of expression.  Students will gain an understanding of alignment, ease of breath, and the optimal resonating voice. The workshop finishes with an exploration of articulation agility, unlocking the muscles that interfere with communication. Using the vocal methodology developed by master voice teacher Kristin Linklater, the exercises are not prescriptive but descriptive, providing a type of training that supports and lifts up a student’s identity resulting in a voice capable of expressing itself through a wide variety of feelings and thoughts; an essential tool for the actor.

WHAT TO PREPARE

Please bring a classical or heightened language monologue of your choice.