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

Please check back soon for the full Class Description and What To Prepare

WHAT TO PREPARE

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

SCREEN ACTING FOR TV AND FILM

• Faculty John benitz

• Chapman University

Please check back soon for the full Class Description and What To Prepare

WHAT TO PREPARE

PHYSICAL TRAINING FOR ACTORS

• Faculty Danielle Liccardo

• Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts

Please check back soon for the full Class Description and What To Prepare

 WHAT TO PREPARE

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.