All events take place at Hillside Performing Arts Studio (Las Trampas), unless otherwise noted.
CLASSES
To enroll in classes, please contact: Sandy Hawkins (925) 788-9124 or sandrahawkins131@gmail.com Or place check payable to DAOR in DAOR mailbox in Gateway. Please mark envelope to Sandy's attention and include your name, phone/email, and class title.
Acting Our Lives: Performance Memoir Instructor: Bobbi Ausubel April 29 - June 15, Mondays, 10 AM - Noon (8 classes) Fee: $60
Participants join a group process and write a story from their life experience with help from opening exercises. The first classes are devoted to finding one’s stories through lively group storytelling and/or improvisations. Following that, the stories are edited to become dramatic monologues or scenes. One gets support to learn to re-write for drama rather than literature. Finally, participants get coaching to act their scenes. Participants are provided the opportunity, if they wish, they may present their story as part of a well-attended showcase, performed with visuals.
Instructor Bobbi Ausubel, an experienced acting coach, has had many years in theater as a director and playwright. For more information: bobbi.gloria.ausubel@gmail.com
Finding Truth on the Stage: An Approach to Acting Instructor: Rod McFadden April 16 - May 21, Tuesdays, 12:30 - 2: 30 PM (6 classes) Fee: $52
All great actors have one thing in common - they don't act. Instead, they "live truthfully" on stage (to borrow a phrase from Stanford Meisner). In this course, students will do close readings of scenes, discuss and rehearse them, and ultimately present them as staged readings to fellow classmates and an invited audience: No memorization required.
Through the process, the objective will be for students to overcome common challenges faced by actors on stage, and to move closer to the ideal of living truthfully in their scenes.
Rod McFadden is a playwright and actor with training from UCLA theater program and at the Academy of Fine Arts University. He has appeared in more than 50 plays and musicals, and though his recent focus in theater has been play writing, he has continued to act. He may be remembered by Rossmoor audiences for his roles in Almost, Maine, The Dining Room and Our Town.
Studying Alan Bennett Instructor: Jean Wilcox Wednesdays, April 10 - May 22, 10 AM - Noon (6 classes; no class on 5/15) Gateway MPR #1 $52 (includes $7 materials fee)
For more information: jeanmary3@comcast.net or (925) 937-6524
Each week students will analyze a notable monologue written by widely acclaimed English monologist Alan Bennett. After reading and discussing the provided script, the class will view a video from a recent PBS series where the monologue was dramatically performed by renown actors such as Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins and Patricia Routledge (Mrs. Bucket). During the last class, students will have an opportunity (optional) to work on a portion of one of the studied monologues and present it to their fellow classmates.
FILLED - Acting with Helen Mirren Instructor Jean Wilcox Thursdays, April 11 - May 16, 10 AM - Noon (6 classes) Jean's home: 3644 Terra Granada Dr, #2B, E7. $20
For more information: jeanmary3@comcast.net or (925) 937-6524
Class will learn theater arts skills via six engrossing video sessions with the multiple award winning actress. The series includes: Breaking Down a Script, Shakespeare (2 sessions), Researching Fiction and Real Characters, Case Studies, and Working with Directors.