To enroll in classes, unless otherwise noted: Place check payable to DAOR in DAOR mailbox in Gateway. Include your name, phone/email, and class title.
Events take place at Hillside Performing Arts Studio (PAS) (Las Trampas), unless otherwise noted
Improvisation Workshop
Saturday / Sunday, July 30 / 31 9:30 - noon Free
Second City member Shulie Cowen is coming to Rossmoor for a two-day Improvisation workshop, which will fill up quickly, so reserve your place now.
Call Cynthia Wilson’s phone machine, 925-949-8498, and leave a message: 1) your name, 2) phone number, and 3) what would you like to learn in an improv workshop (because Shulie would like to tailor the workshop to our needs).
Women's Monologues with Alan Bennett
Wednesdays, June 29 - August 3, 10 am Performing Arts Studio, Hillside Tuition: $45 plus $7 for materials Facilitator: Jean Wilcox
To register, contact Roanne Butier: rbutier@sbcglobal.net or (925) 930-7356
Reprising the program first offered in April 2019, this 6-part video series will look at the women’s monologues for which Bennett is famous.
Although best known in this country as the writer of “The Lady in the Van,” with Maggie Smith, the program’s facilitator, Jean Wilcox, feels his monologues are better reflections of the human condition, each in a different way. These pieces are of such power as to have attracted such prominent actors as Maggie Smith, Patricia Routledge (Mrs. Bouquet) and Penelope Wilton (Mrs. Crawley in "Downton Abbey"), among others. Alan Bennett even performs one himself.
According to the LA Times, “In the hands of Alan Bennett, the tragic and painful are close bedfellows with the funny and the sexual . . . We laugh at the situations presented and then feel a twinge of guilt.”
We'll begin by taking turns reading the monologue (a different one each week), discussing it, and then watching the video. Men as well as women find these pieces engaging and compelling, so all are invited to participate.
For more information, contact: Jean Wilcox, (925) 937-6524 or jeanmary3@comcast.net
Acting Our Lives: Performance Memoir
8 Mondays from June 6 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. Clubroom, Creekside Fee: $80
For information / registration, contact Instructor Bobbi Ausubel 650-743-4212 bobbi.gloria.ausubel@gmail.com
Acting Our Lives offers an opportunity for participants, both experienced and inexperienced, to be open to memories and imagination, writing and acting. For eight sessions the class will seek inspiration from the group’s wisdom as well as theater exercises offered to unearth and bring to light a story from their lives.
Participants’ original stories will be written with support, and then re-examined to make them more dramatic. With professional acting coaching, members enhance their theater skills. While memorization would be lovely, it is definitely not necessary. Each student gets one private coaching session, in addition to group classes. Stories, both comic and serious, meaningful and ridiculous, are offered by members at a final showcase open to the public.
In addition, there is an opportunity for TV experience using the studio's wonderful teleprompter and support under the guidance of George Ivanov and Brendan Kelley. The recent showcase will be shown soon on Channel 28.
The class is facilitated by experienced theater director Bobbi Ausubel, who was Artistic Director of Caravan Theater in Cambridge, Mass. and taught acting at The Boston Conservatory for 20 years. Cynthia Wilson is the technical person for the microphones at the final showcase.
All are invited to attend the first class free and see if it’s a fit for you.
Intermediate Acting Class: Building a Character
Session ended
7 Mondays, April 11 – May 23, 10 to noon Instructors: Linda Kelp and Gail Wetherbee Fee: $45, DAOR members $65, non-members, which includes DAOR membership Minimum enrollment is 6; maximum is 12
Students will choose a character from dramatic literature and explore external qualities (movement, speech, mannerisms, etc.) and subjective qualities (emotions and thoughts), and how to combine the two to produce a fully developed character. The class will include exercises on major principles of acting and how to apply them to the character.
Instructors Linda Kelp and Gail Wetherbee have extensive experience as actors and director in DAOR and other community settings.
To reserve your place in the class, contact: DAOR Academy Facilitator, Cynthia Wilson 925-949-8498.
Make checks payable to DAOR and send to: Roanne Butier 2516 Ptarmigan Dr. #2 Walnut Creek, CA. 94595 or place your check in DAOR box in Gateway Administration Office
Play-Reading Group
Third Monday each month, 10 am Garden & Eisenhower Rooms, Dollar Clubhouse Facilitator: Tancred Agius No fee
The Play Reading group welcomes actors and non-actors. If interested, just show up at a meeting. The atmosphere is relaxed and fun. A new play for the group is offered. Those present at meetings are each given a character at the beginning of the gathering and the newly chosen play is read aloud. Enjoyable discussions follow.
The group will read a variety of plays, some comedies, new and contemporary plays, and older plays. Members will have an opportunity to choose a play.
For further information contact Irene Krohn, wjkik@aol.com
New Twist on Performing Comedy
Session ended Instructor: Jean Wilcox Where: Performing Arts Studio Cost: $45, plus $7 materials fee To register, call Jean (925-937-6524) or email: jeanmary3@comcast.net
At the first session, each student will be assigned a partner and a comedy scene. The paired students will then study and rehearse the scene in depth for the remainder of the course. Commitment to minimum homework will yield optimum results but no memorization will be required.
Shakespeare:Power and Politics in "As You Like It"
Session Ended
This class will meet in person, (please be vaccinated) 8 Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Fee: $50 plus $7 copying fees
All levels welcome. Here is how instructor Erin Merritt, founding member of Woman’s Will, an all-female Theater Collective, describes her class:
“What shall I call thee when thou art a man?” Performing Gender in Shakespeare’s Plays.
Explore Shakespeare’s take on gender roles in his master comedy, "As You Like It."
Through games, text-work, monologues and scene work, we will delve deeply into the myriad ways Shakespeare highlighted and subverted his era’s gender roles, examining how all-male casts playing gendered characters affected what he wrote, and how their interpretations play out in modern performance. Class assignments will be tailored to individual students, so all experience levels are welcome.
Don’t miss this rare and wonderful opportunity to participate in the study of one of the greatest writers of all time, with Shakespearean scholar, Erin Merritt, beloved by her former students.
Please send check, payable to DAOR, to: Roanne Butier, 2516 Ptarmigan #2, Walnut Creek, CA 94595 You may pay at first class meeting.
Questions? email Cynthia Wilson, Academy Coordinator: N2zazm52@yahoo.com or phone, 925-949-8498.
“The knowledge that every day there is something more to learn, something higher to reach for, something new to make for others, makes each day infinitely precious” - Uta Hagen -