To enroll, unless otherwise noted: Place check payable to DAOR in DAOR mailbox in Gateway. Include name, phone/email, class title.
Working with a Director: Comedy Scenes
Class Full
Lecturer: Julian Lopez-Morillas 8 Mondays, beginning September23 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Performing Arts Studio, Hillside Full Class Fee: $ 80 for members, $ 100 for non-members Plus $ 5 materials fee Class limited to 10 participants
The workshop will focus on comic scenes from modern American and British theater. Participants will work with Lopez-Morillas, rehearsing brief scenes over the eight-week period, culminating in a presentation of work for an invited audience of family and friends. Memorization of scene material is recommended but not required. The final date of the eight sessions will be determined later because of scheduling issues.
Lopez-Morillas will draw material from diverse sources, such as Kaufman and Hart, Neil Simon, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Tom Stoppard, Abbott and Costello, the Marx Brothers and the Monty Pythons. Participants will practice honing their scenes with a focus on clarity, pace, rhythm and the grounding of comedy acting in genuine human behavior and character.
Lopez-Morillas is a professional theater actor, director and teacher. He has performed and directed with all the major theaters in the Bay Area and across the country. He has taught acting, directing, theater history and Shakespeare at the University of California/Berkeley and at various colleges in the state.
For questions about the class or interview, email Stephanie Singer at [email protected]. Class Full Tuition payment check is due and payable on the first day of class.
Play Reading Group
Third Monday each month, 10:00 - 12:00 Gateway MPR #1 Facilitator: Lori Michetti 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 is read at each meeting. The characters' parts are changed during the meeting so that each person has the opportunity to read aloud. Many of the plays are accessed by a link which requires that participants bring an iPhone, iPad, etc. to the meetings. 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.
Lecturer: Rod McFadden Session Ended Although the classes will be aimed at playwrights, no writing will be required so that the sessions can also be of interest to actors, directors or anyone who wants to know why some plays are more engaging than others. The focus will be on shorter plays, but the concepts and techniques can also apply to longer plays.
In addition to interactive discussions of playwriting techniques, each session will include time to read short plays or scenes by students who want to submittheir own work.In-class readings will be followed by discussion of how the play applies techniques taught in the class. Sessions will cover basic building blocks of a play; elements of plot creation, dialogue and staging; and application of techniques.
McFadden began writing plays in 2009. Since then, his plays have received over 100 productions by independent theaters throughout the country. He has received awards in national playwriting competitions, and his short play, “One Monkey More or Less”, was chosen for publication in the Smith and Kraus anthology, “Best 10-minute plays of 2015”.
As an actor and director, McFadden has appeared in the DOAR Naked Stage productions of “Sylvia”, “Silent Sky”, “Proof”, and “Our Town” and has taught DOAR classes in acting,, directing, and play analysis. He has also been a guest lecturer/teacher for the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
For more information, email Stephanie Singer: [email protected]. Checks should be made out to DAOR and can be submitted at first class. Register with Roanne Butier: [email protected]
Macbeth Lectures
Lecturer: Julian Lopez-Morillas Session Ended
As he did with his lectures on Hamlet earlier this year, Lopez-Morillas will take participants through this tragedy scene by scene. He will demonstrate how the playwright uses imagery, rhythm, and sound to build an atmosphere of violence where ambition and the intrusion of the supernatural lead the characters in worlds of guilt, horror and madness. Lopez-Morillas asks all participants to read the play by the first class and invites them to watch one or two of the many, many versions on film and video.
Julian Lopez-Morillas has performed with all the Bay Area theaters, including ACT, Berkeley Rep, California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes), San Jose Rep, the Magic Theater, the Aurora, San Jose Stage, as well as the Denver Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf, McCarter Theater, and Chicago’s Court Theater. He directed for many years with the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival (now Cal Shakes), and also for the Marin Theater Company, Berkeley Jewish Theater, San Jose Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the American Players’ Theater in Wisconsin. He has taught acting, directing, theater history, and Shakespeare for the University of California/Berkeley, San Jose State University, Mills College, Foothill College and Solano College.
For more information, email Stephanie Singer: [email protected]. Checks should be made out to DAOR and can be submitted at first class. Register with Roanne Butier: [email protected]
Introduction to Acting, Beginners
Instructor: Stephanie Singer Session Ended
Introduction to Acting is intended for students new to acting with limited or no stage experience or formal training. The class will focus on script analysis, character intentions, emotional adjustments and given circumstances—a basic, one-step-at-a-time approach to understanding a character and script. Students will be asked to read assigned scripts and work with scene partners outside of class. They will then perform the scenes in a subsequent session. Stephanie studied at the Jean Shelton Acting School in San Francisco and has performed at the Phoenix Theater and the Shelton Theater, both in San Francisco; the Town Hall in Moraga; and the Willows Theater in Concord. She has also performed with Story-Slam in Oakland and participated in comedy writing classes and sketch comedy performances with All-Out Comedy in Oakland. From 2017 to the present, Singer has been a performer and teacher/coach with Oaktown Improv. At DAOR, she taught script analysis and scene study.
Class is limited to 14 students. For questions about the class, email Stephanie Singer: [email protected]. Checks should be made out to DAOR and can be submitted at first class. Register with Roanne Butier: [email protected]
So You Want to Be a Director
Instructor: Michael McGarty Session Ended “So You Want to Be a Director” will introduce students to the fundamentals of directing, and will cover the range of talents and responsibilities taken on by the director. These include concept creation, design, casting and working with actors to produce a satisfying experience for an audience. Participants will study techniques in script analysis, design consistency, blocking/stage pictures, and acting chemistry. No previous experience is required. Michael McGarty has directed plays in New York/ New England community and professional theaters for 50 years. A recipient of numerous directing awards, he served as the Harvard Community Theater’s artistic director from its inception in 1990 to 2012, directing over 100 plays including four New England premieres of New York composer Jenny Giering’s work: Show, Crossing Brooklyn,Still Life, and Mistress Cycle.
Class is limited to 14. For questions about the class, email Michael: [email protected]. Checks should be made out to DAOR and can be submitted at first class. Register with Roanne Butier: [email protected]
New Class in Acting Comedy
Instructor: Jean Wilcox Session Ended From Abbott and Costello and Carol Burnett to more serious yet still comic work, the class will explore just what makes things funny. Timing, pacing, double takes and other comic business. Each student will have a partner and will spend the entire course on one comedy skit until it is finally honed. The class will be taught by Jean Wilcox, a Shellie Award winning actor and founder of DAOR. She loves to laugh and make others laugh too.
“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 -