Full Cast Audio Workshop Rescheduled

Thursday classes are canceled, Our Full Cast Audio workshop has been rescheduled for Friday, February 15th.

AUDITION NOTICE!

The Gifford Family Theater (GFT) is holding auditions for Go, Dog. Go!, Wednesday and Thursday, February 6 & 7, from 6:30pm-9:30pm. Go, Dog. Go! will run May 20th - June 14th at the Coyne Center for Performing Arts .

* Actors need to prepare a 1 minute comedic monologue and sing 16 bars of up-tempo music.

Students auditioning will have some in-class rehearsal time and additional time can be scheduled with me on Tuesdays or Saturdays. Marcia Hagan is also open to working with students on song selection and the 16 bars of music required for the audition.

The Gifford Family Theatre, in residence at Le Moyne College's Coyne Center for the Performing Arts, is Central New York's newest Theatre for Young Audiences. In the belief that the arts are crucial to the development of children and their subsequent participation in our community, the Gifford Family Theatre is committed to providing professional theatre to children and families, with affordable public performances and school matinees.

To schedule an audition please call the Gifford Family Theater at 445-4230. Auditions are by appointment only.

In-Class Reading

Your books, Acting A-Z: The Young Actor's Guide to a Stage or Screen Career by Katherine Mayfield arrived last week. This book covers the skills needed for success on stage and off. Thursday, January 17th we read pages 37-43 entitled "Everything You'll Need".
Here are some of the important points that you picked out of your reading.

(cont.)

Syracuse Stage Tour

West Side Story directed & choreographed by Anthony Salatino (2002)
January 23rd, we're taking a quick trip across the street for a tour of Syracuse Stage, Central New York's premier professional theatre. Founded in 1974 by Arthur Storch, Stage has produced more than 220 plays in 34 seasons including numerous world and American premieres. Each season audiences enjoy an exciting mix of comedies, dramas and musicals featuring the finest professional theatre artists. In addition, Stage maintains a educational outreach program that serves nearly 30,000 students from 24 counties.

Stage attracts leading designers, directors and performers from New York and leading regional theatres around the country. Visiting artists are supported by a full-time and seasonal staff of artisans, technicians and administrators who are responsible for all aspects of the theatre from building sets, props and costumes to marketing, development and box office.


Stage Visit Pic

Backstage Pass for Bomb-itty of Errors

You have a guest pass! The theater class is getting a sneak peak of Syracuse Stage's production of The Bomb-itty of Errors which opens March 12th. The class will have the opportunity to observe some rehearsals and ask the cast and director questions about the show. This is your chance to observe the skills that you have been working on in class in action. Watch carefully to find out how the tools you have learned, come into "play".


The Bomb-itty of Errors
Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors comes in for an “ad-rap-tation” as four gifted performers hit the street to launch an assault of non-stop, lightning-paced, side-splitting comedy. With its origin in the Roman playwright Plautus’ wild comedy The Menaechmi, the play involves two sets of identical twins and multiple cases of mistaken identity. This latest incarnation is a hip-hop, rap romp retelling of the famous comedy. After all, the Bard was a master of “word.”


**Dates: TBA

Class Assignment

I know that a few of you have a problem with the word homework, I will start instead with this, your assignment to be completed by Wednesday April 30th, is to choose one actor, director or playwright from the list below. Every student will be required to turn in a two page paper about the artist that you have choosen. Included in the paper should be, a bit about their background, education and career. Please also tell me why you choose this person and if there is anything historically significant or unique about the artist.

Please choose from the list below - if you have someone in mind that is not on the list just let me know so the name can be added.

Hattie McDaniel * Sidney Poiter * Paul Robeson * Pearl Cleage * August Wilson * Ruby Dee * Suzan Lori-Parks * Amiri Baraka * Wol Soyinka * Langston Hughes * Ntozake Shange * Cheryl West * Lorraine Hansberry * Regina Taylor * Audra MacDonald * Diahann Carrol * Ethel Waters * Harry Belafont * Eartha Kitt * Lena Horne* Bill Bojangles Robinson Alice Childress * LaChanze * Phylica Rashad * August Wilson * Paul Robeson * Sidney Poiter * Lynne Nottage * Angela Bassett * Taye Diggs * MorganFreeman * Samuel L. Jackson * Richard Roundtree * Nia Long * Morris Chestnut * Harold Perrineau * Terrence Howard * Sanaa Lathan * Monica Calhoun * James Earl Jones

Stage Directions

Blocking A director may give you instruction such as “cross downstage right or ”sit in chair upstage center”. This diagram outlines standard stage directions used in blocking. Stage directions are from the point of the actor facing the audience.

Field Trip! LeMoyne College Coyne Theatre Tour

Ok class, we are on the road tomorrow so please get to class on time and remember to bring your journals. We will be visiting the W. Carroll Coyne Center for the Performing Arts, a 20,000 square foot facility dedicated to education and performance at Le Moyne College.

The PAC includes a flexible main theatre, a studio theatre, dance and design studios, classrooms, production shops and attractive lobby. Theatre arts, music, and dance students are the primary users of the PAC. It is home to eleven student performance ensembles and the Le Moyne campus venue for visiting professional artists. The PAC also hosts two community outreach organizations: The Gifford Family Theatre and Music Journeys, Inc.

Pictures from the Tour

Class Professional Headshots

An 8″x10″ headshot print is essentially “a business card for actors” which is presented to casting directors who decide whether a person has the right “look” for a particular part for a role in a movie, TV show, or theatrical part.

A headshot is more than just a pretty picture. A good headshot is intended to show a person “as they are”, focusing on the person’s best qualities. It won’t make you look older. It won’t make you look like someone else. A good headshot will give the casting agent a hint of the person’s character, or show their potential for a particular role the casting director is looking to fill.


While taking pictures, you should not be thinking about anything except being present in the here and now. Remember, your headshots need to catch that something special about you. The camera does not need to capture you thinking about whether you forgot your homework in your locker - because believe me - it will!



**Special thanks to photographer Brantley Carroll