Imaginary Creatures (Ages: 5-8)
Put your imagination into action! Join us as we create our own magical creature-characters and weave together our own, one-of-kind storyplay. We will use creative movement, theatre games, improvisation, storytelling, and music to play our way to a “sharing” on the final day.
Hero’s Quest: (Ages: 6-9)
Save the princess from the Dragon; Trick the Pirates into giving you their map, or dive deep underwater to find the lost artifact, a new and exciting adventure is waiting for you every week! Come along and discover how to create new characters using our voices and bodies, proving that the only limitation is one’s imagination.
Let’s Make-Up – Michael LoSasso (All ages)
A fun workshop where students learn the use of make-up to create characters from standard make-up to applying beards, inventing a clown face, crafting believable scars and injuries, and advanced age. You may be surprised whom you take home after class!
Introduction to Screen Acting – Meredith Binder (Ages: 8-13)
An on-camera class where the Y.E.S. students learn the fundamentals of screen acting through a series of acting exercises using improvisation, physical tasks, interviews and scripted dialogue. The students will become familiar with screen acting terminology, and experience the difference between screen and stage techniques. Each class begins with a vocal and physical warm-up, and the course ends with a DVD of students’ work. Lab Fee
Acting I – Michael LoSasso (Ages: 6-9)
Acting begins with step one, and this class introduces the first steps in creating a character, working scenes, and understanding text. Through an atmosphere of support and fun, new actors begin to lose their shyness, abandon their self-consciousness, and release their hidden talents.
Improvisation – Jack Lush (Ages: 8-13)
Improvisation is an essential tool for all actors. Whether they like to sing, dance, act or just have fun on stage, they will learn the effective guidelines of improvisation to create exciting characters, scenes and stories. Freed from the restrictions of established text, the Y.E.S. actors’ true spontaneous creativity is stimulated and inspired. As Charles Darwin said “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” The class will conclude with a performance/party.
Clowning Around – Michael LoSasso (Ages: 8-13)
Discover your inner clown! Students will develop their own clown’s make-up, costume, character, and unique twist on their untapped goofball. To receive or not to receive a pie in the face, that is the question!
Intro to Performing – Yvette Zaepfel (Ages 5-8)
Fairies, magic gone awry, and humans turning into donkeys, zounds! It can only mean one thing: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Students will create props and costumes in preparation for acting out a scene from one of the Shakespeare’s most popular plays. This nurturing approach is an effective way for kids to get their feet wet introducing them to performing.
Intro to Movement – Roger Tompkins (Ages: 8-13)
This 8-week workshop teaches the Y.E.S. actor to influence and change their partner through physical action instead of relying on words. Using theatre masks, stage movement (blocking), props and developing posture, this non-verbal communication becomes focused and specific. Ultimately, these adjustments to a person’s physical representation are usable in any job interview or public presentation.
Boot Camp: Musical Theater Audition Workshop – Megan Becker
Enliven your auditions by being coached through simulated dance and singing auditions, and cold (unrehearsed) readings.
Whether you are a seasoned performer or starting out, this class is a must for performers who want to further their audition skills.
Intro to The Masters Class – Roger Tompkins
Civilizations first playwrights did not write for the classroom, but for their audience to be entertained. Their themes and ideas about human nature and our societies are still relevant to today’s generation. The Y.E.S. actor will perform these ancient classics as well as scenes from the contemporary plays they influenced. In comparing and contrasting, Y.E.S. actors discover there is truly “nothing new under the sun.”
Tea Overboard – Ruth McRee
Using stories based on primary historical sources, fifth graders dramatize, enact, and become the characters from the American Revolution, exploring it from six different points of view.
Brave New World – Ruth McRee
Using drama, active interactive problem solving, and improvisation, students explore the enduring American values that arrived with the first colonists’ footfalls in the New World. This program challenges students to reconsider their own values and to weigh the potential consequences.