Workshops galore!

At this conference will offer four separate performing art tracks: Choral, Dance, Non-musical Theatre & Playwrighting

 

Choral Track

Festival Chorale Concert  ~ In addition to workshops featuring skill building activities, Jeanne Kelly (see Headliner link) will conduct the festival chorale concert performed by all festival singers.  (E-mail Arne Lindquist, alindquist@ccbcmd.edu, for a copy of the music to be rehearsed.  This will be forwarded to you in advance.)

 

Dance Track

Choreographer Roger Wade (see Headliner link) will direct the festival dance track.  Dancers will enjoy the morning workshops resulting in a performance opportunity, a culminating event at the festival.

 

Additional dance workshops include:

Broadway Tap 

Thirty-five year Broadway veteran dancer and choreographer Patti D’Beck guides you through tap combinations she helped create for Bernadette Peters in ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, Keith Carradine in THE WILL ROGERS’  FOLLIES and Tommy Tune and Twiggy in MY ONE AND ONLY.
Facilitator:  Patti D’Beck An experienced dance supervisor and Virginia Commonwealth University professor, Ms. D’Beck tailors each combination to suit different levels of tap technique just as she did on the Broadway shows.  Patti will also share coaching tips she successfully used when rehearsing and teaching other senior performers including Mickey Rooney, Al Jarreau, and Chubby Checker.

 

Create Health…One Story…One Dance at a Time

Channeling the dancer within towards the musical rhythms of our personal stories.  Stories lie in our memories and can be summoned through artifacts.  In the workshop, participants will work with a variety of objects intended to trigger a memory that leads to a story and a dance.
Facilitators:  Cynthia Alicea and Suanne Ferguson Both trainers created programs for seniors – Cynthia’s Mindful Moves in Pinellas County, FL and Suanne’s Tempo! in Jefferson and Shelby Counties, AL.  Cynthia is a member of Creative Aging Pinellas, an affiliate of the National Center of Creative Aging in Washington, DC and was selected to participate as a Teaching Artist in the “NCCA Arts and Aging Core Training Program.”  Suanne is a teacher, author, dancer and storyteller.  Her talk, Movin’ On, combines the power of story with the energy of dance.

 

Freeing the Dancer Within

All abilities welcome, including seated participants; no dance experience necessary.  This workshop celebrates the joy of expressing one’s life experience through movement, inviting forth the “dance within”.  Participants will explore the building blocks of movement – space, time, energy, shape, line; connect movement, rhythm and voice; and experiment with movement inspired by visual art and poetry.  Chairs will be incorporated as needed for support, as sculptural elements, and as dramatic partners.
Facilitator:  Greacian Goeke is a director at Stagebridge Senior Theatre Company of Oakland, CA where she directs two federally funded storytelling in the school programs that integrate language, movement and music for developing literacy skills.  She is founder and artistic director of Impromptu No Tutu, the resident movement ensemble at Albany, CA Senior Center.  She received a Level III Certificate in Orff-Schulwerk through Mills College and has trained in modern dance, percussion, improvisation and choral singing.  She is past president of the Northern California American Orff-Schulwerk Association of music teachers.

 

Non-Musical Theatre Track

Auditioning for Community Theatre for Seniors

Collecting Memories and Creating Theatre

Sister will explain the process used in “Memories on Review:  Tales from World War 11”.  She will then ask participants to do some on-the-spot interviewing and then translate some of the stories into readers’ theatre.”
Facilitator:  Sr. Germaine Corbin, CCVI grew up in Louisiana and holds a Ph.D. in American Theatre History from the University of Illinois.  She currently teaches theatre at The University of The Incarnate Word  in San Antonio, TX.  She founded Extended Run Players, a readers’ theatre company that performs both on and off campus.  The group donates all profits from these productions to an endowment for theatre scholarship.  To date, they have raised $100,000.

Getting Your Act Together and Taking it On the Road!  What we’ve learned over 28 Years” 

The Seasoned Performers have been on the road for 28 years taking original one act plays and 25 minute readings to north central Alabama’s most underserved communities.  We’ve learned a few things along the way and look forward to sharing with our fellow senior thespians.  From booking to casting to script writing to packing a van and everything else in between, we’ll let you know what we know, what we don’t know, and what we hope to find out?
Facilitator:  Ellise Mayor Artistic Director of The Seasoned Performers, directs frequently for Birmingham Festival Theatre as well as The Seasoned Performers.  She is drama instructor for the Birmingham-Southern College Conservatory and in 2000-2001 was selected by Birmingham city schools as a teaching artist participant at Lincoln Center Institute for Aesthetic Education in NYC.  She worked for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for four years as the music and vocal instructor in the Camp Shakespeare Rural Tour Artists in the Schools program.  Mayor has a BA in English, minor in theatre and German from the University of Alabama and is a graduate of the National Shakespeare Conservatory where she also taught vocal technique.

Going Modern by Going Ancient:  Acting Lessons from the Theatre of  Classical Greece

Through hands-on exercises and collaborative activities, workshop participants will focus their exploration on mask work as it applies to the importance of movement intelligence, and the role of the chorus as a voyage in the collective energy and ‘tuning-in’ which is the backbone of theatrical excellence.
Facilitator: Pat Beavens is celebrating her 30th year as an actor and director in regional, summer and dinner theatre productions.  She is associated with ACT YOUR AGE players out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

 

Gwanwyn Festival of Arts and Creativity for Older People:  Cardiff Wales

This workshop will not only familiarize participants with the Senior Theatre Movement in the United Kingdom but provide details about the Welsh Festival and how Senior Theatre USA might partner with the organization in upcoming years.  The agenda for the workshop is primarily discussion to acquaint each other with the purpose and possibilities of international participation.
Facilitator:  Philip Thomas’s current post is as Development Officer for arts and creativity of older people for the charity Age Cymru.  In this role, he is also Coordinator of the Gwanwyn festival of arts for older people which is currently in its sixth successful year.  In 2006, he obtained a Masters Degree in Ethnomuiscology (World Music Studies) through Sheffield University.  Working as a musician and performer for over 30 years, his current interest is Acoustic and World Music.  He has performed as a storyteller and musician in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Canada and Europe.

 

The Living Newspaper  

Inspired by the innovative performances of companies ranging from the 1930’s Federal Theatre Project to contemporary improvisation troupes, this workshop will present an approach to creating dramatic monologues and scenes from newspaper human interest stories.  Using these articles as a springboard, workshop participants will discover how to transform them into compelling theatrical works.
Facilitator:  Dr. Dori Appel’s plays have been widely produced in the United States and abroad.  Her full lenth plays, Girl Talk, Hot Flashes, and Hat Tricks are published by Samuel French, and thirteen of her dramatic monologues are published in anthologies.  She has taught playwriting and improvisation in a variety of settings, including the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon.

 

Move Over, Romeo & Juliet

The Silver Stage Players will share their adventures in researching, composing and performing a presentation spotlighting Shakespeare’s more mature characters.  During the workshop, each participant will be encouraged to “cloak” themselves in one of Shakespeare’s spectacular senior roles.
Facilitators:  Jeanette M. Stevens and Pat Rozelle are active members of the Silver Stage Players, an education/outreach program of The Wild Thyme Players in Knoxville, Tenn.  Together, they have over 50 years of combined teaching experience.  They have performed in, written and directed several plays with local community theatre companies.  Jeanette and Pat welcome the opportunity to share Silver Stage’s Shakespeare experience with other senior actors.

 

Seasoned Readers:  Keeping Readers Theatre Going and Growing

The workshop will explore methods of keeping 20 people rehearsed, polished and growing in their skills (and having fun!) in a once a week workshop producing over 100 performances a year at community sites.  It will include a demonstration of the work of the Seasoned Readers and discussion of finding, preparing and polishing original or public domain material for use by teams of readers.  Some of the material will be performed “cold” by workshop participants.
Facilitator:  Martha Haarbauer founded The Seasoned Performers, Alabama’s only senior adult touring theatre company, and directed it from 1984 through 2007 when she retired to become its Readers Coordinator.  She taught acting at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and is author of Seasoned Theatre:  A Guide to Creating and Maintaining a Senior Adult Theatre, published by Heinemann in 2000.   She received the Birmingham Festival of Arts Silver Bowl Award and the 2001 Marian Gallaway Award for contributions to theatre in Alabama from the Alabama Conference of Theatre and Speech.

 

The Set Cost You What? 

Economic set design combines routine carpentry with painting talent.  Required are a tape measure, hammer, nails, screwdrivers, wood glue, electric drill and skill saw, latex house paint, brushes, drop cloths and running water.  Components for “The Real Inspector Hound” (in performance at this festival) cost $65 for lumber, hardware and muslin.  Assembled over a 3 day period, the pieces are fully transportable (a rear projection screen being the only on sight requirement).
Facilitator:  Robert Beck holds a BA degree in drama and speech from Saint Louis University.  A 20 year teaching veteran, he has designed and directed over 50 plays and musicals and performed in many more.  His wife, Suzie, is a teacher, seamstress and lighting designer who graduated from Fontbonne University in St. Louis.

 

This Is Your Life:  “Scrambled Eggs

A guided improvisation involving the hilariously dysfunctional Egg family.  Volunteers are assigned roles and attitudes which, on the leader’s command, are reversed (e.g. the pliable son becomes rebellious, the loving mother critical).  Group discussion follows:  is there any therapeutic value to this entertainment?
Facilitator:  Jim Soules, PhD is a behavioral therapist.  Formerly Dean of Palomar College in Southern California, he left academia for business, owning three nightclubs, showcasing a variety of acts, including Elvis Presley.  He specialized in therapeutic hypnosis and has appeared on the Johnny Carson Show; in person with Tom Cruise on Dr. Jim’s own program; and entertained celebrities in their homes, helping stars overcome memory and weight problems.  He is a published author and scholar who has travelled on five continents.

 

Your Vocal Skills Tool Kit

Explores all the tools you need to enhance your speaking voice for optimum performance; areas covered include inflection, resonance, pitch, pace, articulation, projection, breathing and breath control and vocal warm ups.
Facilitator: Pat Beavens  [See “Going Modern by Going Ancient” above.]

 

Playwriting Track

What Ever Happened To…? 

Explore what happens after that final curtain.  Ever wonder what Biff, Happy and Linda Loman did after paying attention to Willie?  How did Fortinbras make out as King of Denmark?  Did the child of Maggie, the Cat, and Brick become a surly adolescent?  Did George and Martha really live happily ever after?  Extend famous characters into their senior years, writing the next  act. Participants will create imaginative continuations of famous plays, with public readings of results at conference conclusion.
Facilitator:  Alan Woods is a founding board member of STUSA and recently retired from Ohio State University, where he conducted regular workshops on theatre and aging, as well as retreats for playwrights, and was curator for the Eileen Heckart Senior Theatre Playwriting Library.  His short plays for older performers have been produced on every continent (except Antarctica); they include sequels to Twelfth Night and Death of a Salesman, and a prequel to Hamlet.  His plays are available at www.alanwoods.org