Festival theatre is pleased to offer a variety of classes for all ages starting this November. After requests from patrons, Festival is expanding Arts Education programming into individual classes. Fall offerings include Acting for film, poetry, improv and crocheting.
Actors Workshop on Acting for the Camera will be taught by Ron Larson and takes place Sundays November 1, 8, 15, and 22 from 6-8 PM. A 4-week intensive workshop for actors who want to work in film or a refresher for those who have been. Following Uta Hagen’s Method for Camera, the course will focus on script analysis, psychological realism, understanding the arc of a character, subtext, as well as taking direction and understanding the director’s perspective. The goal is to help build and create a solid character and performance utilizing all of these tools. Actors will work in pairs on a small (2-3 page) scene during the course of the class, culminating in a filmed performance at the end of the class.
Monday mornings in November from 10-11 AM, Abi Leveille and Elizabeth Albers will host a yarn circle to teach people of all ages how to knit or crochet. Whether you’re brand new to yarn crafting or want to learn some new stitches, Abi and Elizabeth will guide you through a new adventure every week. Bring in your own projects to work on or come prepared to try something new. Abi will help teach basic crochet stitches and amigurumi techniques (crochet stuffed animals) and Elizabeth can help with knitting basics.
Improv Playground will take place Wednesdays December 2, 9 and 16 from 7 PM with Abi Leveille. A member of Festival’s Sew Good Improv troupe, Abi taught workshops with the Improv for YOUth summer conservatory, Northwest Passage and performs with Black Dirt Improv in Hastings, MN. Focused on the basics of improv, this course will help students step out of the box and have some creative fun! Throughout the course, students will become familiar with the rules of yes…and, relationship, and full agreement through scene work and exercises. The class is built for anyone 13 and older with all levels of improvisers, especially beginners!
Tuesdays December 1 and 8 from 6:30-8 PM Poetry Forms and Robert Frost will be taught by Ed Moersfelder, the poet laurite of Amery and actor with Festival Theatre. The course will explore the music, rhyme, and meter of poetry by looking at poems of Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, W.B. Yeats and others. Class participants will read and recite poetry focusing on classic forms such as limericks (great for rhyme and meter), sonnets, and variations found in poets' work. Participants will also be encouraged (but not required) to memorize a poem or poems and write poems using techniques discussed in class, including various rhyme schemes, use of consonant and vowel sounds, and different meter.
Register for one (or all) of these classes through FestivalTheatre.org or by calling the box office at 715-483-3387. All courses are pay-what-you-can.