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Actor Education

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Category: Producing Theater
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URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3356
Printed Date: 11/23/24 at 3:55pm
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Topic: Actor Education

Posted By: bftcbrian
Subject: Actor Education
Date Posted: 8/14/08 at 2:48pm

Hello,

This is my first time posting to this board, but my board and I are a bit stumped. We're a small community theater beginning its second season, and with that, the very start of what we hope will be an ongoing actor education program with a basic monologue/audition workshop. We plan to extend eventually to include improvisation and meisner technique, among other things.

Monologue/Audition is a two session class that focuses first on staging and feeling comfortable with a monologue and second on taking that solid monologue and working in proper audition aesthetic. There are two colleges in the area whose students are are biggest target draw for this workshop. I would appreciate any input and advice that you may collectively have about the best pricing for a workshop like this or any other tips you may have.

Thanks!

Replies:

Posted By: tonyboling
Date Posted: 8/14/08 at 3:17pm

This would be a great idea and I'd be interested in more information as well.

I'd love to have maybe an audition workshop....one day, 4 hours like 2 weeks before auditions for every show of the season. also maybe a newcomer workshop with a similar time slot in order to attract people who might be interested, but never even audition because they felt they didn't know enough. Things like what everything is like how a show is put on, what blocking is, techniques to memorize lines, touch on audition technique but have the audition class after this one) stage directions and so on.

Got my wheels turning.

As far as price I'd think for a 1 day workshop, you'd be fine even charging like $65 for each one, $50 if you register for both maybe.

Posted By: bftcbrian
Date Posted: 8/14/08 at 3:25pm

Wow. That's a lot more than I was thinking. That's a pretty good idea. I'm not sure how big of a market there is for this stuff where I am... still trying to get a feel for it. So I was thinking about a smaller scale of an hour or two per session and being as reasonably dirt cheap as I could.

But you bring up some very valid ideas. Wheels turning here too.

Posted By: tonyboling
Date Posted: 8/14/08 at 3:50pm

This is what I plan to send to our executive director.

file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CAdmin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml -

file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CAdmin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml - - - - - - - PROS: Only one day each so renting space would be covered as long as the minimum amount of students registered. Shouldn’t be too hard to find a willing instructor as

Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 8/14/08 at 3:59pm

65 dollars for one class seems extremely expensive to me. At least I'd never pay that but I'm pretty frugal and live in a small town. Unless the teacher has some impressive credentials.

Posted By: tonyboling
Date Posted: 8/14/08 at 4:45pm

I came to $65 so I could use $100 for registering for both. It might be a tad high. I just needed a number to stick in there. Just brainstorming right now. We don't have a space at all, so unless we were to be able to use a church fellowship hall or something it's $75 a night to rent a local entertainment/cabaret hall/room so I was going off of that as well.

If we could get space donated it could be cheaper, sure.

Posted By: jayzehr
Date Posted: 8/14/08 at 4:58pm

I'd say $25 would be the high end for what you're talking about but, hey, if you can get 50-60 dollars for a class like that go for it. One of the other communty theaters in our area gives an audition workshop for two saturdays before an audition but it's free. I've thought about trying that as a strategy for increasing attendence and getting a look at people ahead of time.

Posted By: drose
Date Posted: 8/16/08 at 4:06pm

We ran a 6 week actors workshop that focused mainly on basic techniques using monologues. It was one day a week (tuesday nites - 2 hours) for the six weeks and then we had a one nite only "production" that featured each actor performing two monologues. We charged $25 per person for the workshop and had 10 people.

An audition workshop is a good idea, but I'm not sure I'd feel good about it only being one day. I'd want to give the actors the chance to work on a monologue and have some time to assimilate the information before participating in a mock audition (especially if you are targeting new auditioners!)

Posted By: Dave Charest
Date Posted: 8/21/08 at 2:43pm

I think workshops are a great idea.

Here's what you could think about doing. As tonyboling mentioned there are many aspects you could touch on.

Originally posted by tonyboling

how a show is put on, what blocking is, techniques to memorize lines, touch on audition technique but have the audition class after this one) stage directions and so on.

You could break down each topic into it's own seminar. Go in-depth into each. E.g. blocking - What is blocking? How is it used? What are the stage directions? etc.

Once you have everything mapped out. You could offer the first workshop for a nominal fee, (whatever that happens to be in your area.) Then charge more for the more advanced techniques.

Set it up in a sequence, like school. You can't move on to the next workshop until you've completed the prerequisite.

In fact, if you got enough interest you'd be educating the community on the theatre and building relationships for future productions.

It'll take a bit of work on the front end so you have a valuable workshop. But once you lay the foundation and get feedback you'll know how to make adjustments and get more people involved.

D.