People like to romanticize acting as something that requires a natural born talent or some sort of “deep artistic feeling,” but really, it’s a skilled trade. Anyone can learn to do it, and anyone can learn specific techniques to get a lot better at it.
Ctrl-ART-Del is offering a three-weekend-long Scene Study course that covers the basics of acting technique, all through hands-on work. You’ll get a taste of working as an ensemble, be cast in a scene from a contemporary play, get individual rehearsal time with a professional director and finish off by performing your scene for an audience at the end of the course.
Plus, following the presentation, we’ll be announcing our 2024 mainstage season of plays, so you’ll be the first to know.
What to Expect:
This course is ideal both for people who have never been onstage before but want to learn some basic technical skills, and for people who have been onstage in school or community theatre, and want an idea of the skills needed to thrive in a post secondary theatre program or a professional rehearsal room.
This three-weekend long course will cover the basics of contemporary theatre acting skills. Students will be coached through a monologue of their own choosing, participate in a group table read, work as an ensemble to break down a script through tablework, and learn how to create clear objectives and tell an effective story by working through scenes from the show.
They will then get a chance to put these new skills to work. Students will be cast into short scenes from contemporary plays and receive private rehearsal time with their scene partner and a professional director to get the scenes stage ready. The course will end with a performance of all the scenes for friends, family and the general public on the evening of Sunday, October 15, 2023.
Following the performance, we will be announcing our 2024 mainstage season.
Who Can Participate:
This course is open to both teens (grade 9 and up) and adults of any experience level. There is no audition requirement for participation. Registration is first come, first serve. We will be capping the number of participants at 20, to ensure all performers receive one-on-one rehearsal time.
The course costs $60/participant. If this is a barrier to you, please reach out to us at info@ctrlartdel.ca and we can arrange for a bursary.
Where and When:
Classes run for two weekends at the Minden Lions Hall: September 23 & 24 and September 30 & October 1, from 10 AM – 4 PM. The third weekend will have a different schedule, as we’ll be preparing for our presentation at the end of the course.
Saturday, October 14 is a rehearsal day at Minden Lions Hall, with individual scenes called for an hour each between 9 AM and 6 PM. On October 15, we will meet at the Haliburton Legion from 10 – 4 PM for a final day of rehearsal with the full cast. At 4 PM, members of the public are invited to watch a presentation of all the scenes.
Minden Lions Hall:
166 Bobcaygeon Rd, Minden, ON K0M 2K0
Haliburton Legion:
719 Mountain St, Haliburton, ON K0M 1S0
What to Prepare:
Please bring in a contemporary monologue between one and two minutes long for the first day of class. This monologue can be from a play, a novel, or a poem, but please avoid monologues from film & TV, or self written material. The most important thing is that it has be a piece of writing that you really like it and enjoy performing. We don’t care about the age or the gender of the character, as long as you can relate to it.
Monologues do not need to be memorized, but please be familiar with the material. We will work through them together.
If you aren’t sure where to find a monologue, there are links in the registration form to monologues you can use for this course.
Please bring along writing utensils (highlighters, pencils and erasers), a notebook and a ruler. Please plan to bring or buy your own lunch.
All other materials for the course will be provided for you in class.