Summer Theatre Intensive
August 10 to 14, 2009

Make 'Em Laugh: Comedy Performance Skills for Actors and Directors

Instructor: Heather Dick

If you love comedy, but hesitate to try it, then this is the FUN course for you.

We will explore the art of playing several different types of comedy through exercises, games, improvisations, and text work.  We will explore physical, verbal and situational comedy, timing, "setting up" jokes, and comedic moments.  We will play with costumes and props to develop comedic characters and we will watch videos of classic comedy scenes and sketches. Directors will have an opportunity to direct, and actors will have an opportunity to act in short, rehearsed scenes. You will have opportunities to work with a variety of text material including simple jokes, British farce, and modern Canadian and American plays, and the classical repertoire.  At all times you will be encouraged to use your own unique qualities and imaginations, to explore, and to take risks with your work in a very supportive atmosphere. At the end of the course, participants may have an opportunity to showcase and share their prepared material with other summer course participants.

Suitable for intermediate and advanced levels.

Heather Dick is a performer, director and acting instructor who loves to bring humour into every aspect of her work.  She has performed in, directed, or produced more than 70 shows and has taught classes and workshops for over 21 years.  As the Founder and Artistic Director of the Sirius Theatrical Company (STC), Heather teaches a variety of classes for both adults and youth, runs an ‘actors’ gym’ for working performers, and directs 1 to 2 productions a year.

Advanced Scene Study: Acting Chekhov

Instructor: Brenda Bazinet

This is an intensive scene study class focusing on the works of Anton Chekhov. This course will explore the inner movement of Chekhov’s very real, very complex people and thus provide the actors with the tools to explore the inner lives of all characters they play in the future. Each scene will be explored through round the table discussions and rehearsals, ending with a final presentation. Since Stanislavsky was one of the first directors of Chekhov’s work and the father of a new system of performance, many of Stanislavsky’s exercises will be used to open up the scenes and to encourage in depth character study. It will give the actors a method by which they can find the truth in their work and the hidden meanings beneath the words.

Suitable for intermediate and advanced levels. Acceptance based on résumé (required with your application.)

Brenda Bazinet is an actor, director and acting instructor.  With over thirty years experience, she has performed on stages across the country and appeared in over eighty film and television projects.  Some of her recent acting credits for the theatre include: Ring Round the Moon, The Wild Duck (Soulpepper); Old Love (Lighthouse Festival Theatre); The Goat, Equus (Citadel Theatre); The Price (Sudbury Theatre Centre); Ashes to Ashes (Summerworks); Death of a Salesman (Neptune Theatre); End of Civilization (Factory Theatre); Leaving Home (Blyth Festival). Recent television credits include:  Flashpoint, Burn Up, MVP, Custody, Sins of the Father, This is Wonderland, Redemption, Puppets Who Kill, Rabbittown and A Grief Shared (Gemini Award).  Her recent directing credits include:  Problem Child, Adult Entertainment, Featuring Loretta (Fanshawe College); The Chekhov Project, End of Summer (George Brown Theatre School); Love List (Iguana Productions, Mexico), Blown Sideways Through Life (Toronto Fringe Festival – Best of the Fringe); Of the Fields Lately (Sudbury Theatre Centre); The Sea, Under Milk Wood (Actors Repertory Company).  Brenda has become a much sought after acting instructor and has taught for George Brown Theatre School, Ryerson University (Act II), Fanshawe College, Equity Showcase, ACTRAWORKS, Armstrong Acting Studio, the Women in the Director’s Chair Program (Banff) and Humber College (Acting for Film and Television Program).

Shakespeare Conservatory

Presented in partnership with Equity Showcase Theatre

Instructor: Andrew Tidmarsh

This year we are offering an advanced Shakespeare acting workshop with Andrew Tidmarsh from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts & the Drama Center (London, England).

Our theory is that if you can handle the complexities of Shakespeare’s verse, you can do anything. The embodiment of text is key to the actors’ craft. This workshop enables you to sharpen your acting skills by using Shakespeare’s texts to test out new approaches and techniques. We will be investigating practically: the relationship between form and content; heightened form and heightened experience; the art of performing an engaging monologue; the breath and phrase in Shakespeare; Shakespearean characterization; the codes of Elizabethan Court and what this means to an actor in the world of the play. By the end of the week, participants will: be able to present a monologue; be able to present a short duologue or group scene; have an understanding of the Elizabethan world view; feel tested and stretched as an actor; be developing a new sense of intellectual and instinctual muscularity; understand how the relationships you build in scenes are the key to effectiveness as an actor.

Andrew Tidmarsh will be guiding the actor through these processes using play, improvisation and scene building. While each actor will receive a great deal of personal attention they will also be working ‘on their feet’ throughout much of the day. The emphasis on the class time is on doing, acting, creating and building. Relatively little time is spent watching or discussing. Each actor is asked to come having prepared and learned a short monologue and a sonnet.

This course is intended to combine the skills of both professional and experienced community theatre actors.

Suitable for advanced levels. Acceptance based on résumé (required with your application.)

Following his BA in English and German and his MA in English (both from London University) Andrew Tidmarsh worked briefly as a standup comedian before being asked to run a theatre company in Wuerzburg in the South of Germany. The theatre company soon expanded into touring its productions to theatres and festivals throughout Germany.

Returning to UK, Andrew became an assistant director at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. He has directed at Shakespeare’s Globe, Jermyn St Theatre, Wimbledon theatre studio among many other venues. In 2002 Andrew directed Much Ado About Nothing in the Philippines.

Since 2001, Andrew has lectured in Elizabethan theatre and theatre history at Goldsmiths, University of London. Andrew helped to set up the MA in European Classical Acting at Drama Centre London; a course involving students attending partner institutions: Vakhtanghov Institute in Moscow and Shakespeare’s Globe in London. Andrew was the course director of this course until 2007.

Currently Andrew works at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he set up the Academy’s new Foundation Course, and is the Course Director. Andrew also runs the Young Actors’ Summer School and the Chekhov Summer School. As well as RADA and Drama Centre, Andrew has worked at East 15 and Central School of Speech and Drama.

In addition to working on Classical Texts, Andrew’s other main professional interest is working with writers and devising work. He directs for the “Goldsmiths New Voices” new writing festival at the Tristan Bates theatre every year.

Andrew’s approach is concerned with encouraging every actor to engage with his or her creativity with confidence and security. A safe and structured environment is immediately established with the actors. They are no longer concerned with right or wrong, but instead are free to build with imagination and ownership. Underlying this approach is Andrew’s solid technical understanding of effective storytelling and the crafts needed by the versatile actor.

Andrew lives in London with his partner and their four-year-old son.