Tag Archives: All levels

Re-Acting Is Easy – A Four-week Workshop

Leave a reply

This workshop series is for all levels of actors, from beginners to seasoned community theatre actors and professionals.

Building on the exercises in the the introductory acting “Playshop,” OX will guide students in developing their acting skills while customizing workshop content to the group. In a user-friendly environment, students will learn by doing. Attendance at the introductory session is not a prerequisite for attending this four-week class.

Theatre games and exercises will include non-verbal and verbal communication, creating characters, and script analysis.  Participants will do both very short monologues and dialogues.  No memorization will be necessary. 

Dress in comfortable clothes you can move in.

The cost for the four-week workshop is $100. The minimum enrollment is 6 participants, and the maximum is 20.

OX

OX has been a professional actor for twenty years with work on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in feature films, TV movies and daytime, commercials, and voice-overs. OX is the creator of Acting is Easy, a user-friendly acting technique that works for all genres.

He has taught acting technique to over 5,000 actors, models, athletes, and amateurs of all ages, including work with physically and mentally challenged students. OX is the owner of The Acting Laboratory, one of the first on-camera acting training centers in the East. As a casting director, he has overseen 50,000 individual auditions and has directed over 100 plays, musicals, revues, television commercials, and promotional videos.

COVID POLICY – Until further notice, proof of vaccination is no longer required to attend classes and workshops. Masks remain optional.

Acting Is Easy – A Free “Playshop”

Leave a reply

This free PLAYSHOP is for all levels of actors, from beginners to seasoned community theatre actors and professionals.

Acting is about playing. That is why they call it a Play.

Participants will begin with non-verbal communication theatre games. In a user-friendly environment, students will learn by doing. Then students will venture into verbal communication and be introduced to script analysis and creating characters, all of which works for any genre.  Participants will do both very short monologues and dialogues.  No memorization will be necessary. 

Dress in comfortable clothes you can move in.

This workshop will be followed by a four-week class on Saturday mornings in May. See this listing on our website.

This introductory workshop is free! The minimum is 6 participants, and the maximum is 20.

OX

OX has been a professional actor for twenty years with work on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in feature films, TV movies and daytime, commercials, and voice-overs. OX is the creator of Acting is Easy, a user-friendly acting technique that works for all genres.

He has taught acting technique to over 5,000 actors, models, athletes, and amateurs of all ages, including work with physically and mentally challenged students. OX is the owner of The Acting Laboratory, one of the first on-camera acting training centers in the East. As a casting director, he has overseen 50,000 individual auditions and has directed over 100 plays, musicals, revues, television commercials, and promotional videos.

COVID POLICY – Until further notice, proof of vaccination is no longer required to attend classes and workshops. Masks remain optional.

An Afternoon with Four CT Poet Laureates

Leave a reply

April is National Poetry Month. Join us for an afternoon of words and conversation featuring four Connecticut Poet Laureates. Free event featuring Sandy Carlson of Woodbury, Rick Magee of Bethel, Deborah Rose of New Milford, and Faith Vicinanza of Southbury.

Sandy Lee Carlson lives with her family in Woodbury, where she is poet laureate.  Sandy has published several collections of poetry, and she hosts the literary podcasts Woodbury Writes (in collaboration with Woodbury Public Library) and People and Their Poems. You’ll find her work on her website, sandycarlson.net.

Rick Magee,

Rick Magee teaches literature and writing class at Sacred Heart University. He has been published in the American Journal of Poetry, The Madrigal, New Note Poetry, and in An Áitiúil, an anthology of poetry about the Irish landscape. He is the Poet Laureate of Bethel, where he lives with his wife and son.

Deborah Rose is a writer, photographer, poet, and award-winning journalist. A native of New Milford, she is editor, writer, and photographer for the Town of New Milford’s tourism and community website, www.NewMilfordNow.org. Deborahwas appointed New Milford Poet Laureate in 2022 and facilitates the New Milford Public Library poetry workshop. She is VP of Public Relations for the Ostomy Foundation in New Milford, vice president of Kent News, Inc., and serves on several town committees.

Faith Vicinanza is the author of four collections of poetry and is currently working on several new collections and a memoir. She has served as a Connecticut Master Teaching Artist, an editor for several literary magazines, and as the founder and executive director of the Connecticut Poetry Festival. In 2003 she was a recipient of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts Advocates for the Arts Award. 

COVID POLICY – Until further notice, proof of vaccination is not required to attend classes or workshops. Masks remain optional.

Writing Poetry Inspired by Art – A Writing Workshop

Leave a reply

Writing Ekphrastic Poetry

Come kick off National Poetry Month with a workshop led by Southbury Poet Laureate Faith Vicinanza. Students will write poems inspired by fine art, using the current exhibition in our gallery as a catalyst. The instructor will guide students through the process of accessing the paintings; there will be an opportunity to share work, if students desire.

An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning. A notable example is “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” in which the poet John Keats speculates on the identity of the lovers who appear to dance and play music, simultaneously frozen in time and in perpetual motion. 

The fee for the workshop is $15. Class size is limited to 10 attendees.

Ms. Vicinanza was appointed the Poet Laureate of Southbury in October, 2022 for a three-year term to serve as an advocate for the importance of poetry in the community and in the world.

Ms. Vicinanza has served as a Master Teaching Artist in Poetry for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, as editor for several literary magazines, and as the founder and executive director of the Connecticut Poetry Festival (1997, 2001, 2003).

She is the author of four collections of poetry and is currently working on several new collections and a memoir.

A member of two national slam poetry teams, Ms. Vicinanza competed in National Slam Championships in 1994 and 1996. She was a member of the U.S. Slam Team that competed in Sweden in 1997, as well as the executive director of the 1997 National Poetry Slam Championships held in Middletown, Connecticut, the largest poetry event in the state’s history.  

Ms. Vicinanza has been featured in venues from Stockholm, Sweden to San Francisco, has been a poet laureate nominee for Connecticut and is the recipient of the 2003 Connecticut Commission on the Arts Advocates for the Arts Award. 

*Students must be registered and paid in full three business days before the start of the class/workshop. Exceptions only with permission from the Director of Writing Programs.

COVID POLICY – Until further notice, proof of vaccination is not required to attend classes. Masks remain optional.

Writer’s Workshop

Leave a reply

Online/In-Person

Writers may work alone but the feedback of other writers is vital. The Writers’ Workshop gives students an opportunity to share their works-in-progress with fellow writers under the guidance of instructor Nancy McMillan.

Writers can bring in up to five double-spaced pages to be read aloud and critiqued. Writers will receive constructive feedback from other writers and the instructor. Critique guidelines will be provided.  The workshop runs for two hours, to allow plenty of time for each writer to receive thorough attention.

The Workshop runs for two hours and the fee for the workshop is $30. All levels are welcome.

Workshop is limited to 6 students. All students must register by Thursday, March 16 to receive the Zoom link. Students have the option to take this workshop ONLINE on Zoom or in-person.

COVID POLICY – Until further notice, proof of vaccination is no longer required to attend classes. Masks remain optional.

Please use the drop-down menu when registering for in-person or zoom.

Writing Into and Through the Winter Season

Leave a reply

In-person

Winter is the season when it is natural to turn inward. The shorter days and colder temperatures keep us inside for longer periods which gives us an opportunity to rest, reflect, and renew. The stillness of the winter landscape can become a springboard for venturing deeper into our interior lives.

In this three-week session leading up to the Winter Solstice, students will explore winter themes through writing. For inspiration, we’ll use art, music, and poetry. We’ll write about the moon and snow and all thing wintery. All genres of writing–poetry, fiction, and non-fiction–are welcome.

Come and be warmed up by the company of other writers during the onset of the cold season. This class will give you tools to keep writing all the way to spring, and beyond.

The fee for the three-week workshop is $100. The workshop is limited to 8 participants.

***Students must be registered and paid in full three business days before the start of the class/workshop. Exceptions only with permission from the Director of Writing Programs.

COVID POLICY – Only fully vaccinated students will be permitted to attend classes. Physical proof of vaccination will be requested on the first day of class (one time only). Don’t forget to bring your vaccination card.

Nancy McMillan of Bethlehem is the award-winning author of March Farm: Season by Season on a Connecticut Family Farm (www.marchfarmthebook.com). She holds a graduate degree in writing from The Graduate Institute and one in music from Lesley University, where she studied historical women composers. She also studied in the MFA program at Manhattanville College. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her essays and articles have appeared in Connecticut newspapers and magazines as well as online. In her writing classes, she helps students embrace and inhabit their innate creativity. She is the Director of Writing and Literature Programs at Arts Escape. Find more at www.nancymcmillan.com.

Start Writing Right Now

Leave a reply

Via Zoom

Have you always wanted to try your hand at writing, but never took the leap? Perhaps you’ve put down your pen for a while and need a jumpstart. Or maybe you like the camaraderie and accountability that come with being part of a workshop.

Come experiment in this low-stress, generative class! You’ll kindle your imagination with fun prompts to get those gears moving. Then, if you choose, you’ll share your work in a supportive environment and receive positive feedback. You’ll walk away each week with a new piece of writing—maybe even something you’d like to build on. 

Open to fiction, poetry and memoir, and appropriate for all levels, beginner to advanced.

The fee for this 4-week class is $120. Class size is limited to 8 students and requires a minimum of 4 students to run.

Students must register by Tuesday, January 17, 2023, to receive the Zoom link.

About the Instructor:
Tina Tocco’s writing for children has appeared in Highlights, Highlights High Five, Cricket, AppleSeeds, Humpty Dumpty, Turtle Magazine for Preschool Kids, Pockets, and other children’s publications. She is the author of the children’s poetry collection The Hungry Snowman and Other Poems (Kelsay Books, 2019). Tina’s fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have also been published in various literary journals and anthologies, such as New Ohio Review, Crab Creek Review, Potomac Review, River Styx, Harpur Palate, Ovunque Siamo, Best Small Fictions 2019, and Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana. In 2019, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in fiction. Tina earned her MFA in creative writing from Manhattanville College, where she was editor-in-chief of Inkwell, the college’s national literary journal.

Monthly Writer’s Workshop

Leave a reply

Online/In-Person

The Writers’ Workshop gives students an opportunity to share their works-in-progress with fellow students under the guidance of instructor and author Nancy McMillan. All level students are welcome. Work can be first draft or anything beyond. Students can also use the time to discuss and/or brainstorm ideas and challenges with their projects.

Writers can bring up to five double-spaced pages to be read aloud and critiqued.  Critique guidelines will be provided.  Workshops will run for two hours. We run in a hybrid mode, offering both an in-person and a Zoom option.

The workshop is limited to 6 students. Students attending via Zoom must register by Thursday, November 17 to receive the Zoom link.

Please use the drop-down menu when registering for the in-person or Zoom option.