Many years ago, Billie decided to make “Where are the avocados?” her Instagram username. The handle quickly became iconic among her followers. As her music career began to soar, the phrase stuck, and her fans adopted the name “Avocados” as a term of endearment and solidarity. We recently experienced her fans’ passion in her new movie.
In this podcast Inajá Wittkowski, and actor with more than 15 years of acting and improvisation experience, talks about tools to learn flexibility and responsiveness on the stage and in real life.
In this workshop Natalie Bury, a professional dancer, choreographer and actor, guided us in exploring the power of authenticity in movement. Physical authenticity is a powerful means to establish our character’s connection with the audience. As the day progressed, we became more connected to our our vulnerability and the importance of bringing movement out of our authentic self. We gained a better understanding our need to both be seen and… Read More »The Power of Authenticity in Movement
Today we will chat with Susan Voight, one of the founding members of WUT. Susan is acknowledged as a gifted actor and took on the challenge as director to bring Nobel Prize winning Harold Pinter’s play, “The Dumb Waiter”, to the stage at Pepper Theatre last November.
This month we read a play written by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House, that deals with the fate of a married woman, who, at that time in Norway, lacked reasonable opportunities for self-fulfillment in a male-dominated world. Despite the fact that Ibsen denied it was his intent to write a feminist play, it was a great sensation at the time and caused a “storm of outraged controversy”… Read More »Henrik Ibsen – A Doll’s House
This workshop gave each of us an amazing opportunity to become a little more aware of the social face (or “mask”) that each of us have unconsciously chosen to present to the outside world. Bogdan Tabacaru, an experienced and talented director, used Sanford Meisner’s teaching on text and improvised scenes to help each of us begin to set aside our mask just a little bit so that we could authentically… Read More »Exploring Vulnerability On Stage
This extraordinarily well written play involving family members dealing with deep loss in their individual ways – and in ways that we all can recognize in ourselves and in our own families. The play was adapted to make a successful movie starring Nicole Kidman in 2010.
In this podcast we chated with Jai Mallet, one of the founding members of Wake Up Theater and who provided the inspiration to bring Nobel Prize winning Harold Pinter’s play The Dumb Waiter to the stage.
When we read “Beyond Therapy” in our March play reading meeting, the emotional power of black comedy became very real for all of us. The exaggeration of rather serious issues and the crazy responses of the characters, we all found ourselves laughing constantly at their words and behavior. What was especially fun was to experience how each of us got more and more into our characters as we read the… Read More »Christopher Durang, “Beyond Therapy”
This is one of Pinter’s earliest plays (1958). Even then, Pinter was an expert at mixing the realistic with the absurd, the personal with the political. When the play opens, two men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a windowless basement room. They are awaiting instructions for their next assignment. While they wait, their conversation is riddled with conflict and miscommunication. Differences between the two men’s attitudes emerge, yet questions… Read More »The Dumb Waiter
Held February 10, 2024 Led by Carolyn Morrow In this workshop we tuned into and activated the vivid life, potential depth and expressivity of our emotions. Click on Carolyn’s picture to read more.
Where does the actor meet the director in the process of creating a memorable dramatic performance? How do I, as an actor, blend my preparation and emotional passion for my character with the the vision of the director so that we can truly be partners in this creative endeavor? This recent, memorable workshop on exploring the expressivity of our emotions and bringing that to the stage offered some inspiring insights.
