Our Mission
At Wake Up Theater our mission is to illuminate the world’s most pressing environmental, social and political issues through the captivating and transformative power of live performance. By raising the curtain on stories that matter, we strive to empower individuals to become informed, engaged citizens, who recognize their capacity to shape a more just, sustainable and compassionate world. Guided by a deep sense of responsibility, we are dedicated to creating a safe and inclusive space where diverse perspectives can flourish. For only together can we amplify the voices of change and build the path toward a better future for all.
“Studying acting is not about learning to pretend better. It’s about learning to tell the truth.” To tell the truth about the character living within you, often in the dark shadows of your ego, so that they can be seen by the light of their presence.
– Ellen Burstyn, winner of more than fifty awards as Best Actress
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Upcoming Workshops
If you have not registered your interest profile with us, please complete the “Get Involved With Our Theater Group” and select the workshop you would like to attend on that profile form. (We can’t contact you or process your request if you haven’t registered with us.)
None currently scheduled
Read about earlier workshops…
Play Reading
Play reading offers a chance to get to know new scripts and to revisit old favorites. With no audience and no “right way to do it”, it can also offers a safe environment to develop creative skills, expand imagination, and get a better sense of how words are bestowed with life when transforming written material into performance.
We’ll look at a different play each time (usually once a month). Everyone chooses a character and someone will read the stage directions for each scene. Then each participant reads their lines in character and with enthusiasm and trying to incorporate the performance directions into their delivery – to laugh when their character is intended to laugh, to convey despair if that as appropriate, and so on. At the end, we can have fun exploring the themes and, perhaps, talk a bit about whether it would be suitable for a future production.
If you have not registered your interest profile with us, please complete the “Get Involved With Our Theater Group” and select the play reading you would like to attend on that profile form. (We can’t contact you or process your request if you haven’t registered with us.)
19 October
This month we will read the Greek play Lysistrata, written by Aristophanes and first performed in 411 BC. It is the first Western comedy that featured a female lead and is also the only one of Aristophanes’ plays to be named after one of its characters.
It’s a little depressing to realize how little has changed in 2,500 years: it was at a time when the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta had been raging for twenty years, women were marginalized and undervalued for their contributions to society, and when men dehumanized the enemy so as to justify their slaughter.
In this bawdy comedy, Aristophanes boldly suggests that the culture and heritage that the Athens shared with the Spartans is what is really important and that men and women are in this together – a radical idea for its time that undoubtedly made many of his theater goers more than a little uncomfortable.
Participants limited to 8. Register now.
Read about earlier play readings…
Performances
None currently scheduled.
Podcasts
September workshop leader
In our August podcast we chat with Inajá Wittkowski, an actor with more than 15 years of acting and improvisation experience. She talks about her upcoming workshop, “Being Prepared For The Unexpected“, and the tools to learn flexibility and responsiveness on the stage and in real life.
June workshop leader
In our June podcast we chat with Natalie Bury, a professional dancer, choreographer and actor. She talks about her upcoming workshop “The Power of Authenticity in Movement” and how this awareness can help us more fully develop our character’s connection with the audience.
April workshop leader
In our April podcast we chatted with Bogdan Tabacaru, an experienced actor and director who has brought a number of very successful plays to the stage here in Munich such as Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull and Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Tenor.
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Blogs
Where Actor Meets Director
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.
Read more …
Emotions: My Connection To Stage and Life
Harold Pinter was considered to be one of the most influential of modern British dramatists with a career spanning more than 50 years as a playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. He wrote plays that emphasized that unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. Coming to understand what this means for me personally has been a long journey.
Read more …
Pinter and Protest
Harold Pinter was considered to be one of the most influential of modern British dramatists with a career spanning more than 50 years as a playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. He wrote plays that emphasized that unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. Coming to understand what this means for me personally has been a long journey.
Read more …
Browse our archived blog posts on theater and comedy
