These classes are a FREE opportunity to sharpen your skills while getting to know the Playhouse and this year’s Rep Company directors. You are encouraged to attend all classes, but you must take AT LEAST TWO to audition for fall shows and AT LEAST ONE to audition for spring shows.

Fall 2007:

You MUST ATTEND 2 OR MORE workshops to audition for fall shows. Topics for workshops are TBA.

Spring 2008:

You MUST ATTEND AT LEAST 1 workshops to audition for spring shows. Topics for workshops are TBA.

Auditions:

Choose one night to come. Everyone will be cast in one of the plays. You do not need to prepare anything, but please arrive on time, plan to stay from 7-9:30 pm, and dress to move! Call to register. THERE IS NO CHARGE TO AUDITION.

Fall 2007:

 Wednesday, September 5, OR

 Thursday, September 6; 7-9:30 pm

Winter 2008:

Tuesday, January 22, OR

 Wednesday, January 23, OR   

Thursday, January 24; 7-9:30 pm.    

Suzuki-Training and Actor Driven Theater: 

This is an 8- week class for high school students that meets one day a week for 2-1/2 hours. The class will begin with a basic introduction to Tadashi Suzuki’s rigorous physical training, designed to strengthen actors both physically and vocally while heightening intensity, focus, and stamina. The second half of the class will explore Suzuki’s beliefs that modern theater relies too much on “non-animal energy” such as lights, sets, costumes, props, playwrights and sound. He feels that theater could be more powerful if it were actor-driven. The student actors in this class will write, create and perform a short piece of theater comprised completely of “animal energy.” This class is physically demanding, please call if you have questions.

Classes: Saturdays, February 2-March 22, time 11-1:30 pm

Instrutor: Joni Weisfeld

Tuition: $75

Limit: 15

Discover the magic of theatrical design and help create different worlds using stage lighting, sound, costumes and sets. Discover the ins and outs of the design process while also learning the nuts and bolts of construction, painting and running the computerized sound and light boards. Be a part of this essential aspect of putting on the show!

Classes: TBA

Coordinator: Tate R. Burmeister

Instructors: Peggy Gutmann, Cindy Prue, David Schulz, and special guest artists

Tuition: $40

Tech Crew:

Veterans of the Technical Theater/Design class can brush up their skills by attending Tech Classes for free. Then Tech Crew as well as teens currently in Tech Class can sign up to tech for specific productions. Significant time commitment for mainstage shows, including late night rehearsals and productions.

Tuition: FREE
 

Fall 2007
Chavez Ravine by Culture Clash:

“…Chavez Ravine stands as a triumph on an ideological level as well as a theatrical one”—LA City Beat

In 1840s, City Councilman Julian Chavez purchased land near the center of the Pueblo of Los Angeles for $800. In April 1981, Dodgers rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela pitched an opening day shut out against the Astros on this same land, now occupied by Dodger Stadium. Chavez Ravine follows the deals and moves that went from a public housing project, to eminent domain and finally to the building of Dodger Stadium. Told in a comic, vaudevillian style, jumping in time from the 1950s to the 1980s, Chavez Ravine explores the issues of home, health and happiness, and the needs and desires of the powerful.

Director: Enza Giannone

Rehearsals: Two/three evenings per week (either Monday/Wednesday OR Tuesday/Thursday) with some Fridays & Saturdays as needed, 6:30-9:30 pm; daily rehearsals begin Nov. 4, 6:30-10:30 pm.

Performances: November 8-17

Tuition: $200

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, adapted by Frank Galati:

"…majestic…leaves one feeling that the generosity of spirit he saw in a brutal country is not so much lost as waiting once more to be found." —NY Times.
"This is, overall, a thrilling theatrical achievement that gets its power from the still sharp relevance of its human message…" —NY Post.

Re-live the epic struggle of the Joad family as they navigate an uncaring world in search of a better life. This masterwork of American literature is brought to life through powerful and simple theatrical conventions, remaining true to the sprit of the novel and the power of the simple truths contained therein. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, Steinbeck’s work celebrates the nobility and courage of the common man.
 

Director: Matt Pugliese

Rehearsals: Two/three evenings per week (either Monday/Wednesday OR Tuesday/Thursday) with some Fridays & Saturdays as needed, 6:30-9:30 pm; daily rehearsals begin December 2; 6:30-10:30 pm

Performances: December 6-15,

Tuition: $200

Winter 2008

Anon(ymous) by Naomi Iizuka:

“…a memorable journey with throttling energy…excitement and power”—Minniapolis Star Tribune

A modern day take on Homer’s Odyssey, “Anon” is a teen immigrant with no name who washes up on the shores of the United States. Join our hero on a quest to find “home,” through a lost mother in a sometimes nightmarish landscape of modern life, complete with greedy politicians, ghosts and a cannibalistic Cyclops. Originally produced at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, MN in April 2006, Anon(ymous) continues Oddfellows’ dedication to present the best in new American and International theater.

Director: Jeffery Allen

Rehearsals: Two/three evenings per week (either Monday/Wednesday OR Tuesday/Thursday) with some Fridays & Saturdays as needed, 6:30-9:30pm; daily rehearsals begin April 6; 6:30-10:30 pm.

Performances: April 10-19

Tuition: $200

The Laramie Project
by Moises Kaufman & members The Tectonic Theatre Company:

"There emerges a mosaic as moving and important as any you will see on the walls of the churches of the world…nothing short of stunning…you will be held in rapt attention." —NY Magazine.
"…enormously good-willed, very earnest and often deeply moving…" —NY Times. "…an amazing piece of theatre…leaves us sadder, wiser and tentatively more hopeful…" —NY Post.

In October 1998, Matthew Shepard was beaten and left to die tied to a fence on a prairie in Wyoming, simply because he was gay. This murder and the events that followed stunned the nation. After the news crews departed, the members of the Tectonic Theatre Company conducted over 200 interviews with the people of Laramie, daring to look into the heart of humanity at its highest and lowest. A moving testament to the memory of Matthew Shepard and a reflection for all of us about the places we call home.

Director: Missy Waryas

Rehearsals: Two/three evenings per week (either Monday/Wednesday OR Tuesday/Thursday) with some Fridays & Saturdays as needed, 6:30-9:30 pm; daily rehearsals begin April 27; 6:30-10:30 pm.

Performances: May 1-10

Tuition: $200

Summer Shakespeare Academy:

This is a fun and challenging 4-week Shakespeare-in-Performance program for high school students, culminating in 3 days of performances. The Academy combines intensive training in acting, voice, diction, movement, stage combat, and text analysis with rehearsals for the production. This past summer students performed Othello and Much Ado About Nothing.
The Summer Shakespeare Academy is open to students ages 14 to 18 who have completed 9th grade. For registration and audition information, call the Playhouse at 860/347-6143.

Director: Jeffery Allen

Dates: TBA

Performances: TBA