UNBC Continuing Studies and Theatre Northwest are collaborating on a new series of classes intertwined with Theatre Northwest’s 2016-2017 season. If you’re a theatre lover or theatre curious, you may want to check them out.
“We now have a program in place in Continuing Studies,” says Theatre Northwest (TNW) Artistic Director Jack Grinhaus. “You will see all four shows but not just that you’ll speak to artists, you’ll come onto the stage, you’ll be in some of the rehearsals, you’ll be breaking down the texts of the shows and really seeing and becoming more appreciative of what it is that live performing arts is.”
Grinhaus says the series was the brainchild of UNBC instructor and sometime Theatre Northwest director Zarrah Holvick.
“We thought, can we bring people more deeply into what we do. I think people just assume plays just happen and it’s just a bunch of fun but there’s a great deal of work involved and there’s all kinds of exciting information you can get from insider’s knowledge from, as we call it, page to the stage.”
Each series will feature four weeks of classes centred on different theme and built around a play in TNW’s upcoming season. The first session is called Professional Actors featuring Fly Me to the Moon and will begin on August 27.
“You’ll actually follow the process of an actor, which is actually much more rich than people think. It’s not just learning and memorizing words and getting on stage and speaking – how do we make it look real? How do we make it consistent? And then, of course, the highest level of professionalism is how do we make it detailed?”
Other sessions in the series are Page to Stage featuring Alice in Wonderland, Constraints featuring Drowning Girls and Modern Themes featuring Half Life.
Grinhaus says the sessions will pull back the curtain on professional stage production, offering participants a glimpse at the nuts and bolts of theatre.
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