Actors Need Not Apply – Several plays plus coaching

The choices that actors and directors make in moving a playwright’s script off the page and onto the stage are essentially acts of interpretation. The process involves careful reading, an understanding of interpretive options, analysis of character motivation, weaving in the director’s vision, assessing actors’ strengths and weaknesses and matching them to a script’s demands, and endless other considerations.

Come in and see what goes on behind the curtain. No experience necessary. In fact, actors need not apply!

Activities include:

• director reading: conflict and concept analysis
• actor reading: performance analysis
• “on book” scene study work: reading aloud and experimenting with interpretive choices (no memorization)
• private and small group coaching (no performances)
• attending and critiquing a Soulpepper Theatre production (to be announced)
• an optional trip to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival

No experience necessary, only a willingness to read aloud. This workshop will be conducted “in the safe end of the pool.”

Disclaimer: This workshop will not make you an actor or an actress, and for that you should be grateful.

LEADER

Gary Schoepfel worked in the theatre for nearly ten years as an actor, director, acting coach, and producer. He is a member of Actors’ Equity. Gary was a founding member of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and a member of the Steppenwolf Second Company. He received a Joseph Jefferson Citation for performance, and several Cleveland Critics Circle nominations for his productions.

BOOKS

Participants are required to obtain the specified editions in order to facilitate the group’s ability to find and cite portions of the text during discussion. Two scripts will be announced. In addition to the two scripts listed below, scenes and/or monologues will be provided by the leader and distributed in the seminar.

Doubt, A Parable [Acting Edition]
By John Patrick Shanley
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service
ISBN 13: 978-0822222194

Great Scenes and Monologues for Actors
Edited by Michael Schulman and Eva Mekler
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ISBN 13: 978-0312966546

A second play, David Henry Wang's one-act, The Sound of a Voice, will be sent to registrants by e-mail.

FEES

CAD$1250 includes five weekday morning seminars, lunches, guided art walks, afternoon speakers, five afternoon opera talks with Iain Scott, two receptions, a dinner and movie night, and a broad array of cultural and social activities.

ADDITIONAL THEATRE/CONCERT EXCURSIONS

Add-on Theatre/Concert Performances now available for Thursday evening, July 19, 2012 there are two options for either a Soulpepper Theatre Performance or Concert Performance: Toronto Summer Music Festival.

Soulpepper Theatre Evening

This option is for a Soulpepper Theatre production of The Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon. In the historic Distillery District of Toronto. Click here for details.

Concert Performance: Toronto Summer Music Festival

This option is to attend the Toronto Summer Music Festival – a string ensemble performance of Romantic music by the Seoul Spring Festival Ensemble at the exquisite new Koerner Hall, a 10-minute walk from Victoria College. Rick Phillips will be giving a pre-concert talk. Click here for details.

Please let us know by July 1, 2012 which option you will choose as we only have a certain number of tickets on hand otherwise people will need to purchase any tickets on their own.

Also, please note participants who have registered before January 1, 2012 are eligible for a complimentary ticket for either Thursday July 19, 2012 performance providing no other discount has been applied. For those participants registered before January 1, 2012 please contact us by email to confirm your choice of performance.

ACCOMMODATIONS

You are responsible for booking your own accommodation.

Options include both single and double rooms available in Rowell Jackman Hall at Victoria College and the nearby Park Hyatt Hotel.

Victoria College. Book online at http://www.vicu.utoronto.ca/hospitality/SummerAccommodations/ReservationInformation/MakeAReservation.htm, or call 416-585-4524.

• Basic, air-conditioned rooms with shared baths. Includes hot breakfast. All linens provided.

Park Hyatt Hotel, 4-star hotel that is a 5-minute walk from Victoria College.

• Inquire about special rate for Classical Pursuits participants at the nearby Park Hyatt Hotel.
  www.parktoronto.hyatt.com 416-925-1234

DISCOUNTS – one per registrant

- Participants who have attended Toronto Pursuits at least five times receive a CAD $150 discount.
- Register with a friend, and if one or both are first time participants, each receives a CAD $150 discount.