For students in first through eighth grade, a fun experience for all!
Young performers will learn basic stage and acting techniques while they develop their imagination and creativity. All children will have a blast as they explore acting through a series of theater and improvisational games. This ensemble-building class will foster each student’s self-esteem and help them become independent thinkers both on and off the stage.
Anne Marie Irey, the program instructor, has been involved in theater for over 20 years. She minored in Theater at Saint Mary’s College and earned her Master’s of Education at DePaul University. Anne Marie is an alumna of The Second City and spent several years performing improv in Chicago. Recently, she taught fourth grade at Sacred Heart, where she founded an after-school drama program.
Two six-week sessions will be offered this winter and spring at Wheaton Drama Theater. (There’s a discount if you register for both classes.)
Grades 1-4 4-5 PM
Session A: Tuesday, Jan. 6 thru Tuesday, Feb. 10
(Snow date: Feb. 17, if needed)
Session B: Tuesday, March 3 thru Tuesday, April 14
(No class March 31 for spring break)
Grades 5-8 5-6 PM
Session A: Tuesday, Jan. 6 thru Tuesday, Feb. 10
(Snow date: Feb. 17, if needed)
Session B: Tuesday, March 3 thru Tuesday, April 14
(No class March 31 for spring break)
Note: Classes are subject to change based on enrollment.
$100 per session per child; $180 per child for both sessions
(Must register for both sessions together/at same time to receive discount)
Contact Amy Brockman for more information at workshop@wheatondrama.org or call 630.260.1820 and leave a message.
Wheaton Drama, Inc. | 111 N. Hale Street | Wheaton | IL | 60187
Ben Dooley will conduct a three-weekend workshop at Wheaton Drama’s Playhouse 111 focusing on the role we play in our daily lives.
Every actor knows the process when we take on a role. It’s Acting 101 to ask the basic questions:
Who are you?
Where are you now?
What do you want?
What’s in your way?
How will you get it?
But what about the “role” that we’re playing in our lives—the role of “the actor” in “the Big Show”?
What if we applied the same (or similar) process to how we approach building our career, our confidence and our success and our lives?
ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE,
AND WE ARE THE PLAYERS
Introducing a breakthrough workshop for actors at all levels combining state-of-the-art techniques for deep personal growth and success with the experience
of being an actor.
WEEK 1: GETTING TO KNOW THE ROLE
Prepare to play the greatest role of your life. Discover how to break down and develop the most exciting character you could imagine.
WEEK 2: TUNING YOUR INSTRUMENT
Play with tigers, dig into your brains, breathe new life into your acting.
Discover the single most powerful technique you can apply to your acting/audition/anything and create a deep powerful connection and confidence.
WEEK 3: TAPPING IN TO YOUR POWER
You have untapped power, passion and potential. It’s like the Matrix. Once you see your true power, you will be unstoppable.
Beginners and seasoned actors, there is something exciting for you in this workshop that will make a powerful impact in your acting experience.
Create stronger character development, tap into deep unshakable confidence, eliminate audition and performance anxiety.
Exclusively at Wheaton Drama’s Playhouse 111.
Saturdays, Sept. 27, Oct. 4 and Oct. 11, from 2 – 5 p.m.
$97 for the full three weeks; $40 for a single session
BIO:
Ben Dooley has been a professional working actor for over 20 years, bringing his full self, range and excellence to nearly every medium in the
business—theater, voiceovers and on camera for commercial, industrial, radio, television, toys, books on tape, video games, print jobs, motion capture and
traveling in the circus.
For the last 11 years, Ben has also been working full-time as a certified life coach, skilled in helping people tap into their full power, their best
selves and their unshakable confidence so they can create their success and achieve their dreams.
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For director Lisa Dawn Foertsch, “Steel Magnolias” is a labor of love, holding a deep, personal connection.
“My mother donated a kidney to my brother when I was 17—a kidney that didn’t hold,” she says. “My mother has shown me, all my life, what it is to love someone unconditionally, and to really be there for someone, and the show portrays this in all of the women/characters…She’s the ‘Steel Magnolia’ in my life.”
Foerstch’s family history mirrors that of Robert Harling’s comedy/drama, based on his own mother and sister’s true story. “Steel Magnolias,” staged by Wheaton Drama at Playhouse 111 through April 13, focuses on the special bond shared by a group of Southern women as they support a young woman in her battle with Type 1 diabetes.
Foertsch discloses how much of her mother is truly invested in her direction of the play. “I’ve seen my mother be stronger than anyone, but I’ve also seen her more vulnerable, sensitive moments…it just shows me balance,” she explains. “You can’t have strength without weakness, and you can find that wonderful spot in the middle where you can grow.”
She has also been blessed to have a core group of friends similar to the characters in the show, but it took time, she says: “I was a tomboy growing up, so as I grew it was difficult having relationships with women and relating to them, but now I have a true-blue, steel group of women, and I understand and love those relationships.”
Foertsch is no stranger to theater. She honed her craft at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn and at Buffalo Theater Ensemble, which performed on COD’s campus. From there, Foertsch directed and acted in many theaters, both in Chicago and in Chicago’s suburbs.
Last year, Foertsch made her dramatic acting debut at Wheaton Drama in the stunning World War II drama “Full Circle,” and she discovered she enjoyed the theater group: “Everyone’s so nice and welcoming. … I know that everyone cares about what they are doing—deeply.”
Foertsch cares for her production staff with that same depth: “My assistant director (Elaine G. Castro) is my right arm, the yin to my yang—she’s a great balance for me.” Foertsch says. “My producer (Michael Boyna) is the flower pot that everything grows in.”
The storyline of “Steel Magnolias” is a focal point, of course, but the bonds of this special group of women hold special importance for Foertsch and her talented cast: “These relationships, the meaningful relationships we have in this lifetime, these people act as mirrors to us—our strengths, our flaws, they give us a chance to see more clearly and to grow. … There’s hardship and loss, but that doesn’t stop you. … You can move forward and overcome—find joy again, and even if you feel unloved there’s always someone there for you, even though you can’t see it.”
Gossip is a currency at Truvy’s Beauty Salon. (Photo by Steven Merkel)
The setting of the play in a beauty salon is also significant, she says: “These women go to a beauty parlor to transform and become more beautiful, but really the relationships in that beauty shop are changing them for the better, in a deeper and more meaningful way.”
Foertsch says her cast—Angelicque Cate, Amanda Raudabaugh, JoAnn Smith, Nicolette Lalor, Linda Timpa, and Brenda Scharlau—and the characters they portray are of special importance.
“See the show for these women, they have come in and put so much heart, so much of themselves into this show,” Foertsch says. “The laughter they’ve had offstage and the building of their friendship together just flow into the audience and can be of great comfort.”
“Steel Magnolias” will be performed at 111 N. Hale St. in Wheaton on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from March 21 through April 13, 2014. Curtain is at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The Sunday curtain is at 3 p.m. Tickets are $13 for Thursday Performances, and $16 for all other performances. Please call 630-260-1820 or visit www.wheatondrama.org for reservations or additional information.
Director Sean Ogren has assembled a bounty of veteran actors for “It’s a Wonderful Life — Radio Show,” running in mid-December, just in time for the holidays. (more…)
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