LA Women's Theater Festival Offers Five Workshops

The Los Angeles Women's Theatre Festival, now in its 23rd year, is offering five workshops for performers to increase and/or sharpen their skills. Details follow below.

"Introduction to the Lure of the Mask"

This 4-week workshop will introduce students to the Mask Physical Theatre Technique and will focus on a series of improvisational and physical exercises that will expose participants to the transformational power of both half masks and full-face masks.

Each week will begin with a physical warm-up. Various faces of the mask, simplicity of gesture and the importance of sequencing will be explored. Basic mime and clowning and movement dynamics will be explored through imaging and sound. Participants will create a mask solo or collective work. A general overview of the use of the mask within various cultures will also be included.
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Facilitator Paulina Sahagun is a theater artist and educator who has toured extensively throughout Mexico and the U.S. with the Independent Mexican Theater Companies, Los Mascarones and Group Zero. She is the recipient of the Gateways Initiative from the Rockefeller Foundation, and an artists in residence at the Center for Intercultural Performance at UCLA. Sahagun's work within the community focuses on restoring and honoring the cultural origins that strengthen the identity of its members.

Saturdays, October 10 - November 14, 2015, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Cost: $300

"Release and Let Go... a Solo Show Workshop"

This empowering 4-week session will explore the fundamentals of creating a solo show. Through writing and acting exercises, students will find their unique voices utilizing the elements of writing structure that include storytelling, character development, and language. Class size will be kept to six students to ensure individualized attention.
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Facilitator Juliette Jeffers is an actor, writer, director, producer and educator. She has worked on stage and screen for over 20 years. On the stage, she has performed her first solo show, "Batman and Robin in the Boogie Down" throughout the U.S. and the Virgin Islands. It received a Drama Desk award nomination, an NAACP Theatre Award nomination and a Bronx Council on the Arts Award. Jeffers is an acting coach and teaches solo show workshops.
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Mondays, September 28 - October 19, 2015, 7-10 p.m.
Cost: $200

"Start Today"
This hands-on 3-hour workshop will support participants in getting specific about goal setting in their lives and developing steps to actualize their dreams. Be prepared to move and bring a journal. No dance experience necessary.
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Facilitator Ingrid Graham is a performing artist, choreographer, mentor and educator. She performed and presented choreography at the Edinburgh Festival, Merce Cunningham, Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival, California African American Music and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Graham is Executive Producer of "A Ballerina's Tale," a documentary on dancer Misty Copeland's career. Sundance Selects will release the film in theatres and on VOD in Fall 2015.

Teaching a mentoring are a huge part of her life. She developed the "Start Today" program for young dancers aspiring to be professional performers. The program focuses on creating a vision for your career and life and implementing the necessary steps to make your project a success.
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Saturday, October 3, 2015, 11-2 or 12-3 p.m.
Cost: $50

"Wow Factor Theatrical Auditioning Workshop"

This 6-week auditioning workshop is designed for students who are ready to take their professional careers to the next level. Explored will be the art of developing contrasting pieces that produce the "wow" factor in unforgettable auditions that gets actors called back. Students will learn how to assemble their "audition tool kit," outfitting them with the skills needed to nail the job. Topics covered will include choosing dynamic auditioning material, preparation, first impressions, breathing in the room, and the idea that "enthusiasm is contagious."
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Facilitator Clarinda Ross is a veteran actor, writer, unionist and arts advocate who brings her years of professional experience to the classroom. She made her film debut in "Blue Sky," the last film directed by Sir Tony Richardson, for which Jessica Lange won the Academy Award. Ross has performed more than 70 roles on AEA contract and toured extensively with her two plays, "From My Grandmother's Grandmother Unto Me" and "Spit Like a Big Girl," for which she was named the Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writer's Conference.
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Saturdays, October 10 - November 14, 2015, 12-3 p.m.
Cost: $300
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"Outloud: Writing and Staging the Poetic Voice"

This 4-week workshop will explore how to create and stage exciting, touching and powerful performance poetry. The first two weeks will concentrate on writing an original performance poem using the writer's unique personal perspective and life story. During this first half of the workshop, form, technique and opening up the creative process will be explored. The second two weeks will focus on memorization, dynamic performance and staging of the poem unique to each poet and their story. Writers of all levels are welcome to create a new work.
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Facilitator Lindsay Halladay ("The Lindz") has been performing her original poetry across the nation, on stage, screen and radio. She knows how to take those seemingly insignificant moments and rearrange them into life-altering realizations. With subject matter ranging from cereal to sex appeal, rhythm to arrhythmias, books, bombs, race relations and everything in-between, her work is silly, sardonic, insightful, nostalgic and downright empowering.
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Tuesdays, October 20 - November 10, 2015, 7-10 p.m.
Cost: $200

Locations for each workshop will be made available upon registration. Limited scholarships are also available while they last.

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