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"Fight Call"
a new musical reading in the Fertile Ground Festival of New Works this January!
Written by Steve & Billy Rathje
Directed by studio founder Michelle Kopper Seymour
GET TICKETS!
Gift Certificates for classes are available.
Please Call 347.746.4703 for the most up-to-date information.
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Workshop Details
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Musical Audition Workshop Spring 2012
Audition Preparation: A workshop with Sarah Lucht and Jane Geesman
NYC Singing Performance Intensive
Recurring Workshops
Singing Performance Intensive
Spring Choir
Shakespeare Audition Intensive
Teen Popular Song Intensive
Future Workshops
Recurring Workshops
Musical Audition Workshop Spring 2012
Join studio founder Michelle Kopper Seymour and musical director Mont Chris Hubbard to prepare for the upcoming auditions at Broadway Rose and the PATA City-wide Generals! These workshops are specifically geared toward fine-tuning audition pieces for general auditions & college prep. Anyone interesting in exploring the professional audition process is welcome.
Session One: 3 Sundays: 2/19, 2/26 & 3/4 from 3p-6p
Session Two: 3 Sundays: 3/18, 3/25 & 4/1 from 3p-6p
Tuition: $195 (both 3-week sessions for $350)
Register: info@vanportsquarestudio.com.
Workshop Details:
Participants will be familiar with and bring sheet music for 4-6 contrasting songs to the initial session (16-32 bars is plenty), headshot & resume and a journal/paper & pen.
Session 1 will focus on selecting appropriate & effective pieces that contrast well, exploring cuts/time limits, how to prepare your sheet music for the accompanist and brief headshot/resume feedback. Participants will bring 4-6 cuts/songs to explore.
Session 2 will focus on character exploration/given circumstances/personalization, contrasting the material, arc of the entire audition & developing tools to navigate the "nerves" that arise in an audition.
Session 3 will focus on crafting a professional and polished presentation; and honing audition techniques such as presence, pacing, communicating with the accompanist/setting tempos, entrances/exits & introductions.
Each participant will have many opportunities to run entire audition pieces with accompaniment!
Michelle Kopper Seymour (Studio Founder /AEA/SAG/Singer/Songwriter/Director) has been teaching in Portland since 2004, after 16 years performing and teaching in NYC. Michelle combines 25 years as a professional actor/singer with over a decade of yoga & dance meditation to bring unique insight to her classes and workshops. Michelle teaches the Summer Teen Musical Theatre Intensive at Portland Center Stage, Musical Boot Camp for Teens @ PAC and is honored to have recently served 2 years as the President of the Portland Area Theatre Alliance where she was integral in the Auditions Committee and Process.
Mont Chris Hubbard, musical director & composer, will accompany the class and offer his insights to the audition process from the other side of the table. He has music directed five shows at the Broadway Rose in the last three seasons, including the upcoming Little Shop of Horrors (fall 2012). He has also been Assistant Music Director at the Broadway Rose and Lakewood. He has accompanied auditions at PCS, Broadway Rose, and Lakewood. All told, he has music directed 12 productions since 2009, and played keyboard in over 20. His compositions have been heard locally in productions at Lewis & Clark College, The Broadway Rose Theatre Company, and Coho Theatre, as well as local radio (KINK 101.9FM) and tv (KOIN Local 6) He has many years of choral experience (including master classes with Joseph Jennings and John Rutter). He has also released three albums of piano improvisations.
Audition Preparation: A workshop with Sarah Lucht and Jane Geesman in collaboration with Vanport Square Studio
You can never be too prepared for an audition!
Do your audition pieces reflect who you really are as an actor? Do they show proper preparation, appropriate material selection, and a thorough understanding of the character and text? We are offering a three-session workshop at Vanport Square Studio that will get you solidly prepared for the PATAs or any other upcoming auditions.
Workshop Details
Sundays March 4th, 11th, and 18th
11a to 1p
Cost: $150
Contact: janegeesman@comcast.net or call Jane at 650.743.9585 (for further workshop details)
Register: info@vanportsquarestudio.com
Sarah and Jane have over 30 years’ experience in the performing arts...acting, directing, and teaching...and have developed a unique, personal, and dynamic approach to working with actors. Class size is limited to ensure each actor gets plenty of personal coaching time. Sign up for this workshop and let Sarah and Jane guide you to a performance that’s honest, energized, and compelling.
Bios:
Sarah Lucht is an award-winning actor, teacher and workshop leader. She is on the faculty of the Portland Actors Conservatory where she specializes in breath and energy work for the actor, as well as teaching fundamentals of acting, and scene study. With Jane Geesman, she is also on the guest faculty of the Haven Institute in British Columbia where she is a group facilitator and workshop leader. Sarah has been performing on local stages for thirty years, including Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, the Profile Theatre Project and Lakewood Theatre. Sarah’s teaching includes work with high school drama programs, The Greenhouse Project at Portland Center Stage, Act Now Studios, Portland Shakespeare Project, where she teaches and is on the Artistic Council, as well as one-on-one coaching for actors and other professionals. She is a co-leader with Jane of the Act Natural workshops for actors and business professionals. She is a member of Actors Equity and the Screen Actors Guild.
Jane Bement Geesman, M.F.A., is an actor, director, teacher, and workshop leader. A professional actress and director since 1980, Jane has taught acting fundamentals, scene study, monologue development, and audition techniques since 1997 at local colleges and the Portland Actors Conservatory. She is a guest faculty member at the Haven Institute in British Columbia, where she leads personal-development courses using principles of actor training to develop confidence, creativity, and energy in any endeavor. In 2001, Jane and co-founder Sarah Lucht created Act Natural, performance/presentation coaching and workshops for actors, attorneys and other professionals, in 2001. Jane has performed and directed at numerous Portland theatres, including Artists Repertory Theatre, Northwest Classical Theatre, Lakewood Theatre, and Theatre Vertigo, as well as Palo Alto Players, City Lights, Pear Avenue Theatre, Dragon Productions, and TheatreWorks in the Bay Area.
Check out their website: actnaturalcoach.com
Singing Into The Now--NYC Singing Performance Intensive
A Weekend Immersion in Singing, Sound & Storytelling:
Song & performance are portals into being fully present and alive. Sound and singing is supercharged for many of us and experiencing our sound all the way out to our edges is a powerful catalyst to being fully present and alert to the moment.
This weekend workshop will explore your relationship to expressing yourself with your entire voice, finding freedom in performance and all aspects of expressing yourself -- living out loud -- all the way to your edges. Exercises will include acting exercises, vocal technique, breath work, yoga, moving and sound meditation, journaling, and most of all Lots and LOTS of SINGING with individual performance sessions for every participant each session.
A professional accompanist will play. You Will Sing. Supported by an intuitive teacher who is also a professional performer & coach in a safe and supportive environment. We'll co-create a sanctuary to risk, explore and dare.
This work is intended for
ALL level of experience with singing:
from Singer-In-The-Shower to Professional...
ALL styles of song and singing...
sing what you love with your whole heart and sound.
The vulnerability of sharing our voice on song can be a crucible to burn away limiting self-concepts-- ego patterns that keep us trapped in our mind and holding back our sound-- as well as moving blocked energy around past experiences that our mind loops us into again and again. The transformation possible when we expand our ability to tolerate the critical voices of perfectionism, activate our sensory awareness to the sensation & vibration of our own voice and develop tools to support ourselves staying fully present while stepping into the vulnerability of singing in front of people is profound.
Dates (times are approximate):
Friday 3/30 from 7-10p
Saturday 3/31 from 10-5
Sunday 4/1 from 10-5
(we're investigating the possibility of culminating in an invited performance for friends...)
Tuition before February 15, 2012: $425
Tuition after February 15, 2012: $500
For registration information reply/comment here or email the studio at info@vanportsquarestudio.com
Recurring Workshops
The following are currently unscheduled but recurring workshops. For further information on these and other workshops please email info@vanportsquarestudio.com.
Singing Performance Intensive
After the incredible, beautiful success of the fall performance intensive, we're back for another -- longer -- session! Join us in exploring the technology aspects of performing along with the craft! This intensive will include working with a microphone, lights and other aspects of a professional setting, as well as the opportunity to cultivate your own set of 3-4 songs from top to bottom.
This 10-week session takes the ongoing class work into live performance. We will have time to play, create your set, explore the microphone as an extension of you, practice the art of focal points, and the stagecraft of connecting with an audience directly and through the character of a song. The culmination of the class will be a showcase open to the public.
Mont Chris Hubbard a Portland composer, pianist, and musical director will accompany. His compositions have been heard locally in productions at Lewis & Clark College, The Broadway Rose Theatre Company, and Coho Theatre, as well as local radio (KINK 101.9FM) and tv (KOIN Local 6) He has many years of choral experience (including master classes with Joseph Jennings and John Rutter). He has also released three albums of piano improvisations.
Choir with Mont Chris Hubbard
Remember high school choir? Wish you could do it again without the acne and the universe-consuming crushes? Sign up for the Vanport Studio Choir! We'll look at music from many different countries, centuries, and traditions, though the focus will remain on the art of chamber singing. This means motets. This means gospel. This means folk. This means The Beach Boys. Come explore choral singing in a low-pressure, high-joy environment. All levels of experience are welcome!
Some teasers of possible songs to learn and perform for the delight of all:
Sicut Cervus (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina)
Bogoroditse Devo (Sergei Rachmaninoff)
Where The Sun Will Never Go Down (trad.)
Oh Shenandoah (trad.)
Ubi Caritas (Maurice Duruflé)
Mont Chris Hubbard is a Portland composer, pianist, and musical director. His compositions have been heard locally in productions at Lewis & Clark College, The Broadway Rose Theatre Company, and Coho Theatre, as well as local radio (KINK 101.9FM) and tv (KOIN Local 6) He has many years of choral experience (including master classes with Joseph Jennings and John Rutter). He has also released three albums of piano improvisations.
Shakespeare Audition Intensive
with Jan Powell
This two-weekend intensive is a start-to-finish Shakespeare immersion for anyone interested in exploring the delights and mysteries of these classic texts. Jan's fun, actor-centric approach to accessing what's buried in the Bard includes text analysis, demo/discussion, group breath & movement work, individual coaching as well as time with Jan's vast collection of resources & research materials.The process will include:
- choosing appropriate pieces
- ensuring a clear & thorough understanding of the time, history and language
- intensive coaching and prep work
- and even feedback on what's being done (and overdone) across the country.
Jan will work with you to put together a Shakespearean performance piece that is uniquely yours, one that will generate an indelibly powerful interpretation, with language so well spoken it will please even the most demanding Shakespeare experts.
 Jan Powell is a director, singer and actor with a principal focus in Shakespeare, musical theatre, and original work. As the founding Artistic Director of the Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company, resident in the Portland Center for the Performing Arts for over 10 years, she has produced and directed a great many Shakespeare productions, including the entire canon of history plays. She is past president of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America, the former Artistic Director of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival and is currently writing her dissertation on Shakespeare as interpreted to support the actor's creative process.
Teen Popular Song Intensive
with Marianna Thielen
This workshop, geared toward teens with some singing experience, will explore popular song from the 20th and 21st centuries. In addition to the primary focus on vocal techniques used to communicate popular song, students will study composers & performers.
Participants will choose material from a list of popular songs to research, prepare and perform by the end of the workshop. Each class will be accompanied by professional accompanist, Reece Marshburn, and will include some brief discussion and listening exercise, followed by a warm-up and song study. The final recital will be performed for friends and family at the studio on Friday the 28th at 6pm.
Marianna Thielen graduated from the University of Northern Colorado and majored in Musical Theatre with an emphasis in voice. After spending some time in New York, she moved back to Portland where she performs regularly in theatre and night clubs. You may have recently seen her at the Broadway Rose Theatre Company in their production of The Winter Wonderettes. She is also the cofounder and artistic director for "Moon Vine Music", a music production company for live events. Marianna leads her band "Marianna and the Baby Vamps", for which she directs, choreographs, and writes music. She has sung all of her life, studying and working professionally for 15 years. She is trained classically in addition to her expertise in the styles of musical theatre & pop.
One of Marianna's biggest turning points was in college, when she attempted to sing in an unfamiliar style and damaged her vocal chords. Thankfully, she recovered, and this life-changing experience emphasized in her the need to learn and teach proper technique no matter what style. She sees the need in the modern singer to sing in a "pop" style, but with very few places to turn. This workshop is designed for those students, as an addendum to the students' classical vocal training.
Piano Accompanist, Reece Marshburn, will play for all classes and the final performance. In addition to being the Studio's primary accompanist, Reece is also the musical director at Tony Starlight's Supper Club & Lounge, a member of the teaching team of the Portland Center Stage Teen Musical Theatre Intensive and frequent accompanist at the Portland Area Theatre Alliance City-wide General Auditions as well as being an accomplished composer/ singer/songwriter himself.
NEXT SESSION TBD
Other Workshops In The Works:
Voice Basics
with Chrisse Roccaro TBA
Grotowski Technique
with New York City based Wendy Vanden Heuvel TBA
Freeing Your Voice Means Freeing your Heart
with New York City based Elynn Diamond
Other Recurring Workshops include:
Performance Intensive -
This session takes the ongoing class work into an actual live performance. We will have time to play, create your set, craft transitions between songs, explore the microphone as an extension of you, practice the art of focal points & the stagecraft of connecting with an audience directly and through the character of a song. (Final class will be a showcase open to the public)
1-Day Singing Performance workshop -
This 3-hour workshop is an introduction to the work done in the ongoing classes. The format is the same including a group warm-up, a piano accompanist and individual work sessions for every participant. There is more general information discussed and more time allowed for questions and dialogue in order to flesh out the process of the ongoing class.
This workshop is available to any group or organizations such as theatre companies, schools, corporations, book clubs and all manner of arts clubs. Taking these risks together fosters intimacy, supportive growth & risk-taking.
6-Week Singing Performance workshop -
This workshop takes the introduction one step further. The 6-week format allows time for participants to digest and assimilate their process between sessions as well as incorporating suggestions and techniques in their following class experiences.
This workshop is offered intermittently and can also be tailored to any group or organization.
Performance Intensive -
This 2-day workshop (currently in development) will be held in a professional performance venue. Participants will have a "tech" rehearsal and coaching during the first session, a "master class" during the second session followed by an invited performance. The live performance is open to friends & family and will be professionally recorded. A CD recording of the event will be included for participants.
This workshop includes technical aspects of live performing while the focus is on emotionally connected, authentic and vulnerable performances in the heightened circumstances of a professional venue. Initial enrollment will be for students enrolled in the Ongoing Singing Performance Classes, then former students and auditors as space allows.
Audition Workshop -
Fine-tune audition pieces, craft a professional and effective presentation & develop tools to navigate the "nerves" that arise under audition circumstances. Each participant will have many opportunities to run entire audition pieces with a variety of professional piano accompanists. Allow yourself the luxury of being very prepared for the PATA auditions this month! Prepare 4-6 songs (32 bars ea) with sheet music in your key.
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