All classes and workshops are suitable for ages 16 and up.
**Please note that tuition payments are non-refundable unless we have to cancel the class**
FREE WORKSHOP: Acting on Zoom
Remote Learning Workshop, held on ZoomOne day only; Saturday, January 16; 3:00-5:00pm
Instructor: Laura Morris
All students: FREE, advance registration required, limited to 20 participants
Continuing Acorn’s tradition of offering free acting classes every year! Have you been doing play readings or other performances on Zoom over the last 9 months? Wondering how to engage with virtual scene partners, or apply acting technique to a video the size of a phone screen? Teaching artist and actor Laura Morris leads a fun, collaborative workshop on acting basics for this year’s virtual stages. Suitable for beginners and experienced actors.
Playwriting: 7 Ways to Make Your Script Stand Out
Remote Learning Workshop, held on Zoom
5 weeks; Wednesdays, January 27 thru February 24; 7:00-9:30pm
Instructors: Daniel Burson & Brent Askari
All students: $90.00
Have you had a great idea for a play but had trouble turning your story into a script? Or could a subtle revision take your script from ordinary to something that grabs the reader’s attention? Playwright Brent Askari and dramaturg Daniel Burson lead a five-week workshop for playwrights of all skill levels. Each week, we’ll look at common pitfalls writers run into that can hold a script back, and lead exercises on how to strengthen your structure, get the most out of each scene, and make your characters stand out in a crowd.
Springing Into Soliloquies
Remote Learning Workshop, held on Zoom
5 weeks, Mondays, March 8 thru April 5; 7:00-9:30pm
Instructor: Mike Levine
All students: $90.00
No matter whether you’re brand new to working with Shakespeare’s language or an experienced veteran, everyone can improve their ability to work with heightened language by honing one of Shakespeare’s soliloquies into a performance piece suitable for audition use. Students in this class will work with Naked Shakespeare’s founding director, Mike Levine, on a piece that fits their level of experience and brings the verse to live in a recorded Zoom performance at the end of the workshop.
Instructors:
BRENT ASKARI is a playwright and actor living in Portland, Maine. Some recent plays include American Underground (World premiere Barrington Stage Company 2019), Hard Cell (PlayPenn Conference 2017, world premiere Geva Theatre Center 2019), The Refugees (Winner of National New Play Network’s 2019 Smith Prize for Political Theatre), and White Party (Public readings at EST LA and Palm Beach Dramaworks, workshopped at Florida Repertory Theatre). Brent is a National New Play Network affiliate artist and a member of Mad Horse Theatre Company. He is currently working on a new commission for Barrington Stage Company
DANIEL BURSON is the Artistic Director of the Maine Playwrights Festival. He has developed and directed new plays for theaters including Penobscot Theatre Company, Mad Horse Theatre, Saco River Theatre, Boston Playwrights Theater, and Portland Stage Company, where he was previously Literary & Education Manager. Other Maine credits include the world premieres of One Blue Tarp at Penobscot Theatre and Legbala Is A River at Mayo Street Arts, as well as productions at Portland Stage, Penobscot Theatre, AIRE, Dramatic Rep, and Deertrees Theatre. He is a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.
MICHAEL LEVINE is the founder and Producing Director of Acorn Productions, as well as the Artistic Director of the Naked Shakespeare series. He has been teaching acting classes at Acorn for almost 20 years as well as directing several dozen productions for Acorn. He has also taught acting and playwrighting at SMCC and the Stonecoast Writing Program and written several plays for Acorn, including The Dybbuks of Park Slope and The Legend of the Golem. He is a graduate of M.I.T., where he studied playwrighting with A.R. Gurney, as well as acting with Kristen Linklater, and Shakespeare and Company, and he is a certified secondary school English teacher.
LAURA SACKS MORRIS After minoring in Theater at UMO, Laura acted professionally at the Dallas Theater Center, Indianapolis Rep and other venues before founding the Second Chance Foundation with the mission of helping youth make healthy decisions through theatrical school programs. She worked as a Theatrical Director with the Council for Drug Free Youth as well as founded MASK (Master Acting Studio for Kids). Currently, she directs peer-to-peer prevention programs on coping skills, decisions making and youth substance use within her role as the Executive Director of the Be the Influence Coalition in Windham. She is an Acorn Board member and has acted for the past two years in the Maine Playwright’s Festival. Her favorite role is as “mother” to her two sons, Ben (27) and Josh (23).
Gift Certificates Available
Give the gift of an Acorn class! Click the link below to purchase a gift certificate for either Playwrighting or Soliloquies.