Fall 2010

Acting Workshop concentrated on developing and strengthening improvisational acting skills. Acting is representing real life on stage, but much of what we do in our everyday life comes naturally, we don't have to think about it. But actors do. During the rehearsals of our production, Casino Fatale--a murder mystery--the actors could develop their characters through improv. Even the smallest of roles became more interesting as actors "played" and fleshed out their characters.

Set in Paris on a crisp November evening in 1925, Casino Fatale starred an assortment of characters—internationally renowned singers, Broadway and Hollywood stars, famous baseball players, English aristocracy, detectives, secret agents, mobsters, sheiks, jewel thieves and underworld mastermind criminals. They all convene at the Hôtel dé Coupage’s famed Casino Fatale for a charity auction. Little do they know of the treachery and mayhem—missing money, stolen diamonds, blackmail, conspiracy, and murder—that will transpire before the break of dawn.

Some of Casino Fatale’s thirty-nine characters and various plot lines were loosely based on the murder mystery game “Casino Fatale” produced by Freeform Games LLP. of the UK. But most of the characters and story lines were original. Furthermore, character development and some dialogue were contributed by students, as some of the scenes were created through improvisational acting.