Exhibition Statement

Introduction

Theatre is not just for cringy musical theatre kids from your high school. It is actually a multi-faceted, million dollar industry with immense amounts of history and complexity. The goal of my Theatre 101 workshop is to teach drama pros and amateurs alike about the world of theatre, and how absolutely everyone can find a place to fit in there. From ancient theatre history to how to read a monologue, we will cover the basics of all things; theatre. The workshop exhibition will go over the general knowledge about all the theatre aspects we learned about, including technical theatre and acting techniques, as well as showcase a variety of scenes along with a dance combination, to show how the participants utilized their learning.

History and Distinction

Theatre has been occurring since before Christ; from cavemen, to the ancient Greeks, to Shakespeare to today (Brown). Though the creation of theatrical pieces is crucial, the study of acting has evolved along with written drama. Many philosophers such as Stanaslavski and Meisner have been studying the best way to portray a character for their entire lives, and have techniques that the acting greats still utilize now (Cole).  In the workshop, we studied these acting philosophers methods, which you will see clearly exhibited in the scenes the participants will be performing for Arts Fest. Aside from history and acting techniques, the workshop tried to explain the basics of technical theatre, musical theatre, theatre production, improv, stage combat, and more, so they received a well rounded general overview of all theatre has to offer.

Methods

In developing this workshop, I pulled a lot from my background as a theatre performer. I have been doing theatre since I was 10 years old, and I have participated both on and off stage, as a performer, technician and director. Through my time, I have had the honor of getting to learn from some amazing stage directors, technical directors, and dramaturgs, who have taught me a great deal about the world of theatre. If I didn’t have the direct information, I would ask one of my connections, such as my friend Mary who is trained in stage combat when I was teaching stage fighting. Along with that, I pulled information from scholarly readings I have done, which I reference at the end.  Every session, I tried to focus on a different topic, whether it was accents or stage directions. The class day was formatted similarly every day. We began with a warm up improv or theatre game, that allowed the participants to become more comfortable with each other, start developing those basic acting skills, and have a little fun. Next, we would move into some sort of lecture on the topic at hand. After that, they would utilize the knowledge they just acquired to participate in some sort of activity that assisted in solidifying the knowledge into their heads, then we ended with some sort of learning assessment which may have been a performance or quiz (Jeopardy, Kahoot, etc.).

Audience and Impact

The audience of my workshop is ideally, people who are not very knowledgable about theatre. Of course, I would be so happy to have lovers of theatre see my work, but they already know how theatre goes, how much fun it is, how anyone can do it, and how much it can change someone. People who are not so “in-the-know” will hopefully be pleasantly surprised by my workshop exhibition, and might want to check theatre out a bit deeper for themselves, whether it be performing, doing tech, or just seeing more shows as an audience member. I hope for the participants of the workshop that they grew confidence on stage, and discovered more about theatre, that they will hopefully take with them later in life, possibly to pursue further or incorporate into their other disciplines/majors. As an artist, leading this workshop gave me the power to teach what I wanted which really let my creative juices flow more than they ever have before. I had to do so much research that I know I am a better performer now because of it.  It also reassured my decision to pursue education, as I feel I really got through to the participants, and they genuinely enjoyed being in my workshop.

References

Brown, John. The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre. New York, Oxford University Press, 2001, books.google.com/books?id=c1DjpRm6IkMC&printsec=copyright&source=gbs_pub_info_r#v=onepage&q&f=false. Accessed 9 Apr. 2023.

Cole, Emma. “The Method behind the Madness: Katie Mitchell, Stanislavski, and the Classics.” Classical Receptions Journal, vol. 7, no. 3, 23 Nov. 2014, pp. 400–421, academic.oup.com/crj/article/7/3/400/2366229, https://doi.org/10.1093/crj/clu022. Accessed 16 Nov. 2019.

Acknowledgements

I want to thank all the mentors who have been with me through my theatre career, who have bestowed upon me the knowledge which I was able to give to my workshop participants. This includes all my directors, music directors, technical directors, choreographers, dramaturgs, and of course, fellow talented peers. I want to thank Harold who stepped in and helped me immensely with my workshop when my TA sadly had to drop. Lastly, I want to thank the participants (Brendan, Kayla, Kayley, Anthony, Chloe and Brooke) for being so incredibly enthusiastic to try anything and explore with me. Your hard work and bright smiles every day made the workshop so much fun; I was just honored to come teach you every week.