EDUCATION
Classes for Adults
Fall * Spring * Summer ONLINE REGISTRATION
Fall and Spring Classes for Adults 2007-08
Acting & Performance Workshop Instructor: Michael David Gordon Students develop and refine acting skills such as expanding vocal and physical range, tools for releasing inhibitions, stage awareness, improvisation, character development, monologue work, and script analysis. These techniques will be applied through various performance material, advancing from basic storytelling to contemporary drama (Miller, Wasserstein, Simon, etc.) A director-led rehearsal process will prepare the actors for final public presentation.
Days: Tuesdays Time: 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm Number of classes: 15 classes Fall Semester: Oct 2 - Jan 22 (no class Dec 25 & Jan 1) Spring Semester: Feb 19 - June 10 (no class Mar 25 & Apr 21) Tuition: $400
Practical Public Speaking Instructor: Steven Hollow The same games and exercises used to train actors will help you feel more comfortable speaking in public or in front of any audience with a special emphasis on business presentations. Overcome stage fright, learn to engage your audience by being more confident and persuasive and thus a much more effective speaker. Learn how to think on your feet, use humor appropriately and how to avoid common Power Point mistakes.
Days: Thursdays Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Number of classes: 10 classes Fall Semester: NOT OFFERED Spring Semester: Feb 21 - May 8 (no class Mar 27 & Apr 24) ** CLOSED ** Tuition: $310
Playwriting Workshop Instructor: Carolyn Hunt Combining a structured approach to playwriting with attention to individual needs and goals, this class provides a supportive environment to inspire playwrights-in-process as well as those who have yet to put pen to paper.
Days: Tuesdays Time: 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm Number of classes: 10 classes Fall Semester: Oct 9 - Dec 11, 2007 Spring Semester: NOT OFFERED Tuition: $310
Advanced Playwriting Workshop - A Structural Approach Instructor: John Pietrowski Conceived ultimately as a writing workshop, this class is designed to help students experience the structural underpinnings of modern drama and provide an understanding of the different ways playwrights have discovered to “contain meaning” in a play. This will give students a clearer understanding of the forms they are currently using and may inspire experimentation with different forms. Class time will include watching filmed versions of seminal modern plays, discussing them thematically and structurally, and work shopping students' plays-in-progress.
Days: Tuesdays Time: 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm Number of classes: 15 classes Fall Semester: Oct 2, 2007 - Jan 22, 2008 (No class Dec 25 & Jan 1) Spring Semester: Feb 5 - May 13 Tuition: $400
Poetry Workshop Instructor: Penny Harter & William J. Higginson This workshop for beginning and experienced poets focuses on writing and sharing. Work with peers and instructors to polish your poems. Learn how and where to submit your work for publication and how to present it to an audience. To conclude the course, interested participants will give a public reading for family and friends
Days: Wednesdays Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Number of classes: 5 classes Fall Semester: Oct 10 - Dec 5, 2007 Spring Semester: Not Offered Tuition: $160
Writing Prose Narrative Instructor: Meredith Sue Willis Explore your experience and imagination through prose narrative forms: fiction, memoir, personal essay, and more! Emphasis will be on point of view, voice, dialogue, and creative revision. Through in-class writing assignments and short readings, you'll begin to write the stories you have been carrying inside–or telling to your friends!
Days: Thursdays Time: 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm Number of classes: 5 classes Fall Semester: Oct 18 - Nov 15, 2007 Spring Semester: Feb 21 - Mar 20, 2008 ** CLOSED ** Tuition: $160
Improvisation Workshop Instructor: Jane Keitel This class will introduce you to the fundamentals of improvisation ─ acting and reacting in the moment and without a script. Designed for those newer to acting as well as experienced students who need a workout, this class will give you an opportunity to strengthen your creativeness and intuition while honing character-building, dialogue and performance skills. This fun and fast-paced workshop will develop acting tools that you can apply to further work in improvisation or text-based scene study
Days: Tuesdays Time: 7:00 - 9:00 pm Number of classes: 4 classes Fall Semester: Oct 11 - Dec 6, 2007 (No class Nov 22) Spring Semester: Not Offered Tuition: $135
Dramaturgy: One-on-One Instructor: Peter Hays Design your own play-development process Tailored to the speed of the playwright, you can work one-on-one with a play expert from the PTNJ staff to develop your ideas, and then work independently at your own time and pace. Times are flexible: meet with your teacher three times for about an hour each time or meet twice for an hour and a half. The choice is yours. This play-development approach is based on the belief that each writer has his or her own needs. Once you've finished your play, you might even consider a staged reading with professional actors. Call Literary Manager Peter Hays at (973) 514 -1787, ext 18 or e-mail him at phays@ptnj.org, for further information about costs, and availability of mentors.
Summer Classes for Adults
PLEASE NOTE: THE SUMMER 2008 CLASSES FOR ADULTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN EARLY MARCH 2008 AND REGISTRATION WILL BE AVAILABLE THEN.
THESE CLASS DESCRIPTIONS ARE FROM SUMMER 2007 AND ARE HERE FOR REFERENCE ONLY.
The Poetry Shop Instructors: Penny Harter & William J. Higginson This two-week workshop for beginning and experienced poets focuses on writing and sharing. Sharpen your existing poems and write new work in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere. Gentle affirmation and careful, specific suggestions for improvement lead to success for students. At the end of the course, participants will have an opportunity to read their poems for family and friends at an informal poetry café.
Days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Time: 7:00 - 8:30 pm Number of classes: 6 classes Summer Class: July 10 -12, 17-19, 2007 Tuition: $190
Basic Playwriting: The Well-Made Play Instructor: John Pietrowski CLOSED The Well-Made Play is a durable and useful form. Popular at the end of the nineteenth century, it emphasized tight plot construction, clear character development, and solid craftsmanship. Ibsen used the form as the jumping off point for his controversial and innovative realistic plays like A Doll’s House and Ghosts. Screenwriters still use a variation of it in their work. Many beginning playwriting class curricula are based on the form, as its structural characteristics provide a good introduction to the process of writing a play.
In the first four weeks, an historical perspective of the form will be introduced; the class will start with readings, discussions, and viewings of examples of these works, including Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and the film Casablanca. This will introduce basic playwriting terminology and practice. Students will then be asked to write a 10-15 minute play based on the Well-Made Play concept, sharing their progress with fellow students in readings for the remaining weeks.
Days: Mondays Time: 7:00 - 10:00 pm Number of classes: 10 classes Summer Class: June 25 - August 27, 2007 Tuition: $310
Advanced Playwriting Instructor: John Pietrowski CLOSED This will be a basic workshop class, where students will share ongoing works in a supportive environment. Enrollment is open only to those who have previously taken a class at Playwrights Theatre, and have either a work in progress, or a solid idea that will allow writing to proceed during the duration of the semester. Students will be expected to have something to share every other week, and are expected to attend on the weeks they are not sharing to assist the other writers with the progress of their work.
Days: Tuesdays Time: 7:00 - 10:00 pm Number of classes: 8 classes Summer Class: July 10 - August 28, 2007 Tuition: $250
Improvisation Workshop Instructor: Jane Keitel This 4-week class will introduce you to the fundamentals of improvisation ─ acting and reacting in the moment and without a script. Designed for those newer to acting as well as experienced students who need a workout, this class will give you an opportunity to strengthen your creativeness and intuition while honing character-building, dialogue and performance skills. This fun and fast-paced workshop will develop acting tools that you can apply to further work in improvisation or text-based scene study
Days: Tuesdays Time: 7:00 - 9:30 pm Number of classes: 4 classes Summer Class: July 10 - 31, 2007 Tuition: $130
Adult Class Teaching Artist Bios
Steven M. Hollow is a professional actor, director and writer who has coached many business professionals to be more successful speakers. In 2003 Mr. Hollow was named a Distinguished Teaching Artist the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and in 2004, he received the Governor's Award for Arts Education.
Co-instructors Penny Harter and William J. Higginson have published many books of poems, translations, and criticism. They have taught throughout the world and currently teach in the schools through the New Jersey Writers Project.
John Pietrowski is the Artistic Director of Playwrights Theatre, where he has directed numerous world premiere productions of plays in his 15-year tenure. A winner of the Agnes E. Nixon playwriting award at Northwestern University for two of his plays, he has had readings and productions of plays at theatres in New Jersey and New York.Carolyn Hunt is an actor, director and playwright. She is the founder of Common Thread Playback Theatre, Inc. and served as the company's artistic director from 1994-2000. Carolyn's play, The Front Porch, was performed in 1998 for a symposium on Welfare Reform, sponsored in part by United Way of Morris County.
Meredith Sue Willis is a veteran teacher of writing to children through the New Jersey Writers Project and adults at New York University. Her books include Personal Fiction Writing and Deep Revision as well as Oradell at Sea, Dwight's House and Other Stories, and Billie of Fish House Lane.
Michael David Gordon (Director, Actor, Singer) Has been a working artist and educator for 20 years. His stage credits include: Freedom Train (National Tour); Play To Win (National Tour); The Beds Are Burning and Macbeth (Theater For The New City); Why Shakespeare? (Irondale Ensemble Project); The Book and Sunrise at Monticello (Playwrights Theatre).
Jane Keitel (Actor) Degrees from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Montclair State University; improv training at Chicago City Limits; acting and music teacher for 15 years, Jane Keitel has performed many roles on professional NJ stages, including productions of The Good German and Where the Sun Never Sets as part of Playwrights Theatre’s 2006-07 season.
