2-DAY CLASSICAL ACTING WORKSHOP
THE CLASSICAL CALLBACK FOR SPRING AUDITION SEASON
February 22 & 23, 2020
12:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Location: Sheen Center
Instructors: TIMOTHY DOUGLAS, JEFFREY DREISBACH and GIGI BUFFINGTON
You aced the monologue for the Casting Director, but now you have to turn around and do it for the Director. This class is perfect for audition prep for the Spring season or simply as a reinvigoration of your classical chops! Broadway voice and diction coach GIGI BUFFINGTON will equip you with the vocal tools to nail your monologue with McCorkle Casting Director JEFFREY DREISBACH. The next day you will continue to work on voice techniques before presenting the monologues in a mock audition and a valuable opportunity to meet and work with TIMOTHY DOUGLAS, director of the upcoming Frankenstein at CSC.
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Essential Question:
How do you prepare monologues in a way that shows yourself in the best light to a casting director? What aspects of an actor’s preparation are most essential when preparing for an audition? How do you engage honestly with a monologue in a high-stress environment?
Course Objectives:
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Develop a technique for preparing for auditions
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Explore how Shakespeare’s verse, text and rhetoric provide clues to how to deliver a monologue
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Learn how to create the true life of your character and their surroundings in an audition setting
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Learn how to warm up your voice and body before delivering an audition
Enduring Understandings:
Shakespeare’s verse provides clues for how to develop a truthful character efficiently. Like any tool, it requires training to use it effectively. A flexible, confident voice and body are essential for effective presentation of a character in an audition. Auditions are, by their nature, artificial environments, creating a technique allows you to be committed, brave and truthful under these trying circumstances.
Instructors:
FACULTY BIOS
GIGI BUFFINGTON specializes in voice, text, and performance.
For the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet (with David Tennant and Patrick Stewart), and Love’s Labour’s Lost (with David Tennant) She toured with Director Tim Carroll’s production of The Merchant Of Venice. She led Voice & Text workshops from the season’s plays to directors, teachers, and university students at Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust, and led teacher- training workshops in Voice & Text in the RSC Rehearsal Studios.
She coached the international cast and site- specific production of The Merchant Of Venice, directed by Karin Coonrod, for the five hundred year commemoration of the Jewish Ghetto and the four hundred year anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, in the Jewish Ghetto of Venice.
Broadway credits include: The Minutes (upcoming) and Linda Vista, by Tracy Letts; Straight White Men, by Young Jean Lee; King Kong Live On Broadway book by Jack Thorne.
Selected Off Broadway Productions include The Thin Place by Lucas Hnath; Heroes Of The Fourth Turning, by Will Arbery; Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, by Alexis Scheer; Dying City, by Christopher Shinn; Mary Page Marlowe, by Tracy Letts; Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet, Adapted by Eric Tucker; Elizabeth: Texts & Beheadings, Brooklyn Academy Of Music and The Folger; Coriolanus, Red Bull; The Tempest, (with Reggie Cathay), at LaMama.
Three seasons at Steppenwolf Theater include: BUG by Tracy Letts, (upcoming, with Carrie Coon); Downstate, by Bruce Norris (co-production with the National Theatre Of London.
For American Players Theatre: She directed the highly critically acclaimed production of Jean Genet’s The Maids; Director of Voice and Text from 2013- 2017; Pericles, Othello, An Illiad, The Seagull, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet and Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merry Wives Of Windsor.
She is an Associate Arts Professor at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.
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TIMOTHY DOUGLAS is a recipient of the Lloyd Richards Director Award from the National Black Theatre Festival, and currently serves as Distinguished Artist in Residence at Emerson College, as well as an Associate Artist with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park where he has staged the world premiere of Keith Josef Adkins’ SAFE HOUSE, JITNEY, TWO TRAINS RUNNING, BUZZER, CLYBOURNE PARK, The NORTH POOL, The LAST FIREFLY, a mixed-race MOTHERS & SONS, and his African-American take on Horton Foote’s The TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL.
Recent directing credits include the China tour of Ayad Akhtar’s DISGRACED for Ping Pong Productions, which also enjoyed a run at The Great Theatre Of China (Shanghai), Ione Lloyd’s EVE’S SONG for the Sundance Theatre Institute/Lab in Morocco, the premiere stage adaptation of Jason Reynolds' LONG WAY DOWN for the Kennedy Center, and productions of The COLOR PURPLE for Portland Center Stage, SEVEN GUITARS for Yale Repertory Theater, NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN, DISGRACED and KING HEDLEY II for Arena Stage, GEM OF THE OCEAN, FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS Parts 1, 2 & 3 for Roundhouse Theatre, RICHARD II for Shakespeare & Company, and off-Broadway with YELLOWMAN for the Billie Holiday Theatre, and BRONTË for the Alloy Theatre Company.
Timothy counts among his many national and international credits the world premieres of August Wilson’s RADIO GOLF for Yale Rep and Rajiv Joseph’s The LAKE EFFECT for Chicago’s Silk Road Rising (2013 Jeff Award for Best New Work), the NPN rolling world premiere of DONTRELL WHO KISSED THE SEA (6 Helen Hayes Award nominations) for Theater Alliance, as well as his critically acclaimed Caribbean-inspired MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING for the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, the premiere of a new translation/adaptation of Ibsen’s ROSMERSHOLM off-Broadway for Oslo Elsewhere, and MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA and Marivaux’s CHANGES OF HEART for Remy Bumppo Theatre Company where he served for a time as Artistic Director.
He was the Associate Artistic Director at Actors Theatre of Louisville for three seasons where he directed numerous projects including three Humana Festival premieres, the 25th-anniversary production of CRIMES OF THE HEART, and introduced audiences there to August Wilson with productions of The PIANO LESSON, JITNEY and FENCES. In addition, he served as a director-in-residence in new play development at the Mark Taper Forum/Center Theatre Group under a Mellon Foundation fellowship. During his time as an NEA/TCG directing fellow, he served as Resident Director at New Dramatists and Assistant Stage Director on Handel’s RODELINDA for Virginia Opera.
The list of theaters Timothy has made productions for include American Conservatory Theater GOOD BREEDING; Arden Theatre Company FENCES; Berkeley Rep VALLEY SONG; Berkshire Theatre Festival ASSASSINS, INSURRECTION, BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY; Cleveland Playhouse The TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL; Downstage (New Zealand) MULES; Folger Shakespeare Theatre MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, RICHARD III; Guthrie Theater IN THE BLOOD; Juilliard School The MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, PERICLES, SEVEN GUITARS; Magic Theatre COWBOYS #2; Marin Theatre Company TOPDOG/UNDERDOG; Milwaukee Rep (Associate Artist 2011 - 2016) GEM OF THE OCEAN, the world premiere of The NIGHT IS A CHILD, TROUBLE IN MIND, RADIO GOLF; Pittsburgh Public Theatre The CRUCIBLE; Pioneer Theatre Company CLYBOURNE PARK, FENCES; Pittsburgh Irish & Classical (Associate Artist 2001 – 2005) The CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN, PORTIA COUGHLAN; Playmakers Rep PRIDE AND PREJUDICE; Portland Center Stage HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW, A FEMININE ENDING, ANNA IN THE TROPICS; Round House Theatre TWO TRAINS RUNNING, A LESSON BEFORE DYING, PERMANENT COLLECTION; Shakespeare & Company BLUE ORANGE; Shakespeare Theatre Company/ACA MEASURE FOR MEASURE; Signature Theatre Company SPUNK; South Coast Rep the west coast premiere of A FEMININE ENDING; Steppenwolf Theatre Company ETIQUETTE OF VIGILANCE; Toi Whakaari (New Zealand) INSURRECTION, THREE SISTERS; Utah Shakespeare Festival LOVES LABOURS LOST; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company the world premiere of The LAST ORBIT OF BILLY MARS, and others, as well as workshops for ASK Theatre Projects, Denver Center Theatre Company, National Theatret of Norway, New York Theatre Workshop, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Phillips Collection, The New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre, Red Bull and Roundabout Theatre Company.
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JEFFREY DREISBACH has been a casting partner at McCORKLE CASTING, LTD for over 10 years. He received his BFA Degree in acting at Wayne State University and Masters education at Roger Williams College of Actor Training in London and at Cal-Arts in California. Jeffrey began his New York career accumulating Broadway, Film and Television credits for over 20 years. His last Broadway show, A Few Good Men, written by Aaron Sorkin was performed over 500 times. Additionally, he found success in commercials, Voice-over’s and countless regional theatre’s throughout the country. Jeffrey is the author of “Conversation Pieces out of the Studio, The Voice over Workshop for Professional Actors (Dog Ear Publishing 2011) and his podcast Casting Actors Cast has reached a worldwide audience with over 18 thousand downloads (castingactorscast.com). McCorkle Casting Ltd. has cast over 50 Broadway productions, 65 Off-Broadway, 62 feature film projects, 68 shows for television and hundreds of regional theatre credits. mccorklecasting.com
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Schedule:
Saturday
12:00 - 2:00: Voice Work with Gigi Buffington
2:00 - 3:00: Meal Break
3:00 - 6:00: Audition work with Jeffrey Dreisbach
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Saturday
12:00 - 2:00: Voice Work Gigi Buffington
2:00 - 3:00: Meal Break
3:00 - 6:00: Audition work with Timothy Douglas
Preparation:
You should have a classical monologue prepared and fully memorized.
Materials:
A journal is recommended to record notes and observations. Comfortable clothing that you can move and breathe freely in and a water bottle is strongly encouraged.
Concerns? Questions?
Contact Nathan Winkelstein.
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