Weekend One: The Art of Comedy Friday, October 16 — 3:45–5:15 pm & Saturday, October 17 — 9 am–3 pm
Weekend Two: The Art of Drama & Tragedy Friday, November 13 — 3:45–5:15 pm & Saturday, November 14 — 9 am–3 pm
Ithaca Waldorf School | Ithaca, NY - $200 for both weekends
Whether you have directed twenty plays or are preparing for your first, this workshop is for you.
We work the way theater works: by doing. You will practice scenes, explore improvisation, bring warm-up games to life, and find your way into the material through experience rather than lecture. You will leave with tools you can use right away.
Laura Hayes has directed and produced more than 15 class plays, including musicals, full-body shadow theater, radio plays, Shakespeare, circus, Molière and the great range of Waldorf class plays. She has worked on fully equipped stages and in large rooms with nothing but a backdrop, in Germany and in the United States. She knows how to bring a story alive with just the basics.
Dolan Polglaze is a class teacher at IWS with years of experience as a Thespian. He brings the actor's perspective into the work: what it takes to find a role from the inside, how to build stage presence, and what exercises open students up to real expressiveness. He will lead Shakespeare-themed scenes and exercises drawn from his own time on stage.
Together, we cover the full arc of what a class play demands. We dig into improvisation as the foundation of living characterization, how to help students inhabit a role, and how to create dynamic performances. We work on speech through exercises and games. We address blocking and the other anchors that give young actors confidence in space. We also touch on how to handle stage combat when your play calls for it.
We move into production as well: how to plan rehearsals and block scenes, how to work one-on-one with a student who is struggling, and how to make decisions about lighting, backdrops, props, stage sets, transitions, sound, music, and costumes. We discuss where to find scripts worth your class's time and what to look for when you do. Monologues, breaking the fourth wall, and other specific theatrical forms are part of the conversation too.
Weekend One centers on comedy. Weekend Two turns toward drama and tragedy. These two weekends are designed as a complete sequence. The material we cover is extensive, and each workshop takes up distinct ground rather than repeating the same content from a different angle.
Bring comfortable clothing, your own food, a water bottle, and a yoga mat if you have one.
Weekend One: The Art of Comedy Friday, October 16 — 3:45–5:15 pm & Saturday, October 17 — 9 am–3 pm
Weekend Two: The Art of Drama & Tragedy Friday, November 13 — 3:45–5:15 pm & Saturday, November 14 — 9 am–3 pm
Ithaca Waldorf School | Ithaca, NY - $200 for both weekends
Whether you have directed twenty plays or are preparing for your first, this workshop is for you.
We work the way theater works: by doing. You will practice scenes, explore improvisation, bring warm-up games to life, and find your way into the material through experience rather than lecture. You will leave with tools you can use right away.
Laura Hayes has directed and produced more than 15 class plays, including musicals, full-body shadow theater, radio plays, Shakespeare, circus, Molière and the great range of Waldorf class plays. She has worked on fully equipped stages and in large rooms with nothing but a backdrop, in Germany and in the United States. She knows how to bring a story alive with just the basics.
Dolan Polglaze is a class teacher at IWS with years of experience as a Thespian. He brings the actor's perspective into the work: what it takes to find a role from the inside, how to build stage presence, and what exercises open students up to real expressiveness. He will lead Shakespeare-themed scenes and exercises drawn from his own time on stage.
Together, we cover the full arc of what a class play demands. We dig into improvisation as the foundation of living characterization, how to help students inhabit a role, and how to create dynamic performances. We work on speech through exercises and games. We address blocking and the other anchors that give young actors confidence in space. We also touch on how to handle stage combat when your play calls for it.
We move into production as well: how to plan rehearsals and block scenes, how to work one-on-one with a student who is struggling, and how to make decisions about lighting, backdrops, props, stage sets, transitions, sound, music, and costumes. We discuss where to find scripts worth your class's time and what to look for when you do. Monologues, breaking the fourth wall, and other specific theatrical forms are part of the conversation too.
Weekend One centers on comedy. Weekend Two turns toward drama and tragedy. These two weekends are designed as a complete sequence. The material we cover is extensive, and each workshop takes up distinct ground rather than repeating the same content from a different angle.
Bring comfortable clothing, your own food, a water bottle, and a yoga mat if you have one.