QuestFest 2008 Conservatory

Workshops and Master Classes

Performing arts experience required for Master Classes. Workshops open to the general public (ages 14 and above). Check back often. New Workshops and Master Classes added daily. For more information contact info@questfest.org

As of January 2, 2008.

Wednesday, Jan 16, 7-10PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Think Like a Fool: Creating Visual Comedy Theater

Master Class
Drew Richardson (Drew the Dramatic Fool - Help! Help! I Know This Title is Long,
But Somebody's Trying to Kill Me!)
Approaching the creative process by looking through the eyes of the fool, we will use multiple approaches to create and develop visually comedic material. Examples from silent film comedians and classic clown routines will be the jumping off point to look at the world upside-down, see things you’ve never seen before, and try things you’ve only imagined. Inspiration will be nudged with the use of masks, props, partners, costumes, and the imperfections of the human body.
Admission: $50

Friday, Jan 18, 2-5PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Fundamentals of Puppet Performance: Performer, Instrument and Score

Master Class
Robert Smythe (Mum Puppettheatre - From the Ashes)
This class will use to develop an awareness of the three fundamentals of puppet performance: the performer, the instrument and the score. The class will use LeCoq mime technique and other theatre exercises to develop performance skills; found objects to create hand-puppets and Japanese-style bunraku puppets for instruments; and simple improvisational exercises to open the exploration of developing works for puppets. Participants will work solo and in pairs and will learn how to create their own work through exercises designed to increase control of the elements of theatre.
Admission: $50

Saturday, Jan 19, 10AM-12PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Bringing Props to Life

Workshop
Tim McCarty (Quest Productions - Alice, I Carry the Flag, and Mosaic)
This workshop introduces participants to the many ways that objects can enhance a visual theatre performance. Participants use fabric to create characters, present settings, represent moods, and to construct objects.
Admission: $25 General Admission/$15 Students and Senior Citizens

Saturday, Jan 19, 1-3:45PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Devised Theatre: Dreaming Awake

Master Class
Tom Casciero (Faculty Member, Theatre Department, Towson University)
When we learn to dream awake, we begin to access and use the images, ideas, and themes of the personal and collective unconscious as a basis for our performance work. By following our allurements and dreams, tracking coincidence, and allowing images on the edge of consciousness to surface, we begin to see patterns and connections. These lead to us to discover, devise and develop themes and images, which we shape and craft with our own talents, skills and aesthetics until they carry a personal and universal resonance to our audiences.
Admission: $50

Saturday, Jan 19, 10AM-12PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

The Art of Visual Storytelling

Workshop
Ramesh Meyyappan (Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo)
Participants will explore a visual vocabulary for storytelling by considering the use of mime, choreography, and sign mime. (Sign Mime is a technique whereby the performer remains stationery using their bodies and hands to visually represent objects, events or actions. It is a technique, which adds visual and physical special effects to a narrative.) They will be supported in choosing a range of visual styles to develop short narratives. The narratives will be created from a range of texts from newspapers, magazines and traditional prose and plays. The focus will be to look at how we can find ways of telling a story by considering visual possibilities, i.e. creating a visual narrative. This ultimately involves skills in adapting a wide range of texts.
Admission: $25 General Admission/$15 Students and Senior Citizens

Saturday, Jan 19, 2-5PM
Round House Theatre Education Center

The Art of Gesture

Master Class
Mark Jaster, co-creator of Round House Theater's Hit show, The Seven Ages of Mime, featured performer at the Maryland Renaissance Festival ("A Fool Named 'O'"), and appearing in Happenstance Theater's MANIFESTO! as part of the Other Volumes Showcase, offers this workshop in mime technique. Mark served as the late Marcel Marceau's teaching assistant and studied with Marceau's teacher, Etienne Decroux. The workshop features exercises from these masters and responds to the skills and interests of the participants.
Admission: $50

Sunday, Jan 20, 10AM-12:45PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Collaborations in Visual Theater

Master Class
Mollye Maxner and Kathy Couch (Chimaera Physical Theatre – Table of Contents)
What are the primary communicative tools of visual theater? How can we enhance and specify the visual impact of a moment? What determines what we "see" and what we perceive? This workshop will investigate these questions and others as we explore pertinent dramaturgical concerns of visual theater. Taught by long-time collaborators Mollye Maxner (director, choreographer, writer) and Kathy Couch (designer, writer), the session will also attend to different perspectives, ideas, and skills within creative collaboration. The session will be a fun and thought-provoking progression of inquiries
using the mind, the body, and the imagination.
Admission: $50

Sunday, Jan 20, 10AM-12:45PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

The Lecoq School: The Pedagogy and the Legacy

Master Class
Eric Beatty (Featured performer in Lost & Clown’d, QuestFest 2006)
We will explore through physical exercises how movement and character can be inspired by diverse sources such as elements, colors, light, text, and materials. We will then briefly examine the theatre styles that are studied in the second year of The Lecoq School, such as clown, commedia, buffoons, and mask. Participants are encouraged to bring information and stories about performances and workshops of companies whose members have studied at Lecoq.

Admission: $50

Tuesday, Jan 22, 7-10PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Examining the Visual Lines of Desire in Theater

Workshop
Jenifer Alonzo, Tim Chamberlain, Monique Holt, and Andrew Korfhage
(Snow Queen and Swept Away)
This workshop will examine a scene from A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. The goal is to find behavior, gestures, icons and talismans that refresh the spectator’s understanding and enjoyment of a play through visual presentation. Several approaches to the scene will be developed and presented by workshop participants under the guidance of Jenifer Alonzo, Andrew Korfhage, Monique Holt and Tim Chamberlain. What lies there waiting to be discovered when we embrace the poetry of a piece by examining the essential relationships and dynamics? This workshop is a celebration of collaborative exploration. This is a workshop for Actors, Directors, Writers and those who are curious.
Admission: $25 General Admission/$15 Students and Senior Citizens

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2-5PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Characters in Transition

Master Class
Ramesh Meyyappan (Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo)
Participants will explore characterization through a visual medium, making use of mime, sign mime, movement and props to develop a range of characters. While the attributes of stock and stereotypical characters will be explored, participants will also look at some of the subtle nuances of characters in performance. Understanding and developing skills in character transition will allow participants to develop short solo performances with multiple characters.
Admission: $50

Thursday, Jan 24, 2-5PM
Aerial Theatre Productions Studio (See below.)

Aerial Theatre

Workshop
Mara Neimanis and Monique Holt (Snow Queen)
Glide, float, spin, and fly on low flying trapezes as exciting vehicles to explore ensemble relationship, imaginative imagery, and three-dimensional communication. Take flight in this exciting workshop that integrates physical theatre techniques and risk taking in performance within a framework of air and ensemble community. Workshop includes a conditioning component, aerial circus technique, and improvisational aerial creation. No previous experience required. Suggested to anyone with a body and an imagination.
Admission: $25 General Admission/$15 Students and Senior Citizens

Location:
Aerial Theatre Productions Studio
Load Of Fun, 2nd floor
120 W North Ave
Baltimore MD 21201
Directions: www.loadoffun.net

Thursday, Jan 24, 3-5PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

A Master Class in Modern/Contemporary Movement

Master Class
Vincent Thomas  (Faculty Member, Department of Dance, Towson University)
This class will focus on dynamics of movement with emphasis on rhythm, breath, improvisation, and visual stimulation. The class will begin with a warm up that utilizes an awareness of time, space, breath, and energy. Throughout the class, there will be moments of improvisation as a journey of exploration of personal movement voice based on a particular idea. The use of images, photos, text, and objects will be a stimulant for phrase work by the conclusion of the class.
Admission: $50

Saturday, Jan 26, 10AM-12PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Dramatic Foolery

Workshop
Drew Richardson (Drew the Dramatic Fool - Help! Help! I Know This Title is Long,
But Somebody's Trying to Kill Me!)
A physically playful approach to theater. Participants will begin to uncover or broaden their own comic personas by being brave enough to laugh at and with themselves without trying to be funny. We will explore comedic principles with the use of a simple exercise that has endless variations.  Specific emphasis will be placed on how to make comedy acting more truthful and serious acting more expressive.
Admission: $25 General Admission/$15 Students and Senior Citizens

Saturday, Jan 26, 10AM-12PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Everyday Gestures Become Dance

Workshop
Thomas Warfield (NTID – Handamation)
Utilizing gestures we use every day (i.e. brushing hair, tying shoes, putting on a coat, etc.) this participatory workshop incorporates the elements of dance choreography - Shape, Space, Time, and Energy - to manipulate gestures into more abstract movement; building intention and meaning to ultimately create dance. The visual and kinesthetic experience speaks a universal language of theatre, dance and social interaction. We use gestures as non-verbal communication. Emotion, thought and physicality are profoundly expressed through the face, torso and extremities of body movements. This transformative movement workshop is easily accessible to all with or without dance experience and to people of all abilities.
Admission: $25 General Admission/$15 Students and Senior Citizens

Saturday, Jan 26, 1-3:45PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Acting from the Outside In: Using the Techniques of Physical Language Analysis for Actors

Master Class
Karin Abromaitis (The Crusty Bakers a company featured in Other Volumes: A Visual Theatre Showcase)
Physical Language Analysis for the Actor (PLAA) is based on the idea that there are universally recognizable characteristics of emotional states and personality traits that reside in the body; that a vocabulary established to describe those characteristics and traits allows the actor to observe and articulate them clearly and objectively; and that the techniques of PLAA allow the performer to connect to, recreate and project the entire spectrum of human experience in an authentic and organic manner. The skills and techniques of PLAA are concrete; the concepts, intuitive; and the results are organic and true. This workshop/master class will introduce you to the basic concepts and techniques of PLAA.
Admission: $50

Saturday, Jan 26, 1-3PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Acting Without Words

Workshop
Edwin Chan, Edward Chan, Keith Lee, Anthony Wong, and Carmen Mok (Theatre of the Silence - Creation)
In Acting Without Words the actor will learn to use the visual vernacular, improvisation, movement, and mime to more fully express oneself. Through games and exercises students will learn to think in pictures, communicate with gestures, and become more comfortable using your face and hands. Learn valuable communication tools for the stage … and for life.
Admission: $25 General Admission/$15 Students and Senior Citizens

Sunday, Jan 27, 10AM-12PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Physical Expression and Animation

Workshop
Duane Palyka  (NTID – Handamation)
Students explore the relationship between physical expression and animation. Traditionally, physical expression helps animators give believability to the characters they animate - both in 2D and 3D. The animator stands before a mirror and acts out how he would like to see his character move. This is but one role physical expression can play in the animation process. High tech computers and cameras also allow us to experiment with more inventive ways that physical expression and animation can dialog. We will show how live cam images are projected onto 3D animation in real-time. We will also discuss and demonstrate how physical expression can animate particle effects using a character as an intermediary.
Admission: $25 General Admission/$15 Students and Senior Citizens

Sunday, Jan 27, 10AM-12:45PM
Towson University Center for the Arts

Magic Lantern Laboratory

Master Class
Molly Ross and Annie Howe (Nana Projects Magic Lantern Shows)
Step into the laboratory with Nana Projects--a company of Visual alchemists and lanterneers that specialize in Magic Lantern shows--projected animations performed live that blend the styles of traditional shadow puppetry with the techniques of pre-cinema. Using Nana Projects’ creative process for developing new works, participants will experiment on overhead projectors with techniques such as multi-level collage, found objects and scrolling images. This workshop culminates with an in class performance.
Admission: $50