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AC4TA to host readers theater workshop
Published 1:30pm Friday, November 12, 2010Like acting, but not singing? Interested in going out for a play, but not sure if you can learn all the lines?
If so, then the readers theater workshop being hosted by A Center for the Arts on Nov. 20 may be right for you.
The workshop, which will go from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and requires a registration fee of $15, is part of A Center for the Arts’ ongoing partnership with the Illusion Theater out of Minneapolis. In this workshop, interested participants will be learning from and working with Karen Gundlach and Mary Keepers, two theater veterans, as they learn how to deliver lines and dramatically stage readers theater productions.
“Several years ago we did a readers theater of something called ‘Evelyn and the Polka King,’” said Rebecca Petersen, the executive director of A Center for the Arts. The center decided to bring back the format, she said, in order to promote a wider variety of acting and get more people involved.
“Readers theater is kind of unique because you can (read) the script, but you don’t have to use the script entirely,” she said, adding that readers theater productions are also in vogue right now because there are a lot of new, currently unstaged productions being written right now. “It takes a lot of pressure off of a first-time actor.”
If participation is good and the workshop unearths some good scripts, Petersen explained, A Center for the Arts will look into holding a readers theater show sometime in January. Petersen is not yet sure of what form that would take.
She added that the readers theater is only one part of a bigger process on the part of A Center for the Arts.
“Our work with the Illusion Theater is our attempt to help create more theater opportunities in the community that are not musical theater,” she said, remarking that the center is also exploring other ways to create more acting, directing and production opportunities.
To register for the readers theater workshop, stop by A Center for the Arts or call (218) 736-5453.
Tags: A Center for the Arts, Arts-Entertainment
