National Theatre Conservatory

This past summer, June 2008, I attended the NTC Summer Intensive. It was an intense, incredible experience. I had fun, and I met new, wonderful people. I also learned a lot, not just about acting technique, but about myself, the theatre world, teaching, and life.

Teachers

The teachers at NTC are the best I have ever worked with. Not only are they extremely knowledgeable, and some of the top professionals in their craft, but they were energetic, friendly, caring, and genuinely excited to be there (after most of them had just finished teaching for nine months in the MFA program). They have now become role models for the kind of teacher, professional, and actor I strive to be. This summer I had the amazing opportunity to work with:

Larry Hecht – extended character
Daniel Renner – audition/monologues
Hilary Blair – voice
Doug Montequin – voice
Bob Davidson – movement
Rick Barbour – Shakespeare
Erin Ramsey - combat
Ashlee Temple – scene study
Laurence Curry – hip hop
Tannis Hanson – TV/Film
Allison Watrous – music and character
Anne Penner – viewpoints
Kathy Brady - monologues
Sylvia Gregory – casting agent

Curriculum

The curriculum was extensive, interesting, and a lot of fun. Rick Barbour’s Shakespeare class was the best I have ever taken. He not only talked in depth about integrating scansion, but he also incorporated sense stress, and consonant and vowel work as well. If I lived in Denver I would be taking every class he teaches. Larry Hecht’s extended character class delved into physical character work that took me way beyond any of the work I had done before. It was detailed and excruciatingly hard. He talked about habits, physical and emotional, and we literally went from head to toe exploring everything that could possible be twirled, pulled, pinched, rubbed, or patted. We did visual work from pictures. We did voices. We did body types and what effects they have on the psyche. I took on Dracula as one of my projects, and I wish I had had two more years to explore everything that came up. We did impressions. (Studying and attempting to impersonate Woody Allen was my favorite, but Yosemite Sam was the most fun, and Joan Rivers is impossible! My hat off to all the successful and not-so-successful Joan Rivers impersonators, they are better people then I!) Erin Ramsey is an incredible stage combat instructor. There were a few of us that had had stage combat experience before, and she seamlessly integrated all the knowledge we already had with new techniques and choreography. She then put it all in the context of Shakespeare scenes, which is the crux of stage combat (scene work and relationships). I was very impressed. And I can’t even begin to describe what trapeze with Bob Davidson did for me. Challenging myself in his class and rising to that challenge made me actually weep with joy. He must have thought I was a little looney, but being the sweet guy he is he didn’t say anything except encouraging support. I could go on and on about every class and instructor because it all really was that amazing, but the class that I really broke through the walls in was voice class. Hilary and Doug helped me make huge leaps in my voice work. I felt a whole part of me release, and I’ve been exploring, learning, and working with it ever since. They are both experts on the voice, but concentrate on helping their students learn about and find their own unique voice. So their class feels like a private lesson with a group of people.

Classmates

The other students that I had the incredible opportunity to work with were talented, supportive, and amazing people. They came from all over: all ages, shapes, sizes and walks of life. The group I specifically got to work every day with (we were called the Gilberts; the other group were the Sullivans, pretty funny, huh?) I learned so much from. And the ones that impressed me the most were the ones just out of high school getting ready for college. They threw themselves into the work with gusto and passion, and we all followed right behind for the ride! It would be an honor and an absolute pleasure to work again with any one of them. The most wonderful day we had together was Rock Star. We all had to impersonate our favorite rock star, and the entire morning was a huge four hour concert complete with screaming, head banging, chair standing, and swooning. The love, support, and completely wild abandon in that room that day was exhilarating, inspiring, and SO MUCH FUN! I wanted to do it all over again (after a nap, of course). I really felt like I bonded with these intensely wonderful people, and thinking about my time with them makes me smile everyday.

Denver

If you have never been to absolutely BEAUTIFUL Denver, then you must go. Now. The mountains are breathtaking, downtown is cute and pretty, the suburbs are wonderful for biking, and the weather was gorgeous. Every weekend there was some fun thing going on. My first weekend in town, my fabulous hosts invited me along to an outdoor jazz picnic/concert, my second weekend there was a sidewalk chalk event in the streets (the art that these people did with chalk on concrete and asphalt blew me away!), and the weekend of my birthday my incredible classmates come friends took me on a road trip to the continental divide where there are no trees (too high, above the “tree line”), no sounds (no trees=no birds; pure silence is beautiful and intriguing), and awesome sledding! They baked me a birthday cake, and we went white water rafting on the Colorado. That trip was an amazing life event. One of the other students at the intensive was a rafting guide, so she took us out on her raft. There were 8 of us, and at one point we went over a class three rapid and two of our entourage went overboard. We came together as group so fast. Laura was an incredible guide, and we have amazing stories to tell to our grandkids. It’s a weekend etched in my memory that I hope never to forget.

Theatre Communications Group 2008 National Conference

Theatre at the Center, Theatre Communications Group’s 2008 National Conference was held in conjunction with the 2008 National Performing Arts Convention: Taking Action Together in Denver, Colorado, from June 10-14, 2008, at the Denver Center Theatre Company and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. So, I got an amazing earful of incredible speakers like London-based African-Caribbean playwright, actor and director Kwame Kwei-Armah; Dr. Alexander MacDonald of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; playwright Paula Vogel and Kinney Zalesne, co-author of the book microtrends: the small forces behind tomorrow's big changes; and Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz members of UNIVERSES, and many others. I was presented with a huge and diverse theatre world outside my little bubble of being a teaching artist in the San Francisco Bay Area. It made me start thinking about what I want to do to affect and change the world around me for good; how my talents fit into the larger scheme of social evolution. I now realize I want to take my motto of “changing the world one student at a time” and broaden it.

My time in Denver, working with NTC, is a moment in my life I will take with me forever, for so many different reasons. I was in situations and had experiences that were unique, beautiful and special. What I walked away with could never be duplicated. I was changed for the better, for the good, for the excited to be alive.