Classes
Acting 101 With HeatherK and Downstage Center Productions are proud to announce that we are offering a full schedule of Theatre education classes as well as 2 full scale productions for the 2022/23 school year. Our year together will consist of all of your favorite acting classes, designed to elevate the voices of your young performers. Our curriculum is built to bring all of the joy and excitement of putting on a play while giving our young actors life skills that will serve them on and off the stage. We do more than teach the craft of acting, we are building a community full of articulate, thoughtful, empathetic listeners and friends.
Whether you are studying basic stage presence and performance in a Scene Stealers class or enlisting in the Hoo-gah Troupe, you will find a home here in our classrooms and on our stages. Our actors take weekly courses in which they study scenes and monologues while our Hoo-gah Troupe serves as the cast for our full scale productions. Joining the Troupe means participating in a 2 ½ hour weekly rehearsal lab, committing to enrolling in an acting class where your skills as an actor can be developed and performing in our end of session production.
Check out our class options below to find the right class for your young performer. When looking at tuition rates, remember that our monthly tuition rate is not based on a weekly price but on the 10 month school year. There is no discounted rate for months when holidays occur. An average for long and short months is factored into our tuition rates.
Our 2022 Spring Session will run 9/12/22-1/20/23 All Classes will perform during the week of 1/23/22-1/29/22. Hoo-gah Troupe will perform on Saturday 1/28/23 & Sunday 1/29/23.
*See the Productions Page for details regarding our upcoming production of “This Town.” An original adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s, Our Town*
spring break workshop
Advanced Stage combat and story telling!
Join Teacher O and PJ for a fun filled, Spring Break weekend that will knock your socks off! Come wield a prop knife and improvise your guts out in this fun filled adventure on the DCP stage. While experienced young Artists are encouraged to attend, experience is not necessary. Come play with us!
Your Performer Will Learn: Storytelling through the craft of stage combat and improvisation. Your young Artist will build a toolkit filled skills that engage their bodies, voices and quick wit.
What Your Performer Will ACTUALLY Learn: How to communicate physically, emotionally and vocally in a way that will strengthen their muscles and their minds.
Ages: 10-18 years
Meets: April 1st & 2nd, 10am-2pm
Cost: $125
*Limited to 12 young performers.
SCENE STEALERS I
What do you want to communicate on stage and off? Monologue and scene training for actors is the best way to find out. Performers will train in the fundamentals of performance for those big, bright stage lights.
Your Performer Will Learn: Stage vocabulary, how to memorize lines, rehearsing and performing contemporary pieces written for the stage.
What Your Performer Will ACTUALLY Learn: How to read text and analyze it, listening skills, critical thinking, lessons in empathy, confidence and how to trust their instincts.
Ages: 10-18 years
Meets: Wednesday 5:30pm-6:30pm
Cost: $75/month
*Limited to 12 young actors
SCENE STEALERS II
Are you an experienced performer looking to sharpen your tool kit? This advanced class for performers well versed in the fundamentals, will be an excellent fit. While there is no audition currently required for Scene Stealers II, new students will want to check in with HeatherK before registering for this class.
Your Performer Will Learn: Advanced level technique, movement and emotional communication. Young actors will be preparing to audition as well as perform for large performance spaces.
What Your Performer Will ACTUALLY Learn: How to read text and analyze it, listening skills, critical thinking, lessons in empathy, confidence and how to trust their instincts.
Ages: 10-18 years
Meets: Monday 6:00pm-7:00pm
Cost: $75/month
*Limited to 12 young actors
JUNIOR SCENE STEALERS
This acting for beginners class is just right for our 7-9 year old friends. These young actors will learn that theatre is storytelling through the use of poetry, fairy tales and asking big questions.
Your Performer Will Learn: Stage Vocabulary, how to memorize lines, how to use their big actor voices and how to perform short scenes and poems.
What Your Performer Will ACTUALLY Learn: How to be brave and bold when trying new things, that their thoughts and experiences matter, how to be a better listener, how to work as an ensemble, confidence and how to trust their instincts.
Ages: 7-9 years
Meets: Wednesday 4:30pm-5:30pm
Cost: $75/month
*Limited to 12 young actors
SPEAR CARRIERS
Shakespeare reminds us that we must act well the part! This class will introduce you to the beautiful and mysterious world of performing Shakespeare’s language.
Your Performer Will Learn: How to memorize, rehearse and perform Shakespeare’s soliloquies, monologues and scenes.
What Your Performer Will ACTUALLY Learn: When you truly listen to another person’s experience, language is no barrier, that humans are complicated beings with a wealth of history true and imagined and that this history makes us who we are today.
Ages: 10-18 years
Meets: Tuesday 6:00pm-7:00pm
Cost: $75/month
ACTING FOR ADULTS
Adults need time to play too. What do you want to communicate on stage and off? Monologue and scene training for actors is the best way to find out. Performers will train in the fundamentals of performance for those big, bright stage lights. This class focuses on having a good time and stretching out of the comfort zones.
Performers Will Learn: Stage vocabulary, Theatre Games, How to say, “Yes! And…”, fundamentals of performance via Scene and Monologue work
Performers Will ACTUALLY Learn: That life is ever so much more interesting and fun when you remember how to play.
Ages: 18 years +
Meets: Monday 7:00pm-8:00pm
Cost: $75/month
HOO-GAH DEVISED
Theatre is storytelling! What is your story and how will you tell it? Join Teacher Heather once a week for an opportunity to write, devise and develop your own original pieces.
WHAT YOUR ARTIST WILL LEARN: How to devise original theatrical projects, how to workshop pieces you’ve had stashed away in your brain, your journal or that notebook you’ve got stuffed in an old drawer.
What Your Artist Will ACTUALLY Learn: The writer’s process through the lens of Devised Theatre, creative writing, how to think critically and openly, how to move your creative thoughts from your mind to your pen to the stage.
Ages: 12-18 Years
Meets: Tuesday 5:00pm-6:00pm
Cost: $75/month
HOO-GAH TROUPE
“Hygge (pronounced ‘hoo-gah”) is an experience of selfhood and communion with people and places that anchors and affirms us, gives us courage and consolation.”
–The Book of Hygge by Louisa Thomsen Brits
The Hoo-gah Troupe is a rehearsal lab and Devised Theatre experience. Troupe will serve as the principal ensemble for any show we are putting on. No audition is currently required to join the troupe, however cold readings will be held for casting purposes. *An additional acting class as well as an additional $50 production fee is required to be a member of the troupe.
Your Performer Will Learn: How to research, memorize, rehearse and perform a part in a play.
What Your Performer Will Actually Learn: How to work on a team, ethics, text analysis, discipline, punctuality, how to set achievable goals and surpass them, what it means to lead and how to handle criticism.
Ages: 10-18 Years
Meets: Thursday 5:00pm-7:30pm
Cost: $95/month + $50 one time Production Fee
INDIVIDUAL TRAINING SESSIONS
(Via Zoom OR In Person)
I offer individual actor training sessions in 30 minute blocks throughout the week. This is an opportunity to work one on one to develop the actor/life skills you are interested in.
*Optional in-person tailgate director sessions are available once a month for Zoom Students
Ages: 7 years to Adult
Meets: At the convenience of the performer and teacher
Cost: $100/month for Zoom Training
Cost: $120/month for In Person Training
MIDSUMMER ADVENTURE THEATRE CAMP
Calling all young performers in the SW Washington Area! Spend some time in the Summer sun with your friends performing, directing, designing and building a show. Our adventure together will culminate in campers putting up an exciting and powerful theatrical production. Camp is one of the great highlights of our year together.
Your Performer Will Learn: How to rehearse, block and perform a play in just 2 weeks!
What Your Performer Will ACTUALLY Learn: Confidence, how to be a part of a disciplined ensemble, perseverance, and how to put your Summer brain to creative use.
Camp Dates: July 11th – 22nd, Mon-Fri 10am – 2pm
Cost: $300 ($50 registration fee is required to hold your spot in the camp)
Age: 10-18 years
Camp Dates: August 8th – 12th, Mon-Fri 10am – 1pm
Cost: $200 ($50 Registration fee is required to hold your spot in the camp)
Age: 7-9 years
Camp Location: The Cottage Building at the Historic Academy
Scholarship Information
Downstage Center Productions is proud to offer scholarships to camps and classes at Acting 101 with HeatherK. In our efforts to Pass the Mic and build a more equitable stage, we are raising funds to have 10 students from each camp join us on full scholarship. At DCP, we believe that money should never be the reason why we get to miss out on working with your young actor. Please click the button below or use https://acting101withhk.com/scholarships to apply today.
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