Portland Actors Conservatory

Be Not Afraid of Greatness: See TWELFTH NIGHT at PAC!

2012-01-31T10:33:00.000-08:00

A young woman washes ashore in a strange land aftersurviving a shipwreck that separated her from her twin brother, whom shebelieves dead. She takes a position as a page serving the handsome Duke Orsino.The catch? She must disguise herself as a boy to get the job. Thus, our heroineViola spends her days as “Cesario,” and soon finds herself in a bind when shefalls in love with the Duke, while at the same time inadvertently causing theDuke’s love interest Lady Olivia to fall in love with her. Just when it seems things could not get any more complicated,Viola’s brother Sebastian arrives!

Photo: Owen Carey, Design: Tim Stapleton

It all makes for a very comical, adventurous and romantictale of mistaken identity - a gender-bending celebration of love and life! Itis Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the second show in Portland Actors Conservatory’s 2011/12 Season,playing Feb. 17 through Mar. 4, with previews on Feb. 15 & 16.

“It’s such a fun, accessible, passion filled story with suchwonderfully written characters,” says director and PAC faculty member Michael Fisher-Welsh. “It’s got a shipwreck, twins, mistaken identity, more music thanany other of Shakespeare’s plays, 4 sword fights, yellow stockings and adungeon. When Beth Harper asked which Shakespeare play I’d like to direct forthe 2nd year students, Twelfth Night immediately came to my mind.”

Taking the stage as a guest artist, PAC Executive Director andThird Rail Repertory company member Philip Cuomo plays the straitlacedMalvolio, head steward to Olivia. Much of the comic relief in the play comes atMalvolio’s expense, including an incident involving “yellowstockings…ever cross-gartered.”

“The play is often referred to as Shakespeare’s ‘gateway tothe tragedies,’ explains Fisher-Welsh, who was most recently seen on stage withthe title role in King John at the Northwest Classical Theatre Company,“not only because afterwards is when he started writing his greatest tragedies,but also, I believe, because there is a dark side to many of the characters inTwelfth Night and it’s been interesting exploring those aspects of the play.”

PAC’s second-year students round out the cast, and theresident creative team includes Tim Stapleton (scenic design); Jeff Forbes(lighting); Jessica Bobillot (costumes); and Chris Mikolavich (sound).

You won't want to miss PAC's latest production! As it says in the play,"be not afraid of greatness!" Tickets are available NOW!

See PAC’s Beth Harper onstage in CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION!

2012-01-20T13:31:00.000-08:00

Art mirrors life mirrors art mirrors life, ad infinitum. Such is certainly the casefor PAC’s Artistic Director and founder Beth Harper, who has been castas…wait for it….an acting instructor!

In Artists Rep’s production of Circle Mirror Transformation, written by Annie Baker anddirected by Allen Nause, Beth will be playing the character of Marty, whoteaches an “adult creative drama” class at a small-town community center.

Winner of the 2009 Obie Award for Best New American Play, theNew York Times called Circle Mirror Transformation "anabsolute feast” and declared it, “the kind of unheralded gem that sends peopleinto the streets babbling and bright-eyed with the desire to spread the word.”

The play follows Marty’s six-week class and the real-lifedramas that unfold between her students: a recently divorced carpenter, a highschool junior, a former actress, and Marty’s husband. As the students progressthrough seemingly shallow theatre games into deeper psychological waters, theydiscover that their lives have changed forever.

Asked to explain the difference between her own philosophy of acting instruction and that of her character, Beth says, “Marty’s approach toacting is therapeutic - she is directly and specifically trying to get peopleto see themselves. I do not believe acting is therapy, but if the process issurrendered to completely and utterly, the actor will certainly be affected ona therapeutic level." "The similarities," Beth adds, "are that we are both based in the human connection, wanting to explore self and all its possibilities."

Artists Rep says, “By the end of the class, layers ofemotional baggage are stripped off to reveal how truth, change and publicperformance can possibly ‘set the body and spirit free.’”

“The audience is not told everything,” comments Beth,“everyone will come away with a different story – even the actors.”

Don’t miss this unique theatre experience! Ticketsare on sale now. The show runs February 7 through March 11, 2012 at ArtistsRepertory Theatre.

PAC Welcomes New Faculty!

2012-01-12T11:59:00.000-08:00

Brian Demar Jones

Portland Actors Conservatory is excited to announce theaddition of Brian Demar Jones to our Studio Program faculty!

Brian will be teaching ACTING: LEVEL ONE, whichbegins Jan. 23 and continues for eight weeks on Monday evenings, and SCENESTUDY INTENSIVE, beginning Feb. 21 and continuing every Tuesday evening forsix weeks. Both programs are currently open for enrollment.

“We’re thrilled to have someone of Brian’s caliber,” says PACArtistic Director and founder Beth Harper, “His belief systems so closelymirror our own and his methodology is a perfect fit for our students.”

A newcomer to Portland, Brianwas most recently a company member with the Oregon Shakespeare Festivalin Ashland,where he also taught workshops. Brian has worked professionally at the 5^th AvenueTheatre, Village Theatre, Taproot Theatre, and many other venues throughout thePacific Northwest. He can be seen in theupcoming production The Brother/SisterPlays at Portland Playhouse, and all over this year’s FertileGround Festival.

Brian is an experienced educator, having taught for the University of Washington, where he received his MFAdegree in Acting, as well as various theatres and performing arts institutes.He has led workshops and classes in Audition Technique, Suzuki/Viewpoints, SceneStudy, Basic and Advanced Acting, and Musical Theatre, among many others.

Brian is a great addition to the studio faculty because hehas mentored and worked with actors from the extreme novice to the seasonedprofessional. Our studio program offers individuals of all skill levels a place to enhance and develop their foundational techniques.

“I am interested in helping students cultivate their ownprocess,” explains Brian, “I always tell my students that my way is not theonly way but one way among many.”

Brian’s methodology mirrors that of PAC and focuses onworking as an ensemble, utilizing a fusion of Stanislavky based method ofphysical actions with Viewpoints & Suzuki to create organic and powerfulactors. He is well-versed in both classical and contemporary theatre, withparticular emphasis on Shakespeare and new works.

As an actor/ director / singer, he brings with him a varietyof skills to share and help others succeed in their own personal goals. He setsthe same expectations for all, providing the skills necessary to succeed butunderstanding that each student’s journey is unique.

PAC’s Studio Program reflects the belief system of ourfull-time Conservatory Program. Both programs are rooted in exploring impulsesand the concepts of objective, obstacle and tactic, fundamental to the methodof acting developed by Stanislavsky and continued by artists and theorists suchas Uta Hagen.

Our strong theoretical basis and experienced faculty makeour program ideal for the working professional actor seeking to exercise theirinstrument, as well as the newcomer to the art of acting.

Click here to read more about our Studio Program, enrolling now.

Audiences and critics love RECKLESS!

2011-11-28T12:29:00.001-08:00

Audiences and critics love RECKLESS! Portland Actors Conservatory started the 2011-2012 season with a BANG last weekend!

Cate Garrison of bePortland writes, "All of the students gave great performances, but the night went to second-year student Rebecca Ridenour, who plays Rachel. She took the audience on the journey of Rachel’s transformation, and we were right with her every step of the way."

Here's what some of our audience members had to say:

"Reckless is brilliant. Suz and I absolutely LOVED it. Bravo!!" ~ Shelley Lipkin

"This was a fabulous play with an outstanding performance by Ms. Rebecca! Cheers to a great show!" ~ Leela Cyd

"RECKLESS was so good I cried, literally. Yes I'm a sap but really really good. Congratulations!" ~ Maureen O'Connor

"Go see Reckless, at Portland Actors Conservatory, fine work, everybody!" ~ Ty Boice

Written by Craig Lucas and directed by Philip Cuomo, RECKLESS follows the story of Rachel, a housewife who narrowly escapes when her husband takes a hit out on her life at Christmas. She finds herself with a peculiar but loving new family. There’s Lloyd, a gentle social worker, and Pooty, his deaf-mute, paraplegic wife. They both work for Hands Across the Sea, a little nonprofit organization for the disabled. Rachel’s unsinkable attitude goes from unease with her unpleasable coworker to disbelief when she learns the secrets Lloyd and Pooty both harbor. Other than that, everything’s great. Until the following Christmas when Rachel’s husband comes looking for closure. A Bonnie-and-Clyde road trip has fantasy colliding with reality as Rachel and Lloyd break down in order to move on. The New York Times called “Reckless” “a bittersweet Christmas fable for our time” when it debuted on Broadway in 1988. Craig Lucas is the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award nominated author of “Prelude to a Kiss” and “The Light in the Piazza” (book).

Get your tickets now for the most uniquely fabulous show of the Christmas season!

Runs Thursday through Sunday through Dec. 18.

PAC Alumna Brooke Blanchard, formerly of 'Grey's Anatomy,' Stops in for a Visit!

2011-10-13T13:43:00.000-07:00

PAC was graced with the presence of one of our many talented alumnas yesterday, the one and only Brooke Blanchard (Class of '98). She and newborn Cole showed up (her third child) to say hello to Beth and sit down with Conservatory Confessions for some dish.

Brooke Blanchard, Class of '98

If you don't know Brooke, she's an absolute PAC success story: after leaving the Conservatory, she moved to New York City, where she played twins Lily and Rose on "As The World Turns" for four years (2000-2004). After that, she moved to Los Angeles where she became a series regular on "Grey's Anatomy" as Jill the Paramedic. Brooke's character has appeared in 11 episodes over six years, often spouting medical jargon that makes your head spin around WHILE wheeling a gurney down a hall at top speed.

Recently, Brooke and family have been spending more time in Portland, where Brooke will be able to concentrate on raising her brood while managing her photography business, Brooke Blanchard Photography.

We got some great pearls of wisdom from Brooke while Cole slept, nursed and gurgled here at the PAC office. She remembered waitressing in NYC and doing theatre when she was first cast on "As the World Turns."

On doing a soap:

It was a lot like theatre, it's the most similar camera-acting job to theatre, because they film you in longer takes. And you get a new, complete script every week. It was also the first time in my life I got to say 'I’m an actress because Imake my living off of it.'"

On going to the Daytime Emmys for "As the World Turns":

“I was like a kid in a candy store”

After three seasons, Brooke's character(s) got kidnapped. Unsure if she'd get axed and craving a change, Brooke started finalizing her intended move to Los Angeles. In the meantime, she'd get written into an episode of ATWT. Brooke's ex-boyfriend was FedExing her the scripts that would show up at her old apartment, and she'd book a plane to make the shoot dates. She'd often jump on a redeye from LAX, take a car service to the ATWT studio, and head straight back to the airport without setting foot in a domicile. When waking up at night on an airplane, sometimes Brooke didn't know if she was headed East or West!

On establishing oneself in LA:

"I theorize that if you are 19 and gorgeous, or very uniqueand quirky you will find your place. I was not really any of those things. I was a dime a dozen – usually I went in the back doorthrough theatre."

Brooke was living off her ATWT residuals and bartending when another return to the boards brought her closer to her next on-screen gig. While doing a world premiere play by one of the writers of "Grey's Anatomy," “Me, My Guitar and Don Henley," Brooke got to know the playwright, who helped get her into the casting director's office for GA.

On getting on GA:

"It game me a certain sense of accomplishment, getting on primetime. I had thought of giving up acting after moving to LA"

On working with Sandra Oh:

"Sandra Oh has a fantastic work ethic – she was amazing on set to everyone. She knew me through the writer, but she was not just nice to me because of that. I saw her go introduceherself to extras – and I saw the opposite of that with other people."

On playing Jill and memorizing her medical monologues:

"Istressed more over that paragraph than I would over 20 pages of dialogue."

On what PAC gave her:

"PAC is a really great program. I've worked with people who went hrough Tisch, Northwestern, Columbia,and I never felt that they had a leg up on me. Everyone has their own style andtalent, but as there’s talent and then there’s knowledge. I always felt like Ihad a really good base coming from here."

On school, pressure, and classes:

"When I went to PAC, the audition process to get into 2^nd year was areally intense…do or die. For me it was, 'If you don’t do second year, what do you do?' The pressure on you was good. We worked hard here. I've taken lots of classes to stay in touch with my creativity since leaving PAC, and nothing has been as serious."

On how children have changed her perspective on acting:

"I used to stay up nights thinking about my career. That changes. I know now I can do some theatre here and there, butI don’t have to make my living at it."

On her career as a whole:

"WhatI’ve seen as a life lesson is when you get to one rung, no matter where you areyou need to figure out how to be happy, because there’s always a next rung. You've got to find joy outside the business of acting."

PAC Alum Brooke Blanchard formerly of 'Greys Anatomy' Stops in for a Visit!

2011-10-13T12:02:00.001-07:00

Hearing the Whole Story: Mentors and Curriculum

2011-10-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

by Connor Kerns(PAC Conservatory faculty Voice and Speech, Acting Styles Instructor) and guest blogger. Connor also teaches in our evening Studio Program for adults. This Fall he's teaching Voice and Movement starting this Wednesday, October 5. Learn more about the class and registration details here.

How do wehear the whole story and not just the pieces? How do we integrate the word with the action? The impulse with the blocking? The objective with the light cue? One acting course with another?

Integration and the “whole story”are often on my mind, especially when teaching and mentoring actors anddirectors. It is also on my mind nowbecause I have been asked to write about some administrative help I provided PAC in the summer of 2011. I am helping todevelop and edit course descriptions, learning outcomes, and the missionstatement. (This essay was Philip Cuomo’sidea, by the way.)

So . . . how will I integrate mypassion for the spoken word with written academic documentation? Well, I am going to try. Because couldn’t I find some way ofintegrating what I am learning from hearing the “whole story” of the PACtwo-year program with what I have heard from my own mentors? And couldn’t we all listen more specificallyand thoroughly to the whole story—the whole play?

Cicely Berry

Image courtesy gpb.org

If you’veworked with me, you know about my own mentor, Cicely Berry. If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to read andpractice with her books.* Better yet,get hired at the Royal Shakespeare Company and get her pearls of wisdom firsthand! Or, just as useful, hook up withAndrew Wade, her former colleague, who is often attached to productions asVoice Director in New York, NY, Minneapolis, MN or Ashland, OR. Working with Andrew is, in fact, what Cissuggested I do in 2003 when our theatre company was seeking expertise to liftour acting work. As Artistic Director ofQuintessence: Language & Imagination Theatre, I sought a mentor to open upthe language and characters in Macbeth and my original play FaceReader. It was a great experience—justask PAC alums Skeeter Greene, Scott Moss, and Rafael Untalan, or PAC guestartist Dave Bodin.

Mentorsoften seem to help us see the whole picture, and Andrew certainly did that forour company, and for me. He is perhapsbest known for his consulting work on the film Shakespeare in Love. In ourfirst phone conversation, he asked this general question about language intheatre: “What does ‘word’ mean to usnow? We always have to start with thatwhen approaching any text, classical or modern.” That is a question I think we should all beasking ourselves continually—how do we live through those words now? Whether they are a Jane Austen adaptation,dear reader, or the latest Durang. SinceAndrew’s residencies (he returned to work on our Hamlet in 2007), Ioften ask students, “What is your relationship to language?” This is important to consider because itoften determines how we respond to the play we are rehearsing. It can, I believe, open up the entire playinstead of reducing acting work to an isolated character.

Cis andAndrew are Voice Directors—rather like fight choreographers, in a way, but expertson words instead of swords. They like towork with the ensemble, opening up the text of a play together. They don’t just sharpen verbal dexterity,they engage the imagination. Group work ontext helps cast and director listen and enter deeply into that specific world whicheach play’s language creates. In revisingand formulating documents related to the disparate courses in the PAC program,I realize how each course is like a scene linked to another course or scene. Movement and Voice play off each other; unitsof action in Acting One must be sketched out using Text Analysis but must also comefrom the character’s Viewpoint. If mymentors were working at PAC, how would they support and help integratestudents’ work? As Voice and Speechteacher, how can I help students integrate these ‘scenes’ into a wholecurriculum?

In otherwords, how many strained metaphors can I integrate into one essay?

Ralph Fiennes, one time Isbsen-ite

I will closewith an anecdote instead. That firstconversation with Andrew ended because he was called into the RSC Main Theatre;he was doing voice and text work with the Peer Gynt cast for aperformance . . . starring Ralph Fiennes. If Mr. Fiennes benefits from opening up the language of a play andintegrating it with the whole ensemble, then can’t we all, students andgraduates alike?!

So as Iponder my own mentorship role in the PAC two-year program, as I continueediting academic documents which deepen and broaden my understanding of all thecourses the students take, I encourage you, dear reader, to ponder this: how are you using language to createcharacter, wherever you are in your career? How can you use the text to integrate your work into the larger world ofthe play? Are you stuck in yourapproach? Are you content with aPhysical approach? Psychological? Personality-based?** Are you utilizing tools you learned in Voiceand Speech class? All the tools youlearned from all your mentors? Or areyou only hearing your own voice, alone?

* Voice and The Actor. The Actor and the Text.

**Paraphrased from Harriet Walter’sacting book, Other People’s Shoes. A great read for young actors!

Connor Kerns has been a core faculty member at PAC since 1994. In addition to teaching, he is a director and a playwright. Connor is the co-Artistic Director of Quintessence: Language & Imagination Theatre, for which he has extensive directing credits in Shakespeare and his own plays. Connor's working methods are significantly influenced by his mentor, Cicely Berry, Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He received Bachelors of Arts in Theatre Arts and English Literature from Carroll College and his MFA in Theatre-Directing from the University of Portland.

Resident Scenic Designer Enriched by Portland Actor Training, Too

2011-09-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

Tim Stapleton

Tim Stapleton has been a scenic designer, as well as anactor at PAC, and most importantly a longtime collaborator of artistic directorBeth Harper.

A professional scenic designer for thirty years, Tim hasbeen a designer with several theatres in Portland, worked with the RegionalArts & Culture Council in Portland as a liaison to Social Services, and hastaught for Willamette University, Central Washington University, Lewis &Clark College, and Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. He has beenawarded four Drammy Awards, as well as a Fellowship from The National Endowmentfor the Arts. He has been a guest designer for The Apollo Theatre in Chicago,and The Mariko Dance Theatre in Kyoto, Japan, among many others. Tim’s originalperformance piece"Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" debuted at the InterstateFirehouse Cultural Center. He is also a painter. Tim received his MFA inCreative Inquiry from New College of California and has been published byInkwater Press (www.twstapleton.com).

We’re proud to have Tim as one of three residentdesigners for all three shows. We caught up with him in August beforeproduction madness hit.

Conservatory Confessions: How did your first meet Beth?

Tim Stapleton: It's a bit of a blur actually. The exact dateI'm unsure of. I feel as though I’ve known Beth forever. We’re both fromAppalachia. She’s from Tennessee, I’m from Kentucky. I knew Beth as an actresswhen I first moved to Portland. I saw her perform, and she saw my design work.She then invited me to work with her.

CC: When and in what contexts have you workedwith PAC in the past?

TS: Beth used to produce the Oregon Play Festival, where wedid what I think is one of my favorite one act shows, called “Junk.” Allen[Nause] directed. We also did “Memory of Water” together, one of the moresurreal moments in my career. More shows than I can remember. More recently Idid “We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!” with Philip [Cuomo, executive director andfaculty member], and last year, “Big Love,” also directed by Philip. In the2010-11 season I was an actor in a PAC show, “You Can’t Take it With You.” Iplayed Grandpa. I loved the opportunity of YCTIWY, because of the message ofthe play, and the words I got to say.

CC: What do you enjoy about working in aneducational setting?

TS: I like seeing the light bulb turn on for students. Ithink if I have any sort of knowledge about this craft or this world, I’d liketo hand it over, give the gift to someone else. PAC shows people they have achoice of pursuing their own creative energy. And, there’s a world out therethey can be a part of. Teaching at PAC, it becomes obvious where the school'sheaded. It's not just a small school. There’s a lot riding this training thatwill affect people’s lives. I have a deep belief in education and thebetterment of oneself. I learn as much being here as I teach. It keeps me frombeing an old man.

Another great reason to work with students is to see theirgrowth and know that you’ve been a part of it. My involvement, in part, isshowing them the world in which they’re going to live on stage. They learn it’snot just about each actor individually; it’s about the world that they’reparticipating in. With the director, I work to establish a visual world. Thestudents understand we’re leaving it up to them to inhabit. I love watchingthem making adjustments according to what they see in my work. It’s a process.Having been on both sides of curtain, I understand what it feels like to stepthrough that portal on the stage and be affected by the world you enter.

CC: What’s your schematic in terms of the designof the three-show season?

TS: As a designer, what I tend to do is look at palettefirst. What is the tone of the play, the environment of the play, thepsychology of the characters? Our approach is to design a unit set – one set onwhich all three plays function. So we are starting with the last play, andworking backward. Because “Holy Ghosts” takes place in an empty room, once weget the architecture of that room down, we’ll be able to plug other two playsinto it. So the season is something of a reduction process. We’ll start with“Reckless,” and pull away layers to find “Twelfth Night,” then pull awayfurther to reveal “Holy Ghosts.” In other words, the audience of “Reckless”will not know the architecture of “Holy Ghosts” is right there.

One of the great things about “Holy Ghosts” for me as anartist, is that in the lobby Beth has asked me to do an exhibit of myAppalachia paintings with the aim of giving the audience complete submersioninto the world. I will exhibit seven portraits, the subjects being everydaypeople from our homeland portrayed as religious icons. So you have coalminers,or farmers for example. The paintings will depict something to do withthat person’s faith. Most likely they will begin as black and white charcoaldrawings.

CC: What’s special about the “Holy Ghosts”process for you and Beth?

TS: As Beth and I have worked together for anumber of years, she had a vision that we should honor our relationship throughPAC as fellows. Have it speak to who we are as artists.

The people in “Holy Ghosts,” could easily becomecaricatures. But they’re not. They’re not clowns. They are rooted in the truthof their existence, as we all are. All of the people in that room are togetherwith the belief that their faith in this higher power is all they need to getthem through. They expound on how this has changed their lives and who they arewithout grandstanding – it just comes within the religiosity of the moment.Their handling of snakes, speaking in tongues, it’s all part of the belief thatthese actions will keep us safe, will heal us. Underneath that are the humanfailings we all have.

In addition to designing, I will play the roleof Cancer Man – another dual role of designer/actor I last executed in “Foolfor Love” at Coho Theatre with director Megan Ward.

CC: As an established artist with an impressivebody of work, how do you see PAC’s role in the community and what does itsidentity afford you as a designer?

TS: Portland needs PAC because art can savelives. This institution has established itself not only regionally butnationally as a place that changes people’s lives. It’s important for people toknow there’s a place like this in Portland, a place raising the bar for qualityof life in the city. In a world where anything can be achieved with the push ofa button, there’s a real chance that live theatre for younger generations couldbecome passé. It won’t, because we’re not going to let it; there are people that stillgravitate toward it. It’s at PAC, it has a voice. PAC relishes artistic voices,and there is a human need for that voice. I can’t imagine a world withoutartistic expression - or I don’t want to. I don’t want to imagine what thatworld would look like.

When you have artists like Beth, me, Michael[Mendelson], Philp [Cuomo], and all of the PAC faculty who are able to say tothese students who are full of wonderment, awe, questions: ‘I was once whereyou are, and this is what can happen.’It is extraordinary to discover your contribution to the world.

Conservatory Training Professional Actor

2011-06-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

Before they knew what was about to hit 'em:
the First Years of 2010-11

At Portland Actors Conservatory, we don't require an audition for acceptance. However, we DO require an audition for the Second Year of our Two Year program, and some students do not make the cut, as we cap the Second Year class at 12. It's can be a nerve wracking process, just like the life of a professional actor. :) But this year's auditions were by all accounts an amazing day for all involved at the Conservatory - teachers, students, and guests were all blown away by the talent on display.

With auditions a few weeks behind them, I polled some of ur First Year Conservatory students - soon to be Second Years - about how they felt upon completion of of the First Year and their auditions. Below are some responses:

Lissie Huff, right, improv-ing away
with Steve Vanderzee

Lissie Huff:

"After the audition I took a week off, slept the first four days. Now it's back to work: in a play (directed by one of our dear teachers, Michael Mendelson, and starring another, Cristi Miles), running drills to keep the skills learned sharp, developing new skills. It's a never-ending process of performance and craft. I love it.

The second year audition is like a master's class in character switching. In the course of only a few hours I portrayed a valium addict, a saucy french maid, a melancholy prince, and a sensualist housewife. Going offstage as the valium addict I literally was close to a nervous breakdown. Five to ten deep breaths later I'm changing my hair, makeup and costume ready to portray a red-headed saucy french maid. So it went the entire day: subsuming myself in the world of the character and then coming back to the world of the actor.

The whole day is an experience like no other. It's an audition, a showcase, a performance, a competition. We're all acutely aware that this day will decide if we continue on to next year. I imagine it's like being at the Olympic trials. No matter how well - or poorly - things have gone in rehearsal or class it's this moment that most matters. Though I wanted to perform well enough to go to the second year, my actual aim that day was to perform to the best of my ability. I wanted to walk off that stage and look myself in the eye without regrets. I did."

Kate Brauneis-Krull :

Kate Brauneis-Krull, left, with Jessica Moran.
Um, is it the 'I Love Lucy' episode at the candy
factory?

"When I began the first year of the Conservatory program, the prospect of auditions was somewhat daunting but I believed that if I really gave it my all, I would have a spot in the second year class. What I didn't anticipate was how incredibly close we would all become as a class, and how much everyone would astound me with their growth and their hearts. The stakes were higher than I had imagined because it wasn't just about 'getting into the second year' as an abstract concept, but about being able to continue working with my ensemble and teachers who I had grown to love and appreciate so much more than I had ever imagined. I am so happy to be continuing this journey with all of them!"

If you're thinking of applying to Portland Actors Conservatory for acceptance in Fall 2011, the application deadline is June 15, 2011. Get application info here.

Portland Actors Conservatory - Showcase Class of 2011

2011-04-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

Get ready. And save those dates: May 18-21, all shows 7:30. Buy tickets here.

Behind the Scenes: "Passion Play" at PAC

2011-03-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

The actors are in a beautiful tableaux. The scene for an actual Passion Play – that is, a dramatization of the life of Jesus Christ – could erupt from this perfect stillness involving a crucifixion pose, attendants kneeling in prayer, and pious witnesses on ladders.

Rose Riordan, left, with PAC Artistic Director Beth Harper
at the 2010 Student Orientation.

Instead, the actors snap and begin to move to the next scene in Sarah Ruhl’s “Passion Play,” an epic drama from the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony nominee examining the people behind three different productions of the Passion of Christ in three different time periods spanning 16th Century England to 1970s South Dakota.

Before allowing them to get where they’re going, director Rose Riordan claps her hands. It’s a small sound, but a sound the nine students in Portland Actors Conservatory’s Class of 2011 are attuned to. Before they graduate from the Conservatory’s two year, professional actor training program in May, they get this rare opportunity: the chance to work with Portland Center Stage associate artistic director, Rose Riordan.

At the sound, they stop what they’re doing and run in place facing out toward the audience, some like jackrabbits, some like lazy SOBs, some emerging from the wings where they’ve been resting to be seen in this stationery sprint. There is the sound of the entire cast running in place for a moment. She claps again; they resume the transition and move into the scene’s dialogue. This clap, stop, run, clap, resume, pattern will repeat several times in the 10 or so minutes remaining in today’s work through of Act I.

Clapping and snapping? What’s this multiple Drammy-Award winning director up to as she whips PAC’s second year students towards graduation?

“That was very exciting,” says Riordan dryly as the act concludes on a disturbing scene between a young Jewish girl and a Nazi youth who used to be friends. She sounds dry, but she really means it. “I’m starting to see the beginnings of a play there.”

L-R, Anika Radloff,
Lionel McCann and Susan Nelle
in "Passion Play"

The clapping and snapping, it turns out, is nothing compared to the physical and mental challenges Riordan had placed on the actors at the top of the run. Each was assigned a secret obstacle; some falling down drunk, some had toothaches, headaches, or vertigo. Each actor had to go through their scenes fighting this internal problem. The snapping helped the group-think of the ensemble to end a scene with precision; the clapping was a cue to inject what Riordan calls “the imitation of urgency” into the middle of a moment.

“I think we try too hard sometimes,” Riordan says to the group of actors in front of her at rehearsal’s end, explaining the painful and uncomfortable assignments. By giving them something else to focus on, the actors are able to be more natural in the scenes and relationships they’re inhabiting. She’s essentially giving their brains another ball to juggle to prevent them from overfocussing on their performance.

So the lazy runners were just ACTING drunk – all part of the exercise.

Meet George Elliott, Acting Class Teacher New to Portland

2011-01-14T16:42:00.000-08:00

Meet our new Acting: Act II teacher.

We’re thrilled to welcome George Elliott to our Studio Program teaching faculty this term. George is an actor and producer who has performed at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Off-Broadway and in regional theatres the Charles Playhouse, Boston Conservatory, Boston Repertory Company, Pasadena Playhouse, The Pilot Theatre, and many others. George has appeared on television and in film, and has co-founded and run his own production company based in Los Angeles. He studied acting with Stella Adler of the Stella Adler Institute of Los Angeles and New York, as well as with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and California. George has degrees in Philosophy and Theatre from the University of New York at Stony Brook.

We caught up with George via email and put these questions to him.

Conservatory Confessions: You’ve had a long, successful acting career which has taken you all over the country. Tell us a little more about that path.

George: I have lived in Los Angeles on and off most of my adult life, but I was born and raised in New York City, where I often visit. I’ve also lived in Boston, Sacramento, and San Francisco. In each city I've relocated to, it’s been to work as an actor, acting teacher and restaurateur.

Monty Clift

Conservatory Confessions: What brought you to Portland?

George: In my heart, I wanted to settle down and give myself a break from having to "make it" in order to live an authentic, artistic life. I met my wife in California and she hails from Portland. We both decided to move here and make this our home.

Conservatory Confessions: What’s your favorite thing about teaching acting?

George: Watching the light that goes on when an aspiring actor "gets it"!

Conservatory Confessions: What’s the difference between Acting I and Acting II, and how do I know when I’m ready for the next level?

George: Acting I is figuring out if this work is something you really want to do. Can you stay interested while doing basic acting exercises, with the understanding that these things must be mastered before moving on? Acting II is for those who know they want to pursue the work a little further, weather that’s through scenework in class or maybe getting cast in a show.

You know you’re ready for Acting II when you are truly excited about classwork, ready to roll your sleeves up, give everything you got and not fear falling on your face in your quest to learn more about a great artform!

Conservatory Confessions: What’s a fun trivia tidbit about you?

George: My favorite actor is Monty Clift and my favorite writer is Thomas Mann.

It's HERE! Our 26th Anniversary Season of Plays Announcement

2010-10-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

26th ANNIVERSARY SEASON SIZZLES WITH WIT, PLAYWRITING PROWESS

AT PORTLAND ACTORS CONSERVATORY

PCS’ Riordan Guest Directs at Oregon's Only Professional Actor Training Program

PORTLAND, ORE. – Oct. 7, 2010 – Portland Actors Conservatory’s 26th Anniversary season of plays champions playwrights new and old with high-pitched satire, classic Shakespearian farce and contemporary theatrical reinvention. As part of its unique model of integrating professional and student actors in their second year of professional training, The Conservatory will produce "Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them," by Christopher Durang, William Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” and Sarah Ruhl’s “Passion Play,” directed by Portland Center Stage associate artistic director Rose Riordan.

The Illustrious Class of 2011

“The playwrights in our season offer our students an incredible range of voices for our professional actors-in-training to embody,” said Beth Harper, artistic director. “As an indispensible component of our course of study, performance closes the loop between theory and practice. These carefully chosen works and give our students access to American theater that is at once comprehensive, contemporary, and challenging in all the right ways.”
Durang’s 2009 "Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them” was dubbed “a hilarious and disturbing new comedy about all-American violence” by the New York Times (April 7, 2009) when first produced at The Public Theatre. This absurdist domestic piece from the author of beloved 1980s side-splitters "Sister Mary Ignatius,” “Beyond Therapy,” “The Actors Nightmare,” “The Marriage of Bette and Boo,” takes on post-9/11 paranoia and preoccupation with torture in characteristic Durang fashion. Anxiety and irreverence are never as funny as they are in Durang’s hands. ‘Torture’ runs Dec. 1 through 19, directed by Beth Harper.

In Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors,” directed by faculty member Philip Cuomo, Egeon has a day to scour Syracuse for the ransom that will save his life and find the missing half of his family lost at sea 33 years ago. In his way are twin slaves, a Courtesean, a gold chain, and the mistaken identity politics that make this farce definitively Shakespearean. An entire town is beguiled and horrified by the characters’ seemingly magical powers as slapstick physicality prompts us to reexamine what we think we know. “Comedy of Errors” runs February 16 through March 6, 2011.

Director Rose Riordan, associate artistic director of Portland Center Stage, directs the Conservatory’s third selection, “Passion Play,” by Sarah Ruhl. This epic panorama of amateur actors participating in re-enactments of Christ's Passion portrays productions of the ritualized Christian drama taking place in 16th-century England, Germany in 1934, and 1969’s South Dakota Black Hills. “‘Passion Play’ is the most exciting, stimulating, and thrilling piece of theater to hit New York since ‘Angels in America,’” Backstage wrote earlier this year. “Passion Play” follows the Conservatory’s critically acclaimed 2010 production of “Melancholy Play” by the 2006 MacArthur Fellow. “Passion Play” runs April 13 through May 1, 2011.

In traditional, Conservatory fashion the Class of 2011 will select and produce monologue and scene selections for its Graduation Showcase May 18 through 21, 2011. The showcase marks the culmination of two years of fulltime professional acting training.

2010-2011 Portland Actors Conservatory Season of Plays

Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them by Christopher Durang
Director: Beth Harper
The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Director: Philip Cuomo
Passion Play
Director: Rose Riordan
Graduation Showcase
Director: Class of 2011 and Cristi Miles

All productions take place at Portland Actors Conservatory’s Firehouse Theatre, 1436 SW Montgomery St., Portland, Ore., 97201. Order tickets online, or by calling (503) 274- 1717; tickets range from $13-25 and season subscriptions are available for $50 to $80.

ABOUT PORTLAND ACTORS CONSERVATORY
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Portland Actors Conservatory is the premiere school for professional actor training in the Pacific Northwest. Artistic director Beth Harper leads the Conservatory's multiple offerings including its fulltime, Two Year Professional Training Program, ongoing Studio Class offerings, and the Summer on Stage youth theatre program. Portland Actors Conservatory provides the highest standard in actor training with distinguished faculty including Beth Harper, Connor Kerns, Philip Cuomo, and Michael Mendelson among others. The Conservatory is located near Portland, Ore.'s city center in the historic Firehouse Theatre, housing an upstairs studio space as well an intimate 70-seat theatre. Portland Actors Conservatory annually produces a three show season featuring its second year students working alongside professional guest artists, in addition to two student showcases. Portland Actors Conservatory is Oregon's only independent professional actor training school accredited with the National Association of Schools of Theatre.

***

Day 1: Meisner Technique = No Makeup, No Masks

2010-10-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

Meisner Technique teacher Michael Mendelson pulled no punches yesterday in addressing our First Year students on the first day of class:

Michael Mendelson

"There are currently 17 of you. Some of you will not be asked back at the end of this year. And of those who make it to the Second Year, not all will work as actors...To give you a frame of reference, there were ten students in my graduate acting company at the University of Washington. Four are still working."

It was bad enough that none of the girls were wearing makeup and the boys all had to shave off any facial hair - Michael's required "undress code" for Meisner's brutal honesty.
But then came something even scarier: sitting in front of an audience with nothing to do.

You'd be surprised how nerve-wracking this "simple" exercise is: sit in a chair for three minutes facing the class. Know how long three minutes is? A heck of a long time when you're being looked at. Nervous ticks start to emerge at about 40 seconds, then excruciating pain at minute two. By minute three, it's not unheard of to be experiencing some serious, and very unexpected, emotions.

Image courtesy Joanne Baron / D.W. Brown Studio

Like manna from heaven, Michael then gives the hotseat-scalded student something to do. It is a simple activity, like separating and counting coins or rolling for a Yahzee! (what's that? they say).

Instantly, the face previously contorted in attempted control becomes relaxed, expressive. Kind of like you want to feel on stage...

Who WAS this Meisner guy and what was he thinking?

Start here.

Day Two of Professional Actor Training: Just Breathe

2010-09-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

Kate

It's not very nice of me to do this, but I'm posting our new First Year students' ID card photos in honor of Day Two of classes. I mean, cheap camera, first day nerves, orientation dementia - probably not the most flattering pic of any of these folks.

But I want you to get a bird's eye view of what we mean when we call them "newbies." I mean, that's not very nice either - kind of condescending - but it's really hard not to compare this lovely crop of 17 bright eyed, bushy tailed professional actors-to-be to the first episode of a performance-oriented reality show say, or for the really old, "Fame."

Gilbert

All that said, we love them already, and they are starting to think about what it will be like when they love each other. Or at least have exchanged more than one five minute conversation.

Not that they aren't well on their way already. In fact, Acting 1 co-teacher Jane Bement Geesman has officially bestowed a title on the Class of 2012: "In a word, supportive."

Brad, or Bradley if you're nasty

When you look at these pictures, you will see:

a) what a good photographer I am, and;

b) the equivalent of a "before" picture in a weight loss ad - but it's not weight we're losing here.

Christina

It's more in the neighborhood of self-preconception, limitation, fear and...you know. All those things that make you a bad actor. :) Or say, not as good as you COULD be.

So for day one, what did they do? Self confessed, breath obsessed Acting 1 co-teacher Sarah Lucht got them to resemble both a Lamaze class and "I Dream of Jeannie."

Reports of sparkly, tingly, lightheadedness and heat came from our intrepid first years. So THAT's what breathing feels like!

Lexi

The good news: no one has ever passed out in Sarah's breathing exercises.

Why do they do this, the teachers asked themselves rhetorically before the class.

(Hmmm, Sarah Lucht has something to say about it in this post. Would you like to leave a comment below about it? Perhaps?)

Well, ever get dinged for being "in your head"? Breathing may well be the solution. And even better, Jane and Sarah have an ambitious plan: to get First Year students to be able to think AND breathe. At the same time.

Lissie

And why exactly do we stop breathing? Seems odd, given that we need oxygen to survive. Come to find out, restricting your flow of oxygen is a good way (not only to sustain brain damage, but also) to cut yourself off from feelings one might not want to feel - say, anger, sadness, or discomfort.

Katie

The thing is, you NEED those feelings when you're acting. And if you can't get to them, your experience will be empty. And so will the audience's. Says Jane and Sarah, anyhow, and I'm inclined to agree with them.

Jeffrey, or Jeremy if you listen to Gilbert

Anywhoo...then we DANCED. And that dastardly Jane made even yours truly dance. In an unfair advantage, the students were all warmed up from Movement with Philp Cuomo. Where they also danced. And swayed. Some even demonstrated.

I, my friends, had none of this preparation, and simply had to whip off my heels and join in. I did, in fact, have an "anticipation of dread," as Jane called it, and then unexpected fun. Also, I thought about what a weird / cool job I have. I needed to breathe more, obviously.

The rest of class was devoted to introductions, wherein each person "presents" their partner to the class from name to goals to obstacles to deep thoughts. Or not so deep. You'd be surprised how much you can learn about a person from the way they introduce, or get introduced. These mini-performances were peppered with pop quizzes from Jane on people's names, which showed ... um .... that there are a lot of new faces to learn.

I'll let you devote yourself to name/face study.

Emery

Genevieve

Carl with a 'C'

Bjorn

Jessica

Rebecca

Steve

Adam

Ursula

And for fun, I'd like to draw your attention to the latest snaps of our Second Years. They are not quite to the "after" stage yet, mind you. But it's fun to see what a year can do.

Emery

The First Day of Portland Actors Conservatory's Professional Training

2010-09-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

And we're off! Drink it in, everyone: here's what the Class of 2012 - and PAC's 26th year of professional actor training - looks like:

Our esteemed faculty joked plenty, but the students were facing a whole new world.

Just like on "So You Think You Can Dance," they faced the future that would soon be theirs.

These are the pictures they'll look back and say, Remember that first say! Oh my gosh we've changed so much!

Connor Kerns (below) named himself Senior Faculty, after Beth (been here 16 years, or some such)!

Jane Bement Geesman and Sarah Lucht - an indomitable duo, just you wait - will give our First Year students their very first acting class at the Conservatory. Woo!

Welcome one and all!

Second Year Orientation at Portland Actors Conservatory

2010-09-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

It was a very exciting day as the now-Second Year students (the big men and women on campus) came together after four months apart to jump into the culminating year of their study at Portland Actors Conservatory.

Lionel McCann, Ty Boice, and Sam DeRoest reunited after four months.

Nicole Bensching, Jessica Anselmo and Juliana Wheeler pal around.

After getting off on the right foot with artistic director Beth Harper....

We went round the magic circle.

To be continued....more pix on our Facebook profile!

A Bawdy Tale Opens Tonight!

2010-09-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

After a hilarious preview stint at The Woods last week, "A Bawdy Tale" opens proper at Curious Comedy tonight! Don't miss this PAC-infused confection, written and directed by longtime faculty member Connor Kerns and featureing an all-PAC alumni or current student cast: Nicole Yoba, Juliana Wheeler, Natasha Terranova, Scott Rogers, Tom Mounsey, Spencer Conway (hey, he just won a Drammy!) and Rob Ciardi.

From the Montgomery Street Players' web site:

A Bawdy Tale is inspired by the poetry of John Skelton, and tells the story of young twenty-somethings sent to die at an island resort because they have contracted a rampant disease to which older people are inexplicably immune. The resort’s immune bartender serves the drinks while the dying youth deal with their impending demise by seemingly not dealing with it at all. They choose to drink and screw their way to happiness as they wrestle with how to make their final exits.

Buy tickets here! But not before whetting your whistle with some words from Mr. Kerns in conversation with Conservatory Confessions:

Conservatory Confessions: If you had to choose one line from 'A Bawdy Tale' that sums up the experience, Connor, what would it be?

Connor Kerns: Sarah: “I want to make-believe. That’s the play I think we really want. I want to remember I’m alive.”

Conservatory Confessions: Tell us a little bit about the premise.

Connor Kerns

Connor Kerns: If you were going to die of a disease within the next few months and you were in hospice, what would you do? Pain medication, expenses, social contact are not a problem. Very few rules are enforced. Like in a college dormitory, you are surrounded with other people your age and there’s a party every night at the bar. Would you grapple with issues of mortality or would you try and forget? Do you feel lust or love, anger or horror? How would you live when you’re about to die?

"A Bawdy Tale," then, is about three young couples suffering from an unnamed terminal disease and how they deal with their last days while quarantined on an island with a bartender/hospice worker. It is inspired by 15th century poet John Skelton's harum-scarum wit and dark sense of humor. I sought to combine those qualities with spare, gritty realism. What I tried to create, in short, is:

a dirty, pretty play
a dark comedy with make-believe: ghosts and sword-fighting
some poetry, and a little sex

Conservatory Confessions: What does the play mean and how do you project that to the audience?

Connor Kerns: Superbugs, SARS, AIDS, Black Plague—whether from history or the present, the play explores pandemics and how they affect those who can’t pay for treatment. We are facing overpopulation and global cross-contamination that could easily separate the haves from the have nots. This gives audiences a chance to re-evaluate the peril of being lower middle class in a decaying society.

Conservatory Confessions: Why did you want to do this play?

Producer #1

Connor Kerns: The producers, Scott and Tom, said this when selecting the play for their company’s second production:

"We think that A Bawdy Tale is the kind of thing that Montgomery Street needs."

I think this is because it seems more raw, less concrete, and more challenging a play to produce. It seems like it would require some kind of development process to figure it all out, which is more exciting to us.

Conservatory Confessions: What do Skelton's images say to an audience today, right now, in this particular time and place?

Producer #2, on the left, in the dress

Connor Kerns: I studied Skelton (1460-1529) in British Literature in college. His poetry is like no one else’s, and I never forgot it. I came across his poem "The Tunning of Elinor Rumming" some years ago, and the idea for writing "A Bawdy Tale" emerged from it. Here is a bit of Skelton’s rollicking verse describing Elinor and the folks who visit her pub:

“Tell you I chill

If that ye will

A while be still,

Of a comely jill

That dwelt on a hill . . .

Such lewd sort

To Elinor resort

From tide to tide:

Abide, abide,

And to you shall be told

How her ale is sold . . .”

I envisioned a contemporary version of Skelton’s pub. Instead of the bubonic plague, I imagined a modern day disease that has confined the infected to a blasted island. The island pub would be the place the characters would come to fight, dance, drink and maybe forget their cares.

Check out "A Bawdy Tale" running Thursday through Saturday, September 16 through September 25 at 8pm. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door at Curious Comedy Theater.

Ted Rooney: Making Your Audition Less Dependent on Mystery or Mood

2010-09-15T13:35:00.000-07:00

Ted Rooney

Ted Rooney is a veteran of the professional acting world with over 35 TV guest-star / recurring credits including ER and Gilmore Girls, over 15 principal movie roles and 35 principal commercial appearances (Including the Rozerem campaign as Abe Lincoln).
Television credits include Lost, Weeds, My Name is Earl, CSI, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and many others. Locally, he has appeared in Leverage and the upcoming Bucksville. Ted has appeared in several films including Legally Blonde and Almost Famous.

On stage, Rooney has appeared on the Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson Stage in Measure for Measure and Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Sir Peter Hall. Regional theatre credits include Williamstown Theatre, The McCarter, The Wilma, The Arden, Idaho Shakespeare and 10 off-off Broadway plays. Ted has coached acting at the undergraduate level and directed for several years, and is currently at George Fox University. Ted holds an MFA in Acting from Temple University.

This Fall, Ted is teaching Audition Technique in our Studio Program starting October 5. He'll also lead a Film Weekend Intensive Nov. 5 through 7. Here’s a conversation we had with Ted.

Conservatory Confessions: What’s your approach to your career, and how does that translate into your Audition Technique class?

From comedyshortcuts.net

Ted Rooney: Oh boy, how can I explain it simply? Hmm. In a word: Professionalism. My mantra for auditioning: practice and preparation. With that foundation, I am able to then let go and have fun. Early on in my career in NYC--over a three week period--I once did 51 auditions. That is 17 per week. Many of the parts I was being seen for were simply not my type, but I wanted to gain the practice, so I auditioned for anything that moved. I wanted my body and mind to get used to this auditioning, instead of it being an unusual, uncomfortable, pressure-filled event. I wanted to be walking in the door thinking and feeling "this is something I do". To that end, I feel there is nothing like practice. So, in this class I want to get the students up and practicing as much as possible.

Conservatory Confessions: But isn't there more to it than just repetition? What do students work toward as they do it over and over?

Ted with funny thing on his head.

Ted Rooney: Combining this practice with disciplined preparation makes for consistent auditions. It is difficult not to get nervous when one feels ill prepared. When you have done your best to prepared, you can have the confidence to let go and enjoy the audition. But doing the obvious preparation work (script analysis, rehearsing and staging), is not always enough. You can still get bogged down with nerves if your mind is dwelling in unhelpful thoughts. So, part of preparation is the practice of getting in the proper audition mind set...and remembering to breathe. These are all things we will cover in the class.

Conservatory Confessions: What if you're one of those actors that just doesn't audition well?

Ted Rooney: In the end, auditioning the actors job. And if we are willing to see it that way and do the hard work necessary, we will see results in the quality and consistency of our auditions. And it might even begin to be fun!

Audition Technique begins October 5 and takes place Tuesday evenings through November 23 (no class Oct. 26) from 6:30pm-9:30pm. The cost for the class is $325.

Film Weekend Intensive begins Friday, November 5 and concludes Sunday, November 7. See website schedule for details. More info on studio classes or register.

***Add our new Film Weekend Intensive to your registration for any class and get the low low price of $500 for both. That's a $25 to $100 value, depending on the class you choose!***

***As always, sign up for one class and get 10% off each additional class of equal or lesser value!***

Fill out your registration form, and we'll automatically process your discounts.

Sarah Lucht: “There’s nothing more vitality-inducing than acting”

2010-09-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

Sarah Lucht has served on the faculty of the Portland Actors Conservatory since 1998 teaching Acting, Audition Technique, Breath and Energy for the Actor, Meisner, and Master Class weekend intensives. Sarah has thirty years of experience as an actor in stage, film, television and voice-over work. Local stage appearances include Emilia in Othello, Gilda in Design for Living, Vera in Distracted, Woman #3 in String of Pearls (Artists Repertory Theatre), Mrs. Benett in Pride and Prejudice (Quintessence Language and Imagination Theatre) and Bananas in House of Blue Leaves (Profile Theatre Project).

arah Lucht and Ted Roisum star in John Guare's
"House of Blue Leaves" at Profile Theatre in 2008.

As a teacher, Sarah has taught fundamentals of acting and a Shakespeare intensive for teens at Portland Center Stage; playwriting, scene study and audition technique in area high schools, as well as numerous weekend intensives, master classes, workshops and private study focusing on breath work, advanced scene work, Meisner and ensemble building for actors of all levels of experience. Sarah is a faculty member at The Haven Institute in British Columbia where she leads workshops in acting and theatre arts to non-actors to enhance personal and professional performance and experience. She is also Education Director and an instructor for Portland Shakespeare Project and has unique training and expertise in Reichian and bioenergetic breath work. Sarah received her BA in theatre from the University of Oregon with continued studies in Los Angeles, London and British Columbia. Sarah is a member of Actors Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

This Fall, Sarah is teaching Acting: Act I in our Studio Program starting September 27. Here’s a conversation we had with Sarah on life and art at the beginning of the year.

Conservatory Confessions: For the past two years, you’ve had a very demanding schedule of performing at Artists Repertory Theatre in several productions while teaching a full courseload here at PAC. How did you balance these actor / teacher roles?

Sarah: I found that one really informed the other, in a great way. I’ve had the opportunity to evaluate in my teaching, “Does what I teach, help me as an actor?” and in that way, what I bring to my students is road-tested and current. I found it very reinvigorating, both as an actor and teacher.

Conservatory Confessions: What were some of the adjustments you found yourself making?

Sarah: I took myself to task to articulate specifics to demonstrate - it called upon me to provide more structure to my classes.

(from left) Michael Mendelson, Sarah Lucht
and Todd Van Voris star in Noel Coward's
"Design for Living" at Artists Repertory Theatre.
Photo by Owen Carey

Conservatory Confessions: You teach a lot of non-actors through the Haven Institute in Canada. How do you find work with that population translates or doesn’t to beginning or more serious actors?

Sarah: I find that people who take an acting class, even if they never walk into a theater again, give me such great feedback about being so glad they did it, and how they feel differently afterwards. Non-acting students tell me they are better at communication and expression in the whole of their lives. Most importantly, they find an increased vitality they may never have felt before. There’s nothing more vitality-inducing than acting.

Conservatory Confessions: Why do you think that is?

Sarah: Acting demands presence – that alone makes all our experiences richer, more vivid. Add to that being in contact with another person, and you discover the charge of being intimate and vulnerable with another person. In a way, acting is like practicing intimacy - and that is what people really crave – authentic connection. The end result for a lot of people is an increased will to live – and that’s not an overstatement!

Conservatory Confessions: Are there any pedagogical influences that come out in your teaching?

Sarah: Absolutely. Breath and contact are the foundation of everything I teach. I have a passion for and fascination with the mechanics of breath that I’ve been cultivating for the last 15 years. A lot of it comes from Wilhelm Reich, who was the granddaddy of most of the bioenergetic and bodywork you see being practiced today.

Acting: Act 1 begins September 27 and takes place Monday evenings through December 6 (no class Oct. 11, 25) from 6:30pm-9:30pm. The cost for the class is $350. More info or register.

***Add our new Film Weekend Intensive to your registration for any class and get the low low price of $500 for both. That's a $25 to $100 value, depending on the class you choose!***

***As always, sign up for one class and get 10% off each additional class of equal or lesser value!***

Fill out your registration form, and we'll automatically process your discounts.

Guest Artist Tom Mounsey on Big Love

2010-06-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

Post from Big Love Guest Artist Tom Mounsey (Class of2008)

When I was a first-year student at Portland Actors Conservatory, way back in 2007, my biggest goal was to audition well and make it into the second year. Once I had done that, I strove to grow as an actor throughout the course of our season and graduate feeling like I had accomplished something I could be proud of. Once I had graduated, the focus of my acting goals moved away from PAC, and out into the wild world of Portland theatre. But deep within me, I knew that I had not yet achieved everything I wanted as far as the Conservatory was concerned. No, there was one mountain left to climb: appearing as a guest artist. Philip Cuomo, for reasons I cannot begin to imagine, has given me that opportunity this year by asking me to join in the crazy adventure that is Big Love.

It was strange, coming back to PAC this way. Guest Artist. Let's ignore the "artist" part, and focus on "guest." Isn't that someone who comes and stays in your home, but is never really part of the family? The students at PAC work and practically live together throughout the course of their training, and I know from experience this creates a bond that one can only describe as familial. Would they accept me? I can answer that question with a resounding "yes." I haven't worked with a more welcoming group of people since I graduated from PAC, and I have only worked with lovely people. This goes not only for the students, but also the other, much more talented, guest artists involved in the show.

And what of "artist?" My first reaction to that word is always, "I'm no artist. Van Gogh was an artist. Come on." So let's think of it a different way. How about someone who does this acting thing out in the

"real world," and therefore knows what s/he is doing, and has experience and wisdom to share with those who are not out there yet? That sounds about right, but that's an insane amount to live up to!

Would I have wisdom I could share with them? Would I in some way be able to set a positive professional example? I have to admit, I'm a bit of a goof, so I don't know about setting a professional example. Wisdom? The best thing I can come up with is "always be polite and respectful," and that's something people are supposed to learn in kindergarten. Looking back now, I can't think of a single time I provided wise words, or a specific example that I set. I hope I have been helpful in some way, but to be honest, they seem wiser and more professional than I have ever been. I think I've probably taken more away from them than they have from me.

So I achieved my goal of being a guest artist at PAC. Yes, this is in some ways the icing on the cake of my graduating in the first place, but the main thing I have learned is that I am still a student. Not officially at the Conservatory, but of acting and of life. I have learned every day, both directly from Philip as my director, and indirectly by watching my cast-mates take Big Love from a table-read to the living, breathing piece of art it is now. And it's been wonderful. I would do it again and again.

Clown for the Actor – Guest Post by Philip Cuomo

2010-06-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

WHY study Clown?!?

Philip Cuomo, PAC Associate Director, faculty member and clown, answers this question with his top five reasons:

5) Clown is fun. It demands silly hats, colorful costumes, energetic music and lots of dancing.

4) Clown is extreme. This form demands commitment and energy, while breaking down psychological barriers and inhibitions.

3) Clown is laughter and tears. Between ying and yang, a clown can’t have the joy of laughter without the pathos of tears.

2) Clown is exaggeration. These timehonored techniques are stagecraft, magnified.

1) Clown is character development.

Clowning demands digging deep into one’s unique psychology and physicality, and revealing the self the actor chooses to present to the world. That self is then held up for celebration and derision and its inherent ridiculousness.

Using heightened stagecraft and dynamic physical exercise, patterns of behavior and attitudes are revealed without judgment. As the actor gives attention to his or her unique imaginative associations, the shape of the individual clown emerges. This is an intimate, internal exploration, exaggerated in a fantastical theatrical world. Actors who learn clown must develop skills to be vulnerable and intimate, while expanding expression and dynamics - skills appropriate for any style of character development and theatre.

My ongoing clown workshop through the Studio Program at Portland Actors Conservatory is intended for both the actor who has never clowned before and clowns who are looking to refresh characterizations or further develop bits. Exercises for both the beginner and the street wise professional are the same: starting with dancing, basic stage/streetcraft such as entrances and exits, the take, the rule of three, the three second rule, and other fundamentals. Elements (earth, air, water, fire), materials (glass, oil, steel etc.), and Laban effort actions (dab, flick, glide, etc.) are also explored in an exaggerated form, demanding both the new comer and the old timer to stretch and extend physicality. This strenuous approach demands commitment and focus, concentration and energy, which break down psychological barriers and inhibitions revealing deeper truths about the individual.

These moments of revelation lead the performer to make choices about who he is and how he presents himself to the world. This presentation is then exaggerated for effect and an opposite truth is chosen to offset her psychology. All clowns are all things and can be in one moment vulgar and in the next elegant, or sweet and sour, or prude and lusty or arrogant and humble. The ying and yang of the clown, the primary quality and its opposite comprise the clown character. In the creation and execution of bits the performer in the clown world is required to shift from one extreme to the next and back again one moment to the next.

It is in the distance traveled between the extremes that moment-to-moment reality is elevated into a clown reality. The skill to travel in an exaggerated way from one extreme to the next translates to good moment-to-moment behavior on stage in any style or form. The requirements to stay connected and organic in the clown world are demanding, and amazing exercise for the actor in developing the skill to stay organically connected and in character from one moment to the next.

Last reason to take a clown class: Clown is demand.
Are you ready to demand something of yourself?

Guest Post by Philip Cuomo - "Unleashing The Monster"

2010-06-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

This post comes to you from the tech week for "Big Love," directed by PAC associate director Philip Cuomo.

Charles Mee’s Big Love is a huge story. All about power and gender, sex and love. His narrative exposes the elegance and the vulgarity of life. It is sophisticated and base, witty and boorish.

As we approach tech week everything is still very polite. We seem stuck in low gear. Many of the performers have shifted out of second into third gear, some from third to fourth, but we have yet to open up the throttle. Repetition will help, adding tech will help, picking up the pace and understanding the text and action of the play better will help. But as I watched our run-through Sunday night I wondered if that will be enough, will we reach overdrive, attain maximum velocity.

It occurred to me I needed to take the reins off big Rich Cashin. Let his character Constantine explode onto the stage. I have been working Rich to find the cap to Constantine’s emotional life, which has stifled and contained his instrument. He has worked the text with a sophistication that has shamed his arrogant director and taken my direction fully to heart, working to govern his impulses, and as a result Constantine has become polite.

It is time to honor Rich’s large physical instrument, his booming voice, expose the head banger he once was: unchain the beast. Let him tear it up, over the top, big and bad. No apologizes. Rattle the stage and upset the delicate imagery created by the director.

It is why I cast him in the role in the first place. Allow him to be the electric performer he is capable of being. Unleash the Monster.

Guest Post from PAC Board Member Jeff Gorham

2010-06-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

Conservatory Confessions is pleased to start bringing in guest posts from people around the Conservatory. Our last guest post was from Rich Rubin, a member of our playreading group, on his impressions after attending "Crimes of the Heart" at Sandy Actors Theatre. This one is from our newest board member, Jeff Gorham, who you might remember as Mr. Kirby from this season's production of "You Can't Take it With You." He's decided to share his experience of being in the audience for the Second Year auditions.

I had the fine pleasure and honor to be asked to be on the panel of judges for Portland Actors Conservatory's First Year students auditioning to get into the second year of the program. Having auditioned myself for an MFA program, I felt the immediate energy in the room as these First Year students waited backstage while the instructions for evaluating these fine students were given to us. You never quite know what to expect when you are given a task like this, and I have to tell you that I was simply out of my mind, blown away by what these First Year students brought to the stage with their auditions that day. I had the pleasure of sitting next to a couple of the acting faculty and I kept asking them if they were as blown away as I was. The answer was an emphatic yes.

You would have had to be there to feel it, but these students invested everything they had been taught over the past year into this one day of - without sounding to dramatic - destiny.

This was not a day where you sat down and watched a group of actors do a monologue of contrasting differences. This was a day where the students started at 10:00am and finished at 4:15pm. All disciplines of acting were covered and the students did not fail.

What Portland Actors Conservatory is doing here in Portland should be celebrated by the entire city. The craft of acting is far more than taking a role on stage and developing a character and bringing it to life. Acting prepares individuals for something larger than the stage, and that is life. Nothing is more compelling in life than when you have an individual who has the ability to listen, to be empathetic and engaging, and have the ability to present in an impactful manner.

On May 21st, I had joy in my soul watching these students put it all out there on the stage. Every one of these First Year students should stand up proudly whether they made it to Second Year or not. Everyone says this, but in this case it is truer than ever. I celebrate Portland Actors Conservatory and the fine group of First Year students who took the risk.

"You Can't Take It With You" images courtesy Jeff Forbes.

Guest Post from the PAC Playreading Group!

2010-05-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

You might not know that Portland Actors Conservatory, besides being the premier institution for professional acting training in the Pacific Northwest, has an intrepid band of literary explorers we call our Playreading Group. Basically it's a loose cadre of like minds who read PAC's season of plays in written form and get together to discuss them, before attending the shows. Members report getting a lot more out of the experience of seeing the play when they've had time to investigate the scripts beforehand. How do you join this group? Email our friendly board member Elaine Harper at emjjames [at] comcast [dot] net and tell her you're interested in joining.

Below are some impressions from another Playreading Group member, Rich Rubin, on a play he recently saw in the Portland area. He wanted to share his experience and we knew it was perfect for the blog.

I saw a matinee performance of "Crimes of the Heart" at the Sandy Actors Theatre this afternoon, and I wanted to pass along our very strong recommendation. The play itself is a Pulitzer Prize winner, and combines over-the-top family strife and quirky comedy to produce a very entertaining mix. The production is also first-rate in every respect, with seamless direction and uniformly high-quality performances featuring great comic timing. One of the actors, Erin Hickman, is an alum of the Portland Actors Conservatory and another, Patrick Roth, is a current student, so there's a very gratifying PAC connection here as well. I'd be surprised if they didn't all enjoy "Crimes of the Heart" as much as we did.

Unrelenting Truth-Sense of our Entrails! by Natasha Terranova

2010-04-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

A desire for immediacy attracts me to the theater. I long to experience the indefinable breadth of our human experience, culminating in a single moment, or series of moments. I find it in the theatrical, before my eyes, penetrating my ears, surrounding me as the great globe itself. A string of words, a string of moments, are as contemporary as our need to experience them; written two thousand years or two thousand seconds ago, we know contemporary language when we hear it because it speaks to something so far beyond our comprehension that we are forced to rely on the unrelenting truth-sense of our entrails.

Why, then, am I so often estranged on paper from the words of writers with whom I do, literally, share space and time? Why do they seem so overly clever, so intellectual, and so dry, like an almond? And then how do I characterize the transformation that occurs once their words resonate in the chest and resound in the theater? Possibly the inherent theatricality and sophistication emerging on stage is born in the conflation of an almost-too-cleverness on paper with the living, full-bodied, bare-naked, moment to moment, energetic truth of theater.

Reading Sarah Ruhl’s “Melancholy Play” did not generate a sense of longing. Instead, I was removed from the visceral by an awareness of what I thought the writer was trying to get me to feel. The beauty of the piece only began to emerge once I experienced the impact of two characters, standing two inches apart, both closer and further from one another as any two people have ever been—breathing together, building a rhythm together and breaking it down together, experiencing a parallel weighted legato giving way to a parallel light and airy staccato. Sarah Ruhl does not break the fourth wall, she simply dispels the illusion that there ever was one.

Contemporary language contains the capacity to hit and engage an audience via a self-awareness that refuses to limit the size of the theater. In a successful artistic execution there is no room for commentary; There is no exit provided by which to get outside of the artifice. Today we are exposed at a rate of ten thousand flashbulbs per microcosm, but it has always been the challenge of a contemporary playwright to betray unrelenting scenic life, to imagine, endow, and record the seemingly disparate array of images in which we are eternally steeped. The scripted material remaining may not be a traditional narrative, but slowly reveals itself as a story.

Contemporary Theatre Playwriting in the 21st Century by Philip Cuomo

2010-04-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

Over the past year and a half I have been in conversation with Natasha Terranova, who is now a second year student in our Two Year training program. Natasha is a published poet and has a deep understanding of the written word. As a Conservatory student, she has been required and encouraged to see plays. We have been talking about what is new and exciting in the Portland theatre scene. She is particularly excited about the plays she has seen from some of the country's newest playwrights. Adam Rapp, Peter Sinn Nachtieb, Jenny Shwartz and Sarah Ruhl. In fact, she is acting as stage manager on a production at the Conservatory of Sarah Ruhl's Melancholy Play. In our conversations we have begun to categorize the commonality in these playwrights and their plays.

I think these plays are aware of their own inherent theatricality, a self-awareness that draws the audience forward and into the world of the play. They have an understanding of the energetic contact between performance and audience in the immediate time and space. They are sophisticated and clever in use of language and stagecraft, and could only be product of the theatre, not of any other artistic medium.

My perception has been influenced by the TBA Festival and the works of the avant-garde or fringe theatre (Richard Foreman, Marie Irene Fornes, Bill Irwin), and a performance movement to experiment with time and space to create immediacy. In talking about the Contemporary plays produced in this season in Portland, and those workshopped at the JAW Festival by writeres like Will Eno, Jordan Harrison, Adam Bock, Kimberly Rosenstock, and others, I have recognized similar experimentation in more traditional playwriting.

The best of the avant-garde and the best of contemporary theatre may break the traditional narrative conventions of time and space, may break the fourth wall, but they keep the story at the center, using it to communicate big ideas and bring the audience on an emotional journey. I define Contemporary Theatre as smart, theatrical plays exposing the soft vulnerable human center to an audience in the immediate time and space of performance.

Chicago in Feburary and PAC at the U/RTAs

2010-03-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

I recently returned from a trip to Chicago in February. It was not nearly as cold as I feared. High temperature did only reach 25 degrees and there was little sun but (even the day it snowed) it was dry. So it did not feel as cold as 40 degrees sometimes feels in Portland. Oh, and there was very little wind.

I think I was lucky.

I was lucky to be the Conservatory’s representative in Chicago at the National Unified Auditions for the University Regional Theatre Association (U/RTA). As an accredited institution, Portland Actors Conservatory was able to participate in the new, open call portion of the traditionally graduate school-only auditions. I saw 121 students perform one minute monologues over two sessions. I scheduled 18 interviews and met some very talented people.

The open call is a brilliant idea started by U/RTA to provide students greater access to more performance training programs. Before the implementation of the open call, many students would attend the U/RTAs and never be seen by any schools. Competition for placement into programs is fierce, and U/RTA schools only have enough time to see a portion of those students interested in more training. So they hold screening auditions limiting the number of people seen by the U/RTA schools, which means hundreds of potential actors are screened out and are not seen. The open call gives these students the opportunity to be seen and heard by other training programs. This year they were seen by a representative of Portland Actors Conservatory.

I saw a cruise line employee do a grounded, simple and provacative Maggie the Cat. I saw a PhD candidate in toxicology with an easy charm who, miraculously, talked openly to the auditors in front of her. The Neil LaBute piece that followed was sharp, intent and transformative. I met a young man who wore his passion on his sleeve and a young woman with a winning, bright smile. I met a university student in New Orleans, the receipient of his school’s Denzel Washington Scholarship for actors. His sensitivity, self-awareness and intelligence were delightful.

I was lucky to be in Chicago in Febraury.