Course Description

Ages 14-18. Acting class with rotating topics for teens of all levels. Open to all experience levels. Students are encouraged to take this course more than once, as the curriculum will rotate. Taking the Stage is JTC’s in-depth course for teens. The course is designed to incorporate new students through review of core concepts at the beginning of each class, but will devote the majority of each class to in-depth, challenging work around each semester’s Topic Focus. The Topic Focus will rotate semester by semester to continually challenge returning students with new material. Students will learn through exercises and demonstrations; they will also study scenes from classic playwrights and prepare monologues for performance, with an emphasis on understanding and communicating the text effectively through individual delivery and physicality choices, as well as teamwork with scene partners. Students should expect take-home work and will participate in an end-of-semester showcase, open to friends and family. Core concepts for review will include physicality, voice, tablework, characterization, stakes, status, staging, and theatrical imagination. This Ancient Theater class will include studying and staging excerpts from classical Greek comedies and tragedies and exploring the unities, mask, verse, and the role of the Chorus.