What is the schedule for a weekly sesion at your summer camp?
Our daily summer camp begins at 9:00 a.m. and ends at 12:00 noon. Students have a schedule snack break at 10:30 each day.
In the classes, students learn acting techniques such as Meisner, Laban, and Inner Voice. They learn how to apply these techniques to monologues and scenes. Self-tapes are an important part of the film, tv, and stage industry now. Each student will learn how to create a self-tape of a scene. Audition skills are also an important part of the week-long camp. Students will leave with an acting toolbox filled with new skills and techniques to use!
Who is teaching?
Our Artisitic Director, Darren Butler will be leading the camps. For the month of June, his oldest daughter, Evie Rosa Butler will be a guest teacher. She will be a junior at the California Institute of the Arts (CAL-ARTS) near Los Angeles, which is one of the top acting programs in the country. We are very fortunate to have her join the team to share what she's learned with our young people.
Why take classes?
Quite simply - classes are where you learn "how to act." Productions are where you "perform." Yes, there are many great skills you learn while doing a production, but they cannot replace the valuable lessons you learn in an acting class. "Talent" will only get you so far. Acting classes provide you with the necessary techniques to build skills in the craft of acting. At The Gulf Coast Rep, we do not teach a single technique, instead, we teach multiple techniques for an actor to discover what works best for them.
To make a parallel to sports, a football team doesn't just run a few practices and play games. The coaches teach the players drills and skills. These drills are used to create plays. The plays are executed to move the football down the field to score points. One play at a time. Theatre is much the same. Classes teach those drills and skills. Actors take those skills into an audtion to get cast; into rehearsals to build authentic characters; and into peformances to peform.