COMMUNITY ACTING WORKSHOP with John Cariani and Alex Draper “PLAYS ARE NOT TV SHOWS OR MOVIES”

In this workshop, we’ll be thinking about how the body exists on stage. We’ll talk a lot about how different theatre is from the story-telling media we engage with on a daily basis: film, TV,  podcasts. Film and TV are visual media. Podcasts are all about aural experience. But theatre is visual and aural. It’s the only storytelling medium that engages—or can engage—every single sense. (You can’t smell or taste or touch a movie or a podcast, right? But you can smell or taste a play!) In this workshop, we’ll do a series of acting and movement exercises that will encourage play, and we’ll explore how the whole body is used when telling a story on stage. We’ll also explore how thinking works on stage. Thinking doesn’t just happen in the head, on the face, or with the voice, as movies podcasts might make us believe. The whole body is engaged when it’s thinking. We’re going to see what that means and looks like when we’re making theatre.

This workshop is free and open to the public. You must sign up here up here to participate.