KCACTF Region 5 Festival 57

Orientation for Playwrights, Directors, Faculty Mentors, Dramaturgs, and Stage Managers of the 10-Minute Plays and One Act Plays.

Wanna act, direct, and/or write plays? Don't wait to be cast in someone else's project, get your friends together and do it yourself! This workshop kicks you into high gear towards creating your own fast paced, short form, home-grown show. Together we’ll select a theme, do some flash writing exercises, and get you started on your path to production. No need to wait for someone else to give you permission, you have all the tools you need!

A look at two of Stanislavski's elements of acting (event and appraisal) and how they can serve a playwright in story telling.

This workshop is for anyone interested in what it means to begin. In our time together, we will explore what it means to conceive of a creative project, how we can get past our inner critic to create from a space of curiosity, and offer observations on the work of our peers to foster ideas rather than critique them. This workshop will combine writing, performance, and directing as well as leave space for engagement with the work presented.

Stanislavsky’s latter practice known today as Active Analysis is a powerful tool for quickly integrating the givens of a script into an actor’s body. Learning the tool can be anxiety-inducing for beginning actors as they don’t have the script in hand as a crutch. This workshop introduces the concepts of action & counteraction as the driving force of a scene. Then we'll explore the scaffolding techniques I’ve developed to prop the students up while they explore the freedoms that Active Analysis offers, curtailing anxiety and streamlining the embodiment of the role.

This workshop will cover best practices in maintaining a positive and collaborative relationship between directors and playwrights. From expectation agreements to rehearsal room behavior, students will discuss what it takes to balance the playwright’s intent with the director’s creative interpretation. Students will go over curated questions that every director and playwright should answer at the beginning of the production development process, check-in tactics, conflict resolution techniques, and creating time lines with clearly defined goals.

In this workshop, Scully will discuss the characteristics of plays that seem to rise to top of a selection process. Whether you are in the middle or a revision, getting ready to write a new play, or thinking about writing a play, this workshop will help you to write a play that stands out.

Learn and experiment with the process of “provoking” a text—an active process of collaboratively unlocking the storytelling and performance potential of unusual, unconventional, or non-standard scripts. Great for developing new work, staging personal narrative, activating adaptations, or bringing classical or translated works to life, this hands-on workshop will offer techniques useful to directors, actors, playwrights, dramaturgs, and designers.

Directors and Dramaturgs: What does a successful union look like to you?
Directors: How can you utilize your Dramaturgs more effectively?
Dramaturgs: How can you introduce your research as an aid for the Director?
This workshop will be an inside look into a successful Director/Dramaturg collaboration: How the Dramaturg's work can feed into the Director's vision, preparation and process, and how the Director can highlight the Dramaturgs work throughout the production and performance process.

What do Taylor Swift and Shakespeare have in common? Find out in this interactive, hands-on workshop that will teach you how to 'hear' the meter (or rhythm) of poetic plays and use it to your advantage when analyzing, directing, or performing monologues from the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. So often we stop at Iambic Pentameter when there is so much more to meter, and deepening our knowledge of it can unlock so much within Shakespearian texts. We will practice scanning (or marking out the rhythm of) some of Shakespeare's poetic verse, analyzing how this can affect one's interpretation of a poetic speech, and exploring how the use of verse continues today in modern media, particularly contemporary music.

Program Representative and Teaching Artist, Rachel Kelsey, draws upon her personal and professional experience to bring you this workshop on building a theatrical resume. In this session, we will take a look at common resume layouts of industry professionals, examine what should be included on a resume, and craft our own. If time allows, we will deep-dive into headshots and websites as well. The intention of this session is to assist performers in creating tools to help them have successful careers and auditions. Here we will work on crafting strong, professional, and unique resumes. The session is taught from the lens and personal experience of Rachel Kelsey as she has attended professional auditions with individuals such as Alison Franck (Casting Director), Jeff Whiting (NYC Director/Choreographer), Kristian Charbonier (Casting Director), Sue Frost (Broadway Producer), etc. Things we will cover include:
- What to include within a theatrical resume (Physical Details, Contact Information, Experience (Stage, Film/Television, etc.), Education/Training, Awards/Honors, and Special Skills) as well as common formatting.
Organization of theatrical credits.
- Headshots - specifically how the individual would like to represent and market themself.
- What should be included within a performer, director, playwright and/or multi-hyphenate website.

Join the (1) Actor and the Producer/Director to find out more about developing a 1-woman, 10-character World Premiere (and special Festival Performance) of THE GULL; A TRAGICOMEDY FOR ONE, AFTER CHEKHOV, by Zachary Cohn. We will talk about the process for choosing the piece and dig into some of the challenges and rewards we found in the development journey and in facing the daunting task of producing a deconstruction of one of the most popular plays of the last 2 centuries--Anton Chekhov's THE SEAGULL. If you have seen the show (Thursday matinee at festival), or even if you're just curious about how a small professional theatre company functions in these times, please bring your questions and we'll have a lively discussion!

Join us for a groundbreaking panel discussion that examines the intersection of artificial intelligence and theatre. This comprehensive workshop brings together theatre practitioners, technologists, accessibility advocates, and audiences to explore how AI is reshaping the landscape of theatrical creation and experience.

During this workshop students will explore the differences between solo performance and larger mainstage productions. In addition students will receive a brief introduction to Performance Studies and will be given prompts towards creating a new solo performance. Please bring a willingness to share and collaborate.