SPRING COMMUNITY playwriting WORKSHOP 2020
Ancram Opera House and project partner, The Olana Partnership at the Olana Historic Site, are pleased to announce that its upcoming playwriting course for adults 55-plus will be offered online as a distance learning opportunity.
Thursdays & Fridays, 10a - Noon, May 21 - June 19
The course meets twice a week via Zoom, the video-conferencing app.
An added session during the final week is on Wednesday, June 17 from 10a-Noon.
The playwriting course, co-taught by playwright Darrah Cloud and AOH director Jeff Mousseau, will offer students the skills and techniques to create a dramatic monologue from start to finish. The series culminates in a performance, for which professional actors will perform the students’ work in staged readings.
The five-week workshop will draw upon the life and work of Hudson River School painter Frederic Church for inspiration and teach techniques for crafting three-dimensional characters and captivating narratives. This course also develops theatre-making skills including collaboration, dramaturgical research and a rehearsal process leading to a final showing with actors performing the monologues.
The project is the 2020 installation of AOH’s annual spring workshop, initiated last year, dedicated to engaging local residents in intensive performing arts-making experiences with professional artists.
As a virtual program, registration is open to all with access to reliable internet connection. Technical support will also be provided to participants needing any assistance installing or using Zoom for the course.
Call (518) 828-1872 or visit OLANA.org to register. To participate, students must plan to attend all eleven sessions, including an extra rehearsal on Wednesday, June 17. All materials, supplies, and instruction will be provided for a nominal fee of $150 per person.
Leading the workshop are playwright Darrah Cloud and AOH Director Jeff Mousseau.
Darrah Cloud’s new play, TURNING, premiers at Centenary Stage in March 2020. SABINA, a musical adaptation of Willy Holtzman’s play for which she wrote the lyrics, premiers at Portland Stage in May 2020. UNDERSTUDY JESUS received a workshop production at Rhinebeck Center for the Performing Arts in Fall 2018. OUR SUBURB premiered at Theater J in Washington, DC in 2014 and has gone on to numerous theatres. JOAN THE GIRL OF ARC toured with Cincinnati Playhouse, 2014. Other plays produced across the U.S. include WHAT’S BUGGING GREG?, THE STICK WIFE, THE MUD ANGEL, DREAM HOUSE, BRAILLE GARDEN, THE SIRENS, HEARTLAND, THE BOXCAR CHILDREN, HONOR SONG FOR CRAZY HORSE and the stage adaptation of Willa Cather’s O PIONEERS! which premiered at the Huntington Stage starring Mary McDonnell and was filmed by American Playhouse. Alum: New Dramatists; Member: Honor Roll, Howl Playwrights (Co-director). Graduate of the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa, professor at Goddard College, and Town Supervisor of Pine Plains.
Jeffrey Mousseau is co-director of Ancram Opera House. Recent directing credits for Ancram Opera House include THE SNOW QUEEN, adapted by Barbara Wiechmann, Tony Kushner’s HOMEBODY, Young Jean Lee’s WE’RE GONNA DIE, Kevin Dyer’s IN PRAISE OF ELEPHANTS, Barbara Wiechmann’s AUNT LEAF (also presented in Aguascalientes, Mexico) and the site specific PERFORMING OLANA created with Darrah Cloud and Paul Ricciardi.