The final guest for the Bachelor of Arts Theater and Performance (BATAP) Guest Artist Series will discuss “acting professionally.”
Julia Gibson, acting professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will lead the discussion from 12:30-2 p.m. Nov. 27 in the Great Hall in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center.
The first masterclass, “original cast exploring,” was taught by Joseph Megel, the artist in residence at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill department of communication Nov. 9.
A masterclass is similar to a workshop where a professional teaches the class. The masterclass was designed to help students navigate and understand the development of new works and maximize their opportunities for auditions and networking.
BATAP Director Greg DeCandia said the class helped teach students how to read content that has never been created before.
“Having Joseph here is just a wonderful way to start creating a relationship with someone if you have works in the future that you want to be able to do,” DeCandia said.
Erik Hamilton, acting sophomore, said he appreciated this masterclass because, as artistic director of Shadow Collective, an organization that produces student-written plays, he knows how difficult working with original theater can be.
“The art of original theater is something that is a little under-explored at OCU. I definitely wish there were something along the lines of a playwriting minor so we could get more experience in that sort of thing,” Hamilton said.
“But I definitely have a lot of respect for the craft, and it’s wonderful that so many people are getting the opportunity to do it through this masterclass.”
“Projecting control,” taught by Dominic Abbenante, resident media designer of Playmakers’ Repertory Co., was Friday at Oklahoma Contemporary, a local arts center.
The masterclass explored the technical aspects of theater, including analyzing software in live entertainment. Students got hands-on experience working with the design elements of Silhouettes of Service, a verbatim theater play created by DeCandia, and witnessed the execution in the live performance.
“Usually, we have people come into masterclasses and talk about the work that they do, and we wanted to make sure that we could see the work they do as well,” DeCandia said.
Gibson’s class will focus on being an actor in New York City, auditioning, working with agents, and “keeping one’s spirit afloat amidst the ups and downs of ‘the biz,’” according to event posters.
DeCandia said Gibson was his former professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has voiced more than 150 books and worked in television, film and stage.
“She has a really wide breadth of the different things you can do,” DeCandia said.
The BATAP degree program focuses on creating new work, DeCandia said, which is why he wanted to make these masterclasses available to students. He also said he was able to get each of the presenters to come because he knows them from his graduate study at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
All students in DeCandia’s audition technique class are required to attend the masterclasses. DeCandia said all the masterclasses are open to anyone of any major and students will not have to prepare anything to attend the masterclasses.
“We ask that they just come with an open mind and some questions,” he said.
To attend the final masterclass, students can sign up on the design and production bulletin board on the third floor of Gold Star Memorial Building.
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