This workshop is full
New this year!
Thornton Wilder regarded theatre as “the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”
Join us as we explore selected classic plays from the 19th and 20th centuries. We will read aloud scenes from the plays, and discuss the plays, characterizations and plot. You may even have ideas on possible sets and costumes.
Each participant will do a presentation on one of the plays or on the playwright.
Gene Hackman once said that acting was a great career for shy people because they get to be someone else. If you’ve ever imagined yourself living a different life in another time or another place, this workshop is your opportunity to try on a new life. Imagine yourself as Lady Macbeth encouraging her weak husband’s ambitions – or as one of the Tyrone boys in Long Day’s Journey into Night, jobless, living with his parents and worried about his mother’s addiction to morphine.
We hope to see and discuss at least one Toronto theatre production per term. When the small theatres announce their schedules, we can decide which plays those will be.
Facilitators
Fran Bleviss fell in love with theatre in high school after seeing a play at the Crest Theatre, followed by a train trip to a show in Stratford. She has seen theatre in many countries, including Japan, and adored teaching Shakespeare and the Theatre of the Absurd in her 40-year career. A member of the Academy for 12+ years, Fran enjoys the peer-learning model far more than being lectured at by a prof! And the very first course she took at Knox College was an amazing play-reading class. She’s looking forward to the fun and stimulation of “The Play’s the Thing”.
Thea Herman is a retired judge, lawyer, and senior civil servant. She has co-facilitated several Academy workshops on a variety of topics. A life-long theatregoer, her acting has lain dormant since university days. She looks forward to rekindling the flame and sharing her love of theatre with other Academy enthusiasts.