A post by Richie Venezia, one of our IES Students

It’s now coming on week six of my time here; time sure flies. My name is Rich Venezia, and I am one of the eleven American students studying through IES Abroad here at the Gaiety School of Acting this semester.

We are working hard Monday to Friday, with classes starting usually around 8:30 and ending around 5:30, give or take an hour or so. LONG days, for sure. We take improvisation, acting, voice, movement, dance/tap, mime, stage combat, text, theatre history, stagecraft, manifesto, and singing.

I am originally from central New Jersey, but I attend college at Point Park University in Pittsburgh – I will be graduating in May!

One of the first things that struck me here is the ideas of an improv class and a stagecraft class are quite different than back home. Improv back home is very often theatre games, long-form, short-form, etc., while here it has been more about readiness, awareness, and freedom – same basic principles, but different approaches. We only just got into “improv” as us Americans know it in our fourth or fifth class. Stagecraft is about the craft of acting, and has little, if nothing, to do with technical theatre for the performer.

One of my favorite classes is manifesto. In it, we explore who we are as actors, and how we, as actors, respond to situations. We are given prompts and asked to respond to them; there are basically no rules, except that the piece has to “feel about a minute long.” Our first few prompts included arguing for whether theatre should effect change or act as pure entertainment, rediscovering your tenth birthday, and responding to a news story. It’s a brilliant class; I am loving every minute. I was asked to respond to a news story for my first piece. Here is a link to the post I wrote on our manifesto blog: Performance Thoughts.

The other classes are going well, too. We worked on Brian Friel in acting – a “Philadelphia, Here I Come” group scene that has now been put to bed, as well as some “Dancing at Lughnasa” scenes that will be wrapping up in the next few days… I am quite excited to start work on Oscar Wilde this week! We’ve also worked on a lot basic techniques through our scenes, like focus, specificity, and following direction. Though sometimes class is 3.5 hours long, it gives us lots of time to explore and create – I only wish classes were that long back at home!

Voice has been a lot of beginning stuff – which is great, because I feel this is what I missed somewhere along the way back home. We are working with Linklater techniques (which I love), and exploring our voice through various poets – most recently it was Derek Mahon and some Romantic poets.

As for the rest, Improv is a lot of fun – trust exercises have been the main focus lately, as well as word association games. A few weeks ago, we fell off a table into our classmate’s arms a few feet below – talk about terrifying (but liberating).  Stage combat is more difficult than I thought it’d be, but we also have a very short class to perfect it in, so it’s a work in progress. Theatre history is grand – I’m a sucker for the academic side of things. Stagecraft has been a bit of fun tableau work, and singing has been both ensemble work and solo singing. The ensemble singing is basic stuff, but it’s really good for those who’ve never sung before. Solo-wise, I get to work on a gorgeous song that I’ve been dying to for ages (“Love Who You Love”), so that’ll be really nice. Mime is brilliant – we’re spoiled with a great teacher who studied with Marceau. She works us hard, but has also made me realize how important mime is to what we do in traditional theatre. Movement has been fun – a lot of warm-ups and various exercises — though we’ve only had a few classes because of some schedule issues, so I hope to explore even more in the next few weeks! Dance and tap is kicking my behind, but it is glorious, and a preview for next semester as I will be taking both jazz and ballet five days a week!

I’m really glad of my decision to come here and study for the term – the teachers are great, the classes are great, the people are great – I only wish we could stay longer!

–
Rich Venezia

richvenezia.nowcasting.com

Past GSA Student Aileen Mythen in Hot Press!

After a highly acclaimed run at the Wexford Opera House earlier this year, Musical, The Lords of Love returns to Wexford, playing at the O’Reilly Theatre.

Past GSA student Aileen Mythen will return as lead vocalist playing the role of The femme fatal.

Read the full story in Hot Press magazine here.

For tickets go to www.wexfordoperahouse.ticketsolve.com

2nd Year Paul Marron Shares his Summer Story

Well it’s been an interesting summer in that at times it hasn’t felt like a summer off at all! Aside from about the first three weeks after our showcase, Jamie Cillian and I have been working hard on our production of “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” by Frank McGuinness. Work that will finally come to an end on Tuesday next when we have our final performance. How did this come about I hear you ask? Well, it happened a little like this….

It all started in Maureen’s class in January when Stuart and I were working on a scene from that particular play together. There had been an idea in my head for a while that the best way to fundraise for an acting course was to act! I mean, play to you strengths right? So, anyway, at this moment I realised that I had found the perfect play. Small cast (3), small bare set, being chained to a wall took care of any major blocking issues, it was perfect! And so a summer project was born. Next came casting. Cutting all the girls in the class was step one, that may sound sexist but if I could have found two of them capable of growing beards they were in! Adam, the American character, was quite intense, so I looked around the room for the most intense person I could find. Sitting just a few seats away was Cillian “The Rage” O’Gairbhi, he was hired! In the same class Jamie was working with Danni on a scene set in Liverpool. He was clearly the man for the England job. I said it to both lads after the class and we all agreed it was worth going for.

Now we needed a director. We wanted to do something as close to professional as we possibly could, so that we could learn from the experience as well as hopefully make some money for fundraising. I had met Padraic McIntyre a number of times and knew he was a big fan of McGuinness and had recently directed successful professional productions of McGuinness’ “Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme” & “There Came A Gypsy Riding”, as well as some work at the Abbey. He liked our idea and said he would love to help us out. We settled on a full week’s rehearsal at the end of June where we would break down the dialogue and block the whole play, with Padraic, and then we would spend the rest of the summer learning lines and rehearsing these scenes by ourselves.

The week came, Cillian and Jamie made the trip to Cavan, they set up base in my parent’s house and we spent the week in the local hall. We ate, drank and slept the play that week, no stone was left unturned. With scripts in hand we went from a reading on Monday morning to a full run on Friday evening. We noted every twitch, every move for fear we’d forget anything by September. By the time we reached Dublin on the Friday night we were exhausted, but delighted that we had, for the first time in our lives, got a taste of what a professional rehearsal room feels like. A wonderful experience which we will never forget.

On a side note, our name, “Square Béal”. On the Monday evening after our first rehearsal, exhausted, we arrived back at my home. We were greeted in the field by the house by my father who had spent the day making square bales of hay. Out we went in the evening sun and stacked those 400 bales to dry them before they could be taken into the shed. It was a strange yet fitting way to end our first day and we knew we had to mark it somehow. Of course it was Cillian who came up with the changed spelling for Béal, the Irish for mouth, a nice touch for a company of actors and so our theatre company was born.

Paul Marron.

2nd Year Students Act Out

Three of our new 2nd year students – Paul Marron, Jamie O’Neill and Cillian O’Gairbhí have been busy this Summer starring in Frank McGuinness’ “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me“.

Their final performance is coming up . Here’s your last chance to see them!

Click here for more details.

John Delaney looks forward to starting back

It’s that time of year again. I feel like a giddy student myself as the beginning of term one approaches. It’s almost twenty years since I joined an Introduction To Drama class with the current director of the school Patrick Sutton as my tutor. I had a great time over those ten weeks, making some lifelong friends into the bargain and did the follow on course the next term. It didn’t have a name back then but that follow on course grew into the Page To Stage class that is still so popular today.

I cannot imagine what my life would have been like if I hadn’t taken the plunge and signed on for those courses back in 1991. I went on to do the full time course and have been very lucky to have had a varied and productive career in the intervening years. Theatre is my life and teaching acting to todays students is a wonderfully fulfilling experience. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of teaching is seeing those you have taught go on to have successful careers themselves.

Tomorrow evening I’m travelling to the George Bernard Shaw Theatre in Carlow to see The Colleen Bawn. Two of the stars of the show are Liz Fitzgibbon and Ian Lloyd Anderson. I was blessed to work with both of them a few short years ago, in fact I directed Ian in his very first appearance on stage in 2004. I’m delighted to say he credits that experience as one of the main reasons he is an actor today. Both he and Liz share my enthusiasm for the theatre. And that enthusiasm is infectious. You can experience it yourself by joining any one of our classes. Tutors like Gene and Kristian, Oonagh and Charlotte, Donal and Antoinette, not to mention David, Clare, Seamus, Orla, Mary, Jim, Paul, Maureen, Adrienne, god the list is too long, I’ll have to stop. Someone will be upset with me for leaving them out. Probably Patrick. Twenty years later and he is still an inspirational teacher today.

Ask any past student to describe their time in the GSA in one word and they will probably say fun. Training to be an actor is fun. Discovering you have the ability to improvise is fun. Unlocking the door to your imagination and writing the first lines of a new play in our Writer’s Room class is fun. Why? Because the staff are fantastic. The atmosphere amongst your fellow students is friendly and inspirational. The feeling of growth and empowerment is energizing.

I remember a few years ago, interviewing an applicant for one of our one year part time courses. She used to take the train from her job in Newbridge at half past five and arrive at the school an hour or so later with barely enough time for a coffee and sandwich before diving into her Introduction To Drama class with Gene Rooney. As the class got underway she felt shattered every night,but by nine o’clock and the end of the class she felt wonderful, full of energy and ready for another two hour class. The last thing she wanted to do was go home. And the result of this was she felt energized for the whole week ahead, ready for anything and above all happy, having fun, feeling great.

But don’t take my word for it. Try it out yourself. If nothing else, you’ll have some fun, guaranteed.

John Delaney

To see our full brochure of classes click here.

Kristian Marken shares his thoughts

Hello to all past, returning, and new students at the Gaiety School of Acting. As always, I am delighted, eager, and inspired to get back into the swing of the Fall term at the GSA.

It occurs to me that, my first day of  school as a anxious five-year-old, was forty years ago this month, and I can honestly say, I haven’t lost the thrill of ‘Back to School’.

This year promises to be a lively one with many of last year’s excellent Performance Year students returning for the Advanced Year. I was hugely impressed, and proud of the work they did over the thirty weeks of the course last year, culminating in an end-of-year showcase, among the best I have seen. I am planning an ambitious year for them, and I hope we are all up for the challenge.

Interest and enrolment in the ‘Acting for Camera’ courses is as brisk as ever and I was delighted to see dozens of past students on television and on the silver screen over the past months. A testament to the discipline and skills our students are receiving on the courses.

2010/11 sees the addition of 11 I.E.S. students from the U.S.  joining the full-time acting programme. I am excited to be taking a mixed class of Irish and American students through their paces in the first term. This initiative will prove to be a fertile melting pot of ideas and experiences from ‘both sides of the pond’.

It has been a busy and eventful summer. An outdoor production of ‘The Comedy of Errors’, performed by a dozen of our brilliant graduates, played to thousands in St. Stephens Green and Smock Alley. Meanwhile, development plans for the restoration of Smock Alley Theatre moves on apace, and the resurrection of our Grande old theatre finishes in the New Year. I must  thank to our intrepid interns who keep the place ticking-over.

We are in the midst of The Fringe and The Dublin Theatre Festival moves in next week. Keep an eye on the web site for upcoming festival productions and independent shows

I am always amazed how Theatre thrives during difficult times.

Kristian Marken

To check out our courses click here.

Thoughts From The Director

Please Explain!

Just when I thought we had agreed the final closing date for all of our One Year Part Time courses the buzzer, the phone and the email started jamming with people wanting to audition and interview. So Lastnight (till 10.15pm) and again tonight, I’ve been full on with John Delaney interviewing and auditioning and what an amazing group of people we have met!! I suppose better late than never. Go on (I suppose) even if the deadline has passed – chance your arm!

What a Day!
Arthurs Day!

Damien Burke and the scholarship for the New York Film Academy!

Damien Burke who has completed all the adult part time courses at the Gaiety School of Acting talks to GSA about receiving a scholarship to the New York Film Academy.

Click here to read the interview

 

One Year Part Time Tutor Antoinette Duffy on new term!

The first indication is the weather. Somewhere around the end of August folk start mentioning a ‘nip in the air’ and that it’s getting dark earlier. Instinctively I am drawn to visit the stationery department in Eason’s and drool over the bright notebooks. Anything stripy or pink will do! Fresh notebooks are food at the beginning of the teaching year and colour is essential. A new teaching adventure dawns!

I have had a month of not teaching and it feels like an age. June and July were hectic with end of year showcases and Summer Schools. Not only did I teach a Summer School for GSA (what joy!) but I was also privileged to teach directing on the Drama League of Ireland Summer School in the University of Limerick. What an amazing group. We had the best laughs and I can’t count the amount of times I was struck dumb (unusual!) in astonishment by the work they produced. Do you know? That’s the thing! It’s what keeps the work interesting. Students will always surprise and astonish with the work that they produce.

What about Caucasian Chalk Circle? A madcap Brechtian romp of a showcase. I want to do it again! Sometimes students find physical and visual theatre difficult. But, when they grab, embrace and run with it they usually find freedom as a performer. So, it was advanced performance final showcase and the play has about 70 characters, a prologue, five acts, singing and its journey is half way across Russia. Of course we were mad to do it!

Imagine! Two curtain rails weighed down with costumes, a few props and twelve actors! After a long and intense day of ‘get in’ we were as ready as time would allow. None of us were breathing. The audience arrives. There is nothing more we can do. The lights go down, the door bursts open and the cast pushing the curtain rails and hiding behind them enter with a great explosion of energy. I take a breath. They peek out between the costumes and deliver the first chorus. Fabulous! It was going to be brilliant! They move the curtain rails to stage left and right. Disaster. One of them falls down and costumes are strewn everywhere. But, none of them were fazed, not even when it fell down a second time, and they played the show with the greatest performance energy and commitment. Yeah! Everything we had worked for came together in that moment. It was a brilliant showcase. As Patrick Sutton said ‘poor theatre at its best’!

That’s the thing with the one-year part time courses. It’s a journey! We meet our students in October and we travel all the way to the end of June. I can’t write this without also mentioning my Performance class. A happy smiley bunch, well, except for the cold in Space 54 but we won’t go into that. Their big thing was that they wanted to be challenged. So they were and they did challenge themselves, all year in fact, and we did scenes from Shakespeare. In my ‘wisdom’ I chose some scenes from Loves Labours Lost. If you don’t know it, have a look. The language is extraordinary. I wish I had some photographs. Now I’m hoping that some of them will be coming to do Advanced Performance for even bigger challenges. Send me an email guys I would love to hear about your plans.

September is the month of anticipation and planning. While tidying up my files and going through my notes, memories and images of last year come flooding back and I am excited by the thought of the creative year ahead. Maybe we will do Shakespeare again or Oscar Wilde or Beckett. What monologues and scenes will the students choose?  All will be revealed and week-by-week the new journey will unfold. I can’t wait.

Please note that the applicaton deadline for the One Year Part Time programme is September 15th. This Year the Performance Year in Acting will run Monday and Tuesday, students can participate on Advanced Performance year on a Tuesday and Thursday or a Monday and Wednesday and the Performance Theatre Company will run Tuesdays and Thursdays.

David Scott Confirmed as Performance Theatre Company Director

We are delighted to announce One Year Part-Time tutor David Scott as the new Director for our highest level in Part-Time training – the Performance Theatre Company.

David has been with the Gaiety School for many years and is a highly experienced theatre professional having acted, directed and written many of his own works.

We are proud to have David lead the course this year and will bring an extremely high level of professionalism and experience to those wishing to learn from the best!

Please note – if you wish to apply to train with David in this course  please send your application as soon as you can. Places are filling fast and the application deadline is September 15th.

Click HERE for more info on this course !