Newsletter

Performing Arts

Spring Quarter Newsletter

Volume 1, No. 3

In This Issue

· Letter from the Chair

· Music Minor Information

· Dance Minor Information

· Notes from the Casting Office

· New Senior Project Information

· Disney and Florida Professional Theatres Auditions

· Senior Showcase Auditions

· SAFD Actor Combatant Skills Proficiency Tests

· Summer School Class Offerings

· 3rd Act Updates

Letter from the Chair

Here we go! Spring quarter already: seniors getting ready to graduate, showcase auditions, three productions, summer stock jobs, vacations... We have had a great year. The recent production of Macbeth showcased our ability to tackle the classics and reinvent the Bard. Our students demonstrated clearly that the training they are receiving is making them actors to be reckoned with. We should be proud of our efforts thus far and work even harder to ensure that the spring shows round out this great season.

Performing arts enjoyed the SETC conference, where several of our students auditioned in the professional auditions. Derek Pickens, an M.F.A. graduate, had a play featured in the Ten-Minute Play Festival, which was the hit of the night. This past week, our seniors went to Atlanta and New York for our first showcase and met with great success. Romell Witherspoon has been signed with Abrams Artists, a film and television casting agency, and several other students were called into Warner Brothers (for the casting of a CBS pilot), the Alliance Theatre, Tyler Perry Studios, People Store and the list goes on. What we imagined as a soft start in the showcase business turned out to be a big splash.

Practicum will be back in the spring and back to stay. Performing arts students should participate side-by-side with production students to create the stunning physical aspects of the production. Your teachers will explain the impact on your classes, but the general rule is that for 100- and 200-level courses, practicum will count for 20 percent of your grade and, for 300-level courses, 15 percent. There is no practicum for 400-level courses.

Please read the newsletter carefully. There is a lot of important information.

Also, make sure to let production department and the students in Macbeth know how much you enjoyed and appreciate their work. A generous actor is a working actor!

Michael Wainstein

Music Minor Information
If you are beginning the course sequence for the music minor in vocal performance, be sure and get into MUSC 140: Music Theory as soon as possible. This course is offered each quarter, but make sure you take it by the fall or winter so you can take MUST 220: Sight Singing next spring.

MUST 220: Sight Singing is offered only in the spring and is a prerequisite for all the upper-level vocal performance courses. If you have already taken Music Theory, be sure and take sight singing this spring quarter. You will then be ready to take courses such as MUST 260: Music Theater Rep I and the new course, MUST 350: Vocal Genres I, with professor Michael Wainstein next year.

Professor Ames's regular office hours are Monday-Thursday, 4:30-5:30 p.m. in Room 207. Stop in with any questions you may have about the music minor, or e-mail Margo Ames.

Dance Minor Information
As many of you know, the performing arts department is offering a minor in dance. The requirements are as follow: MPRA 103: Introduction to Performance, MPRA 210: Voice for Performance I, and DANC 205: Dance History; DANC 213: Introduction to Ballet; DANC 290: Dance Composition; a 200-level DANC elective; a 200- or 300-level DANC elective; and a 300-level DANC elective. Some courses like Dance History and Dance Composition are offered only once a year. Dance History is offered this coming spring quarter, and students minoring in dance are strongly encouraged to enroll. Also, students may take this class as an elective as well.

Vincent Brosseau

Notes from the Casting Office
Exciting things are happening at the casting office. We are well into our collaboration with the film department, having completed casting on a number of student films and beginning our casting sessions with a new group this week. Aurora Heimbach, Ayo Tushinde, Dylan Travers, Kelly Rogers and Coral Smith are just a few of the names that have already been cast in leading roles. To have the opportunity to get in front of the camera before stepping into the professional world is invaluable, and we hope everyone will continue to take advantage of the unique experience this collaboration provides.

We are thrilled to be a part of casting for a new ABC Family pilot by Emmy-nominated writer Winnie Holzman ("My So Called Life," "The Wonder Years," "Wicked"). Auditions are being held in Atlanta in early March. This is an amazing opportunity for our students to participate in a search for new talent to star in the six leading roles of this funny coming-of-age story set in a weight-loss camp. They are looking for a very specific type, so if you are not called in, no worries. Other film and television opportunities are coming down the road, so stay tuned.

We want to congratulate the students who participated in the recent open call for "Bring It On," the musical written by Jeff Whitty (Tony Award-winning writer for "Avenue Q" and recent visitor to SCAD). Those who participated met with a representative of the prestigious Bernie Telsey Casting Agency ("Rent," "Wicked," Rachel Getting Married) in New York City and got to audition for Andy Blankenbuehler, Tony Award-winning choreographer for "In The Heights." Many of our students got callbacks and will go on tape in the casting office as a follow-up. Bernie Telsey's office said, "Based on the talent level of the SCAD kids alone, we will continue to come back to Atlanta to hold auditions for upcoming shows." Thank you for representing our school so well! These kinds of auditions open doors that are available to very few at the college level; so continue to take each opportunity as it comes your way.

If you haven't already dropped a headshot by or stopped in to introduce yourself, please do so. It's not too late! Don't miss out on these and the many upcoming auditions at the casting office. For more information, contact professor Andra Reeve-Rabb in the casting office.

New Senior Project Information
We have revised senior project guidelines. This is a summary of the projects acceptable to fulfill the senior project requirement. Details are available in the chair's office, 307. Get a copy for your information. There are strict rules for several of the options, so don't proceed without knowing them:

Performance in a major role in a main stage or studio production
Performance in a major role in a master's thesis film student project
Acceptance into the New York Showcase class
Writing and acting in an original production (prerequisites required)
Directing a published play (prerequisites required)
Senior Project Ensemble class (New version of MPRA 495. This is where most of you should be.)

Disney and Florida Professional Theatres Auditions

We are setting up an audition trip to Florida that will take place May 22nd and 23rd that would include auditioning for Disney and the Florida Professional Theatres Association. Students will be required to audition at SCAD before becoming eligible for the Florida trip. More to come on this exciting opportunity.

Senior Showcase Auditions

The showcase auditions will be held April 30^th, 2010. The audition is open to anyone who will be a senior during any quarter next year (Fall 2010, Winter/Spring 2011), or any M.F.A. student graduating in any of those terms. Please prepare two contrasting monologues and if you are a singer, prepare one song. You can do a classical monologue, but at least one (both if you wish) should be contemporary.

SAFD Actor Combatant Skills Proficiency Test
It's that time again! The Skills Proficiency Test in Stage Combat will be held for the third time in the spring term. The test is a chance for students to increase marketability when entering the workplace. The weapons categories for the test are: Unarmed, Single Sword, and Rapier and Dagger. Each student is required to fight at show speed with all three weapons in a performance scene. Professor Noyes is working hard to acquire Fight Master Richard Ryan, who has served as fight director for such movies as Troy, The Dark Knight, and Sherlock Holmes.

Summer School Class Offerings

11 a.m., MTWR, Survey of Theater and Drama II
2 p.m., MTWR, Directing
5 p.m., MTWR, Audition Techniques and Materials

If you have a class you would like to see scheduled, see chair Wainstein.

See professor Wainstein if there are any issues with prerequisites. New B.F.A. curriculum Our new B.F.A. curriculum goes online in fall of 2010. It will appear in the catalog, and copies of the required courses will be in Room 307. Anyone who is less than halfway through his or her current curriculum may switch to the new B.F.A. curriculum. See chair Wainstein for more information.