MINDY WOODHEAD
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Graduate Students
Acting VII: Modern Styles
Acting VI: Absursism & the contemporary American stage
Acting V: Scene Study
Graduate Level Viewpoints
Graduate Level Suzuki & Viewpoints
A practical acting study for modern-era authors from the 1850's- 1940's. Using the tenant of realism and what resonates with contemporary audiences, we explore acting in the plays of the modern and post-modern eras. We first embrace the styles of performance they were written for, then approach these texts from a contemporary lens, so the stories and characters are true to their forms but successfully resonate with today's theatre and film audience.
Students receive a foundational understanding of the playwrights of the absurdist era, including existentialists and surrealists, as well as the political, scientific and social upheaval they were responding to. With each playwright, we consider the inherent acting traps, personal connection to the characters, gain competency in the rhythmic needs of the text, and creatively approach the theme to communicate with today's audiences.
A practicum course that prepares the professional actor for script analysis, rehearsal and performance of scene work drawn from the contemporary international stage repertory (1990-present). The course focuses on using the playscript as a blueprint to derive the theme, character, psychological truth, physical landscape, relationship, socioeconomic, and linguistic styles from .
Through a series of technical exercises and routines derived from the work of Tadashi Suzuki and The SITI Company, students develop stamina and focus. The vocal and physical rigor involved in the Suzuki training result in increased power and presence on stage. Studying the primary elements of the 9 Viewpoints, students use a shared vocabulary to approach ensemble work, staging, physical storytelling and approaches to monologues and scene work.
Undergraduate Students
Acting IV: Comedy of Manners
Directing
Entrepreneurshipfor the artist
Auditioning
This is a practical study of 17th and 18th century restoration comedy, satirizing high- class society and its misplaced values. Students learn how to authentically replicate everyday duties of the era and the the customs and rituals of France and England. They learn how proper society thought, behaved, and lived. Then we examine critical plays of the era, investigate their underpinnings in social criticism, and find a way to illuminate those themes in a compelling and authentic way.
To successfully bring to life a story, a director must understand how a writer write, how an actor acts, how a designer designs, how an audience sees and how to collaborate with everyone. In this class, students gain a fluent understanding of the tenants of realism, foundations of storytelling, plot arcs, and the 5 types of dramatic conflict. They are trained on aesthetcs, an exploration of their own creative process, and provided technical skills for staging stories.The the students learn how to break apart and analyze text, unwrap the critical elements of story, and journey through the structural elements of language. They explore the design process and are mentored through putting a short contemporary piece on its feet from text, audition, rehearsal, and performance.
Artists learn to take an intelligent, innovative approach to the challenges and opportunities encountered as an artist in the 21st century – and to combine all their passions into a sustainable livelihood. We dive deep to examine the self, personality, work style, challenges and innate opportunities. We identify the motivators, the obstacles and the sources of sustainability each student has. We look into the problems in the world they want to solve, the skills they have, and their individual voice. Then we use all of that and "blue sky" ideas that could be uniquely theirs or flawed solutions that exist and they could fix. We then learn about business plans, make one, workshop it, fantasize a proof of concept and go through all the phases of R&D, Production, Marketing, Sales, Data Collection, and Iteration in a fictional environment.
Students create a career plan and identify their individual needs to present themselves in their future career environment. Each student prepares a report on the city that will provide them the best opportunities and as a class we learn about the different paths, challenges, and success plan for each individual. We make an individualized plan for their semester and they leave with 8 fully rehearsed monologues that showcase their best work in consideration for the roles they will most likely get cast in.
International Academy of Film and Television
Acting
The program provides theoretical perspectives and weekly practice of relevant, functional actor techniques including fundamental Stanislavsky Techniques, Meisner, Practical Aesthetics and tools from Second City. The intent is to train students for work in film, television, theater, or any of the wide variety of commercial and specialized niches in the media industry.
Voice II
Voice II will train the actor on the fundamentals of Breath & Body alignment, strengthening and developing your pitch variety and control, speech clarity, articulation, releasing into the purity of sound under any emotional situation without strain, and power.
Movement II
Actors must have a command of their body. This includes an ability to release as well as shape their body’s energy, to fill the space, and to have their imagination, intellect, emotions and psyche manifest through their body with the smallest of impulses truthfully visible. It is paramount that an actor find neutral so their own life experience, projected in their frame, gate and points of tension, is not the foundation for every character. We release into neutral and explore physical characters that can relate to our work in acting classes. about you.
Curriculum Vitae
College of Southern Nevada
Intro to Acting
Introduction to the the art of the actor. This course will expand the student’s understanding of “performance” in a playful, encouraging and collaborative atmosphere through working with the actor's warm up, script anayses, improv, stage technique and the performance of a scene and a monologue.
Intro to Directing
Students will explore the relationship between the Practical and Expressive demands of directing. The curriuclum looks at composition, script interpretation, and the development of aesthetic perspective. Students learn how to communicate with collaborators effectively and acquire a deeper understanding of a director's responsibilities through the direction of a one-act play which is performed in from of a public audience.
Intro to Theatre
The purpose of Introduction to Theatre is to increase students' understanding, appreciation, and critical perceptions of the theatrical event. Readings, lectures and practical assignments will focus on the creative and technical elements of theatrical practice, the artists and innovators of theatre throughout history, and on the contemporary genres theatre.
Directing Practicum
The purpose of Introduction to Theatre is to increase students' understanding, appreciation, and critical perceptions of the theatrical event. Readings, lectures and practical assignments will focus on the creative and technical elements of theatrical practice, the artists and innovators of theatre throughout history, and on the contemporary genres theatre.