Check this space for our fall schedule of classes!

Young Playwrights Workshop.  (Ages 14-18).  This workshop is for young writers, gifted daydreamers and imaginative thinkers who want to learn the basic skills needed to turn their creative thoughts, stories, and characters into stage-ready theatrical material.  Students will learn the basics of dialogue, dramatic action, characterization and plot structure using their own ideas as the raw materials.  The workshop will proceed from initial idea development through refined drafts of short plays that will be presented in a public showcase of staged readings at the end of the course.
 

Physical Characterization Approaches for Actors, Directors, and Playwrights. (Ages 16 and up).  Though many audience members (and even some beginning actors) think acting is all about memorizing and saying your lines, well-trained actors know that the best performances are those that use the entire body as part of creative expression.  This intensive two-day workshop will introduce a number of approaches to developing and deepening characterization through purely physical means.  Not only will actors be able to apply these insights to their performances, but also directors and playwrights will learn a variety of ways to create more exciting conflicts and dynamics between cast members and characters. 
 

Basics of the Stanislavski System. (Ages 16 and up).  The acting techniques you’ve probably heard famous actors talk about in interviews or on Inside the Actors Studio stem almost exclusively from the writings of one man who is widely considered the “father of modern realistic acting technique”:  Konstantin Stanislavski.  Before there was “Method Acting,” there was the Stanislavski System.  This workshop, culminating in a public showcase of staged scenes, will introduce students to the basic vocabulary and ideas introduced in Stanislavski’s tremendously influential acting texts and allow them to put them into practice through guided scene work. 
 

Thinking with a Director’s Brain.  (Ages 16 and up.)   Are you an actor, designer, or techie who has always wanted to try your hand at directing?  Or a teacher, camp counselor, or church group leader suddenly thrown in charge of directing the class play, the talent show, or the Christmas pageant?  Or maybe an experienced thespian who’s directed a bunch of plays already but wants to learn more about the craft?  If any of these descriptions apply to you, then this is the workshop for you.  Students will learn fundamentals of theatrical staging, character orchestration, conflict management, analysis and thematic expression, as well as tips on nuts-and-bolts issues such as auditions, casting, rehearsal scheduling, working with artistic collaborators, and surviving tech rehearsals without pulling your (or anyone else’s) hair out. 
 

Solo Performance.  (Adults only.)  As the costs of theatrical production continue rise with every actor added to the cast, solo performance has become an increasingly popular form over the past 25 years.  Actors and Playwrights eager to create their own low-cost production opportunities have worked in a variety of solo forms ranging from celebrity impersonation shows and fictional monodramas to performance art pieces, autobiographical works, and so-called “monopolylogues” where one actor plays multiple (real or fictional) characters.  This course will explore a variety of solo performance forms, introduce a number of techniques for developing scripts, and end with a public showcase of original work developed and performed by students from the class.

Resident Faculty

Don LaPlant is a playwright, director, teacher, and theatre administrator with over 20 years of experience in theatres ranging from regional and summer stock theatres to academic, children’s, and community theatre groups.  As a playwright he has had productions and staged readings of eight of his plays, including two commissions which were produced in state-wide tours, the multi-prize winning play Two Body Problems, which was published in Southern Theatre magazine in 2007, and Appalachian Reality, which received a mini-production at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia in 2008.  As a director, Don has directed over 40 productions including new works, classics, contemporary plays, solo performances and children’s plays.  In 2008 he was awarded a Meritorious Achievement citation for Excellence in Direction by the Kennedy Center/ American College Theatre Festival.  As a teacher, Don has worked with theatre students ranging in age from four to eighty-two, but has focused for the past ten years on teaching traditional college-aged students at California State University and, more recently, at Emory & Henry College in Emory, VA.  Don holds Theatre degrees from Ithaca College (BA), the University of Nebraska at Omaha (MA), and the University of Oregon (PhD).  He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America and currently lives in Roanoke, Virginia where he serves as Associate Artistic Director at Studio Roanoke.
 

Kenley Smith served as the first president of Studio Roanoke’s Board of Directors, and is now the acting Artistic Director.  He is a distinguished graduate of the Playwright's Lab at Hollins University, where he also earned an M.A. in Creative Writing in 1982.  He is a member of the Dramatist’s Guild and teaches playwriting at Randolph College in Lynchburg, VA.  His play, Devil Sedan, was featured at the 2008 Great Plain Theatre conference, took top honors at the 2008 Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights and won the 2009 Joe McCabe Memorial Award from WV Writers, Inc.  It was produced in Omaha, NE, in 2009 and at Studio Roanoke this June.The remaining two installments of Kenley's Famous Bobby Pence trilogy, Twelve Stations of the Cross and The New Testament, will be produced at Studio Roanoke in October and February, respectively.  His August, 2009, production at Studio Roanoke, The Shade of the Trees, has been selected for the 2010 Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights.  A native of Beckley, WV, Kenley currently resides on Bent Mountain.

Adam Hahn has been practicing long-form improv for five years. In Iowa City, he performed with the troupe Fisheye, then founded, co-directed, and performed with the troupe This Machine.  Since moving to Los Angeles, Adam has studied at iO West (the west-coast satellite of iO Chicago, the legendary theatre and training center formerly known as Improv Olympic). He currently performs as a member of Puddle Jump, and he has been onstage with several other troupes, including Hoodwinked, Truffula Seed(s), Poised, Superclock, and Pulled Pork.  Adam is also an MFA candidate in the Playwright's Lab at Hollins University. His works as a playwright include Dear Abe (produced by Studio Roanoke this spring, with Adam in the role of Danny) and Frogger (opening at Studio Roanoke in June, 2011). His play, Feedback Loop, recently premiered as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.