Last semester Visiting Professor of Theatre Season Ellison saw a need in the acting program at Wooster, and jumped to fill it.† The Actorís Lab, which meets Wednesdays at noon in the James Wise Acting Studio, is a venue where students from all majors can go to work on monologues and scenes, get help with presentations, or even learn about different acting techniques.
ìI always feel like as theatre majors at a small liberal arts college weíre missing out on something,” said Nina Takacs í11.† ìWe focus a lot on theory and scholarship and donít get a lot of practical experience.† So itís nice to have something like this.”
Rather than establishing a set curriculum, Ellison asks the actors who participate in the Actorís Lab what they want to work on, then forms a schedule based on that.† Last semester, students wanted help preparing to audition for the spring production of ìMary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off,” so the Actorís Lab held a four week audition workshop.† Ellison helped students learn how to choose appropriate monologues for their own acting types, and then helped them to polish those monologues for the audition.
ìThis semester thereís been a request to work on scene work,” said Ellison, ìSo weíre going to do some partner stuff. Weíve also had a request to do some song work as well.”
Ellison hopes people from the music department will consider coming to the actorís lab in order to work on some of the acting aspects of their singing.† In general, she would like to extent participation to students in other disciplines. ìI would love to see it expand so that we can hit more of the student body and offer the great work that weíve been doing to a larger group,” she said.
The Actorís Lab will also be bringing in several presenters this semester to do workshops on different acting techniques.† Visiting Professor Penny Cole will be leading two workshops on the Viewpoints method and Katherine Burke, who is currently serving as the dialect coach for ìMary Queen of Scots,” will be leading a workshop on Linkwater.
ìIím really hoping that people will come in next week when Katherine is here,” said Ellison.† ìThis is something that we would have to pay hundreds of dollars for if she werenít already coming in to do things for us.”
Bronwyn Schlaefer í12, a regular attendee, appreciates the chance to work on her skills.
ìIt lets you stay in shape,” she says.† ìWith so few auditions every year, it can be hard to get back into it.”
ìItís nice because itís sort of run by us,” said Allison Wadleigh í10.† ìWe have power to say letís do this, letís do that.† Which is sort of what liberal arts is.”