ACTING

Acting majors at TAP camp are chal­lenged on a dai­ly basis through rig­or­ous class work and rehearsal meth­ods. As campers come from a vari­ety of schools or pro­grams, the fac­ul­ty assess­es each stu­dent, uti­liz­ing his or her per­son­al foun­da­tion as a start­ing point ensur­ing the most poten­tial growth in each indi­vid­ual camper.

Acting majors are divid­ed into two groups based on age, expe­ri­ence and skill lev­el. The campers are immersed in dai­ly class­es in the morn­ings that cov­er act­ing, impro­vi­sa­tion, voice/​movement and more. As TAP camp strives to train the “com­plete artist,” campers are assigned to class­es in voice and dance in the after­noons. Additionally all campers rehearse sec­tions of the final show­case togeth­er once dai­ly. In the evenings, act­ing majors work with a direc­tor and a team of assis­tants as they cre­ate orig­i­nal pieces of the show­case and rehearse scenes and mono­logues from con­tem­po­rary plays. The act­ing majors also have the priv­i­lege of per­form­ing in the stu­dent films. Additional film act­ing class­es are instruct­ed so that act­ing majors are com­fort­able on camera.

Curriculum

The TAP act­ing class­es are process-ori­ent­ed empha­siz­ing tech­nique, styles, and meth­ods. Students devel­op aware­ness about them­selves and their rela­tion­ship with oth­ers and the world around them as actors. Students are intro­duced to the essen­tial skills of act­ing from impro­vi­sa­tion to char­ac­ter devel­op­ment to text analy­sis and performance.

Daily class­es com­bine Acting and Musical Theatre Majors for cours­es includ­ing: act­ing, voice, and dance/​movement. The Acting Majors are sep­a­rat­ed in the evenings for addi­tion­al act­ing class­es, mono­logue and scene work, and rehearsal for the final showcase.

Concentration is on the prepa­ra­tion of devel­op­ing char­ac­ters through script analy­sis, prepa­ra­tion and per­for­mance. Students will be expect­ed to par­tic­i­pate in mono­logue and scene work so that they may estab­lish short and long term goals for them­selves. Emphasis will be placed on tak­ing cre­ative risks and find­ing truth in per­for­mance. In addi­tion to gain­ing knowl­edge of the actor’s process, these act­ing class­es help stu­dents expand self-aware­ness, fos­ter self-con­fi­dence, and place trust in others.

Course Descriptions

Acting

Focus on text analy­sis, sen­so­ry work, actions and truth­ful behav­ior with­in a scene or mono­logue. A vari­ety of act­ing meth­ods will be exam­ined through the study of con­tem­po­rary plays. Techniques for approach­ing the craft of act­ing are explored through exer­cis­es, group dis­cus­sions, scene study, and self-assessments.

Improvisation

Develop tech­niques of impro­vi­sa­tion, which can be used in char­ac­ter explo­ration. Learn to think on your feet, make bold choic­es and prac­tice cre­ative col­lab­o­ra­tion with fel­low performers.

Theatre Past and Present

Through lec­ture and dis­cus­sion, explore the­atre his­to­ry as it relates to cur­rent trends in the­atri­cal performance.

Auditioning

Examine tech­niques for more effec­tive audi­tions includ­ing pre­sen­ta­tion, prepa­ra­tion and fol­low through. Leave camp with two or three audi­tion mono­logues coached and ready for your next audition.

Voice/Movement

Strengthen vocal and phys­i­cal skills through release of ten­sion, pos­ture, vocal exer­cis­es and mus­cle exten­sion. Examine var­i­ous tech­niques for body/​voice train­ing to expand your phys­i­cal and vocal capabilities.

Film Acting

Use scenes from films to explore tech­niques for act­ing on cam­era. As the actors in the stu­dent films at TAP Camp, Acting majors par­tic­i­pate in a com­bi­na­tion of both class­room and hands-on experience.

Specials

Guest artists may be brought in for spe­cial top­ics such as Stage Combat, Shakespeare, Suzuki, Viewpoints, etc.

Rehearsals

Rehearsals are con­duct­ed in the evenings. During the first week, campers read scenes and mono­logues and take class­es in film act­ing to pre­pare for film shoots dur­ing week two. The Director of Acting choos­es mono­logues and scenes for the act­ing majors and rehearsals begin dur­ing week two. Rehearsals are divid­ed into time slots so that each scene or mono­logue is indi­vid­u­al­ly coached mul­ti­ple times over the course of a week. On the third week of camp, we assem­ble the show­case com­bin­ing majors and cre­at­ing a cohe­sive show­case. Acting majors may have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to per­form in dances or songs as well.

Showcase

In the past, act­ing majors have engaged in writ­ing work­shops, cre­at­ing orig­i­nal pieces for the show­case based on the theme. Scenes and mono­logues have been per­formed from many con­tem­po­rary play­wrights, includ­ing Tony Kushner, Steven Dietz, Larry Shue, Margaret Edson, Kenneth Lonergan, Neil Simon and Lee Blessing.

I’ve nev­er learned so much about any craft in such a short amount of time. It’s amaz­ing what I’ve tak­en away from this experience.
Izzy Custodio (Acting Major 2011)
Age 16 from San Antonio, Texas

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*NOTE: All campers for TAP Junior & TAP Senior are required to audi­tion at the begin­ning of camp. Auditions are held for many rea­sons. The staff will get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to know all the campers and their strengths and weak­ness­es in all types of per­for­mance. Additionally the staff will be able to make cast­ing deci­sions about the final show­case, place campers in the cor­rect class lev­els, and make sure that all class­es are chal­leng­ing and appro­pri­ate. All campers will par­tic­i­pate in mul­ti­ple sec­tions of the audi­tion. The audi­tion process will be con­duct­ed in a pro­fes­sion­al and encour­ag­ing envi­ron­ment. It will be fun, but we are expect­ing your per­son­al best. Visit Placement Auditions for more information.

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