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  10. How And When Did Acting Begin? Who Was Thespis? Why Was He Important?

 

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MONTANA ACTING CAMPS & CLASSES

Camps and classes for Montana kids, teens, and adults that have a special focus on acting in the theatre. Many of these Montana acting education programs also focus on singing, dancing and music. Most programs present a performance on the last day of classes. Most of the camps are day camps, but some are residential.

Contact each individual organization via their website for updated program date, place, and registration information.

 

Montana Actors' Theatre
Havre, MT area

The Montana Actors’ Theatre believes that artistic and creative experiences for youth are essential to the health and vitality of our community. For the past 20+ years, thousands of children in Havre and along the Hi-Line have participated in our youth programs.

Summer Youth Production: The Youth Production provides middle and high school-aged students the opportunity to participate in fully-staged productions. Participants learn every aspect of theatrical production and develop the discipline to create a polished, professional show.

KidsMAT: The KidsMAT program is a unique performing arts summer camp experience for children ages 5-15. Kids learn all aspects of theatre production including story and script development, acting, costuming, and technical aspects. Camps are held in various locations throughout northcentral Montana. Kids attend Monday-Thursday 9am-3pm culminating in a short production Thursday evening. Camps begin in the middle of June.

Youth Workshops: Monthly workshops designed to teach youth ages 12-19 various aspects of theatre.

Website: https://mtactors.com

 

Alpine Theatre Project
Whitefish, MT area

CONFIDENCE. CREATIVITY. COLLABORATION

Theatre education isn’t just about art, it’s about life. Now more than ever, today’s youth need the proper tools to better understand the complex and ever-shifting nature of humanity. ATP’s educational programs give young people a supportive space to explore thoughts, ideas, and emotions, as well as a place to foster confidence, creativity, collaboration, and empathy. All of ATP’s educational programs are truly inclusive, meaning no student is ever turned away.

Website: https://atpwhitefish.org

 

NOVA Center for the Performing Arts
Billings, MT area

ITTY BITTY CAMPS: Half-Day Camps for grades: K-3rd. Itty Bitty Camps explore the many different aspects of the theatre world! Children will use their imagination to tell stories, build characters, work as an ensemble, and explore movement all in a safe and fun environment.

BEGINNERS CORE ELECTIVES: Half-Day Camps: for grades: 4th-6th. In these electives, students will be able to create their own schedule! Topics include: Improv, Intro to Acting, Musical Theatre, Creative Writing, Backstage Pass, and Stage Combat. Students can choose to take a morning or afternoon elective or pair a morning elective with an afternoon elective of their choice! You can also take all six electives throughout the summer at a discounted price!

ADVANCED CORE ELECTIVES: Half-Day Camps for grades: 7th-12th. Create your own schedule! Topics: Improv, Acting for Film, Musical Theatre, Creative Writing, Backstage Pass, and Stage Combat. Choose to take a morning or afternoon elective or pair a morning elective with an afternoon elective of their choice!

SUMMER THEATRE SCHOOL: Come learn theatre basics, audition skills, movement exploring theatre, and find your actor voice!

R.O.C.K (Rimrock Opera Chorus for Kids) CAMP: Full-Day Camps for grades: K-12th. R.O.C.K is Billings’ premier voice camp, where students will be exposed to music through a variety of activities and methods. Students learn different types of music, rhythms, singing, and performing. Camp will culminate in a showcase open to friends & family!

Website: https://novabillings.org

 

Verge Theatre
Bozeman, MT area

Our educational programming helps nurture self-confident, problem-solving citizens and grow community. We create supportive spaces for self-expression and self-reflection as well as to develop individuals’ abilities to think critically and feel empathetically. We also create an inviting community in which everyone feels valued and has the opportunity to practice collaboration and communication.

For Adults: At Verge, we know how important it is for adults to have a space to continue to learn and PLAY! Come connect with a community committed to exploration, life-long growth, and radical inclusion. Open to all levels of experience, whether you are hoping to make some friends, challenge yourself with something new, or simply love performing... these classes are for you!

For Teens: Theater gives teens a chance to challenge themselves, take creative risks, and explore who they are and who they want to be. Through theater, teens express their individuality, develop skills for the future, and make life-long friends. At Verge Theater, we focus on creating an exciting and supportive process which invites teens to build compassionate community.

For Kids: At Verge Theater, we believe in the power of make-believe! We know that when we play together, we can learn together.Our kids' classes create a safe and encouraging environment for your children to explore, express themselves, and take creative risks. While participants learn about theater, they also develop social/emotional skills and friendships.

Website: https://www.vergetheater.com

 

RESOURCES

Of course a website cannot tell you all the information you need to know about preparing yourself to be an actor: unions, contracts, agents, casting, auditions, and the myriads of other things actors should learn about the acting business.

Below are a number of resources that will help you learn about such things to get you on the right road to becoming a successful actor.

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So You Want to Sing Musical Theatre: A Guide for Performers (Updated and Expanded)
by Amanda Flynn (Revised by)

Broadway vocal coach, voice teacher, and researcher Amanda Flynn provides the skills singers need to successfully sing musical theatre repertoire. The book is updated and expanded for musical theatre performance in the current era, covering a broader array of topics and including more in-depth discussion than the original edition.More

From Craft to Career: A Casting Director's Guide for the Actor
by Merri Sugarman & Tracy Moss

Practical, positive and uplifting, the advice in this book is designed to lead to the best outcomes possible for you, the actor, making the transition from craft to career. The reader is given insight into the various types of casting directors across the industry and how that practical knowledge can benefit you and increase your chance of success. While providing an in-depth insight into the role of the casting director, this book explains the j...More

The Actor's Life: A Survival Guide
by Jenna Fischer

With amusing candor and wit, Fischer spells out the nuts and bolts of getting established in the profession, based on her own memorable and hilarious experiences. She tells you how to get the right headshot, what to look for in representation, and the importance of joining forces with other like-minded artists and creating your own work—invaluable advice personally acquired from her many years of struggle....More

Act ALIVE: The Essential Guide to Igniting and Sustaining Your Working Actor Career
by Andi Matheny

Finally - a modern acting method that cuts to the chase of what actors really need to unleash their acting genius! The groundbreaking Act ALIVE approach, with exercises ranging from pragmatic to deeply personal, will give you the tools to quickly bring your skills to the next level, from audition to set. Actor and acting coach Andi Matheny, who has helped launch hundreds of actors on their journey from pupil to professional, writes in an entertai...More

The Actor's Hustle: A Step by Step Guide to Getting Your Foot in the Door in TV and Film and How to Get Paid from Your Craft
by Shana Solomon & Carlington Neil

The Actor's Hustle is a book designed to help Actors on all levels reach their career goals and start booking quality film & TV roles that will help them quit their day jobs and build powerful relationships in the entertainment industry and grow. This easy read is loaded with Shana Solomon's hilarious, in your face tell it like it is personality as she shares her wild experiences jam-packed with lessons of how she went from a girl in the Bronx wo...More

The Art of Auditioning, Second Edition: Techniques for Television
by Rob Decina

Casting director Rob Decina highlights the difference between the craft of acting and the business of auditioning, and how those two worlds meet in television. Included are proven-effective preparation techniques, such as breaking down a scene, making specific choices, finding the acting moments with thoughts and feelings, and much more. Also included is advice on how to navigate the various steps of auditioning for series regular, guest star, an...More

Auditioning for Musical Theatre
by Denny Berry

Auditioning for Musical Theatre demystifies the process of giving the best possible professional audition for a role in a musical. It is the result of Denny Berry's own experience, sitting "behind the audition desk" for 30 years of professional Broadway auditions, as well as teaching newcomers and coaching established actors. The book coaches performers on how to be their best selves - and avoid the pitfalls of n...More

Acting in Musical Theatre: A Comprehensive Course
by Joe Deer & Rocco Dal Vera

Acting in Musical Theatre remains the only complete course in approaching a role in a musical. It covers fundamental skills for novice actors, practical insights for professionals, and even tips to help veteran musical performers refine their craft.Acting in Musical Theatre's chapters divide into easy-to-reference units, each containing group and solo exercises, making it the definitive textbook for students and practitioners alike...More

Acting the Song: Performance Skills for the Musical Theatre
by Tracey Moore & Allison Bergman

Acting the Song offers a contemporary, integrated approach to singing in musicals that results in better-trained, smarter performers everyone wants to work with. In this new, thoroughly updated edition of the paperback, directors and teachers of musical theater will find guidance in developing and leading musical theater elements, classroom workshops, and the world of professional auditions and performances. Subjects for both versions cover: Sing...More

Drama for Teen Actors
by Christine McClure

Christine McClure has more than thirty years of experience coaching actors one-on-one, on set, and in group classes. Her students have appeared in major features and television series and have worked with Oscar-winning directors Steven Soderbergh, Stanley Kubrick, Sofia Coppola, the Coen brothers, and more. Now Christine puts that experience to work for you by sharing her techniques and giving you a literal front-row seat in her dramatic acting c...More

Respect for Acting: Expanded Version
by Uta Hagen with Haskel Frankel

Since its original publication in 1973, Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting has remained a durable classic and a must-read for all students of acting. As an acting instructor at the Herbert Berghof Studio, Hagen helped to develop the talents of world-class actors like Robert DeNiro, Matthew Broderick, Gene Wilder, Amanda Peet, Austin Pendleton, Whoopi Goldberg, and more. In this book, Hagen offers an indispensable acc...More

The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit: Revised Edition
by Bella Merlin

A revised and updated edition of Bella Merlin's essential guide to Stanislavsky. The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit collects together for the first time the terms and ideas developed by Stanislavsky throughout his career. It is organised into three sections: Actor-Training, Rehearsal Processes and Performance Practices. Key terms are explained and defined as they naturally occur in this process. They are illustrat...More

Breaking Down Your Script: A Step-By-Step Guide for the Actor
by Laura Wayth

This clear, concise and practical guide provides actors with a structured and effective method for breaking down and understanding a performance script. It offers a flexible approach that works with plays from any period or genre, with television and film scripts, and even when preparing for your audition. Inside, you'll find the tools you need for every step of the process, from making sense of the whole script, to breaking it down scene by scen...More

Back to the Body: Infusing Physical Life into Characters in Theatre and Film
By Jean-Louis Rodrigue & Scott Weintraub

Back to the Body: Infusing Physical Life into Characters in Theatre and Film guides you to experience and use your body and its energy as a basic point of departure for performance and expression. You will learn to apply your entire self in acting, with your voice, body, mind, and emotion. This integrated training is designed to combine all these elements of yourself with your material, the environment, and other...More

Activated Script Analysis: An Integrative Approach to Play Analysis Through Creative Expression and Devised Theatre
by Elizabeth Brendel Horn

Activated Script Analysis engages theatre students in traditional formative script analysis through a fusion of devised theatre and various modes of creative expression, dispelling the notion of script analysis as an isolated pen-to-paper task and reimagining it as a captivating and collaborative process. This book uses diverse, contemporary plays to model the script analysis process for each of four Theatrical Elements: Given Circumstances; Character; Setting; and Structure...More

Running a Successful Voiceover Business
by Joshua Alexander

In this "beginner-friendly guide to a voiceover business", notable voice talent, author and blogger Joshua Alexander provides comprehensive and personally-based guidance on the proper formation and operation of a successful business in voiceovers. Leaning heavily into his own operations that have led him to become one of the most frequently-booked voice talent in the industry today, this book is sure to provide you the inspiration and knowledge y...More

The Voice Over Startup Guide: How to Land Your First VO Job
by Chris Agos

Voice over actor Chris Agos walks you through the most effective ways to earn money in today's professional voice over industry, and more importantly, how to keep your career rolling. You'll gain a clearly-defined map of the industry that will open up opportunities you'd never have thought possible. What's more, we've included sample scripts and audio tracks of every important voice over style, so you can hear how the professionals do it...More

The Monster in Theatre History: This Thing of Darkness
by Michael Chemers

Monsters are fragmentary, uncertain, frightening creatures. What happens when they enter the realm of the theatre? The Monster in Theatre History explores the cultural genealogies of monsters as they appear in the recorded history of Western theatre. From the Ancient Greeks to the most cutting-edge new media, Michael Chemers focuses on a series of 'key' monsters, including Frankenstein's creature, werewolves, ghosts, and vampires, to reconsider what monsters in performance might mean to those who witness them....More

Theater Management Handbook: From Box Office to Payroll, Proven Plans and Strategies for Running a Successful Production
by Richard E. Schneider

Before the curtain rises, careful planning, budgeting and scheduling must be overseen, making even small productions potentially complicated. This book guide to theatre management includes templates, charts and contracts.....More

Tips From A Talent Agent
by Rebecca Fichter Hale

Tips from a Talent Agent is an incredibly informative and entertaining step-by-step guide that walks you through all the aspects of show business. It takes you through the collective knowledge necessary to ensure that, if applied correctly, your career as an actor is armed with solid, insider advice, and professionalism...More

Acting: The First Six Lessons
by Richard Boleslavsky

Get the book that has taught generations of some of the best stage and screen actors and actresses. In his beloved classic, "Acting: The First Six Lessons", master acting teacher Richard Boleslavsky presents his acting theory and technique in a lively and accessible narrative form. Widely considered a must-have for...More

Sampling and Remixing Blackness in Hip-Hop Theater and Performance
by Nicole Hodges Persley

Sampling and Remixing Blackness is a timely and accessible book that examines the social ramifications of cultural borrowing and personal adaptation of Hip-hop culture by non-Black and non-African American Black artists in theater and performance. In a cultural moment where Hip-hop theater hits such as Hamilton offer glimpses of Black popular culture to non-Black people...More

An Actor's Guide--Making It in New York City, Third Edition: Everything a Working Actor Needs to Survive and Succeed in the Big Apple
by Glenn Alterman

A Step-by-Step Guide for the Actor Pursuing a Career in New York. A great deal has changed in the industry in the last decade. In this new, third edition of An Actor's Guide--Making It in New York City, Glenn Alterman provides everything actors need to know. You'll discover the ten things that it takes to make it as a successful actor in the city, how to support yourself, where and how to start your life as a New York actor, understanding and marketing "your brand," the best acting schools and conservatories, effective ways to contact agents and casting directors, and more. The author, a successful working actor, also shares many insider tips...More

Surviving Hollywood: How To Ensure The Acting Industry Doesn't Chew You Up And Spit You Out
by Julia Farino

The book covers day to day survival as an actor, marketing materials and how to stand out, training and auditioning, the difference between agents and managers, the business part of show business, how to stand up for your rights and how to stay sane! Plus information about the practicalities of moving to, and living in, Los Angeles....More

Acting for Beginners: A Heart-centered Approach to Acting (The Beginner's Guide to Becoming an Actor and Getting That First Role)
by Marcie Griffin

Knowing just what to expect will save you a lot of disillusionment and misery in the long run. At the same time, this book will arm you with the knowledge and skills that you will need to break into the acting world and land your first film role....More

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