acting workshops

Daniel Foley: our artist in residence this year was a Shakespearian actor by the name of Daneil Foley. our time with Daniel was actually quite short and I would have liked to have spent more time since i quite liked the vocal focus he had, at least in the second workshop we had. The first workshop was mixed with a freshman class and was lacking in information and interactive. The second session was focused on the voice and how to speak and to interpret Shakespearian text. The exercised were a great way to wake up the face for projection and for singing, because they were what they were, exercises. I now still do some of them to kind of wake up my face in order to get ready for the day. the last session was more physical and tied more closely to the play we are doing right now, Romeo and Juliet. we were having trouble with stage fighting so Daniel Foley helped out by showing our class how to do simple sword fighting techniques that look good are easy to remember which we in turn taught to the cast. one thing that was not so great was that there was no specific topic it was more opportunistic than structured.
chad Austin:
a surprise workshop was had after Daniel Foley left and he next class period there was another actor from New York who did some activities with us to find ways to stretch our acting techniques and how to be more aware of our body and even mentioned Australian actor F.M. Alexander and his technique for good posture, even though he said he did not agree with it. most important out of all was the final excerisize when he told us how to properly present ourselves to prospective directors;

• don't fidget, hand to side 
• stand tall-don't slouch
• smile- look happy and make the "judges" feel good
• don't look down- confidence will then proceed to exude from your presence
• answer with confidence=don't second guess yourself
• when you recite a piece just recite it, don't take pause to change into character,just say it