[Capdist-announce] PRESS RELEASE: Ancram Opera House Announces Free Community Workshops

Gail Burns gburns35 at gmail.com
Thu Apr 28 15:06:04 EDT 2022


April 28, 2022

CONTACT: Gail M. Burns

www.ancramoperahouse.org

gburns35 at gmail.com; 413-458-4246

PRESS PHOTOS: https://www.flickr.com/photos/195256245@N02/

ANCRAM OPERA HOUSE ANNOUNCES FREE COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS

ANCRAM, NY [April 28, 2022] - Co-Directors Jeff Mousseau and Paul Ricciardi
are delighted to once again be able to offer free, interactive community
workshops this spring, with the artists behind our 2022 summer season. No
previous experience is necessary!

AOH workshops are designed to engage with artistic expression in all its
forms. Participants will receive personalized guidance and feedback from
the teaching artists. Folks of all levels of experience are encouraged to
attend, from seasoned professionals to theatre newcomers.

“Central to our work is the opportunity to connect community members with
the many gifted, talented artists creating performances at AOH,”
Co-director Jeffrey Mousseau explained. “For the artists, the workshops
provide an opportunity to explore ideas relevant to their projects; and for
the participants, the sessions offer a chance to engage in creative
expression in a supportive, welcoming environment.”

This year, our workshops will take place LIVE at Ancram Opera House. In
order to maintain a safe environment, and provide participants with plenty
of individual attention, workshop enrollment will be limited.

Participants ages 18+ can sign up for one, two or all three workshops.. All
three workshops are free, but registration is required. Sign up now to
secure your spot! Visit https://www.ancramoperahouse.org/workshops for
registration links and more information, or call AOH at 518-329-0114

Ricciardi starts off on Saturday, May 21 from 11 am-1 pm with a STORYTELLING
WORKSHOP. Everyone has a story to tell. Learn how to organize your story,
and how to create that deep performer/audience member connection that can
only happen through the intimacy of storytelling.  Using techniques
developed in Ancram’s REAL PEOPLE REAL STORIES series, Ricciardi will guide
participants through fun exercises that will lead to a dynamic story.

Then from 10 am- noon on Saturday, May 28, the SUNWATCHER creative team
offers a CREATIVE MOVEMENT WORKSHOP. Director Nana Dakin will guide
participants through a series of simple exercises to awaken physical
awareness. Next learn more about the team’s creative process and the
inspiration for SUNWATCHER, including scientific information about the Sun
and sunspots. Composer Tidtaya Sinutoke and librettist Isabella Dawis will
share some of the music they created based on this sun data. Participants
will then be guided by Dakin on how to use these scientific facts and
musical material as inspiration to create their own one-of-a-kind SUNWATCHER
movement.

Participants in the Creative Movement Workshop may want to stay the
afternoon of the 27th to explore the Ancram area and then return to AOH for
the 8 pm work-in-progress showing of SUNWATCHER. The evening event is not a
part of the workshop and tickets must be purchased separately.



Finally, on Saturday, June 18 from 10 am-3 pm Celeste Lecesne,
writer/performer of POOF!, leads a STORYMAKING WORKSHOP designed to explore
our individual myths, give voice to emotional, political, and personal
truths, and create a structure that will carry your story into the world.
Whether you are working on a screenplay, a TV pilot, a stage play, a
one-person show or a novel, knowing the basic rules of story can help you
discover both the story you want to tell and the best way to present it.

Ancram Opera House asks that the following COVID-19 guidelines are observed
when visiting our space. All patrons, staff and company members are
required to be fully vaccinated and masked for indoor events at AOH. When
you arrive for your workshop, we’ll ask for proof of vaccination status
which you can provide by showing your CDC vaccination card or a photo image
of it, NY State’s Excelsior Pass or any other status app. A photo ID will
also be needed in case the staff person at the door doesn’t know you. Visit
www.ancramoperahouse.org/covid-guidelines for more information. We thank
you for your understanding, and look forward to seeing you soon!



The 2022 AOH summer season kicks off with SUNWATCHER, a part of Ancram’s
Summer Play Lab series, with work-in-progress showings May 27-29 at the
Opera House. For tickets and more information on this and the rest of the
season, visit www.ancramoperahouse.org.

WORKSHOPS AT-A-GLANCE

Storytelling Workshop with Paul Ricciardi

Saturday, May 21 from 11 am-1 pm

at AOH, 1330 County Route 7, Ancram 12502

FREE



Creative Movement Workshop with Nana Dakin, Isabella Dawis, and Tidtaya
Sinutoke

Saturday, May 28 from 10 am-noon

at AOH, 1330 County Route 7, Ancram 12502

FREE



Storytelling Workshop with Celeste Lecesne

Saturday, June 18 from 10 am-3 pm

at AOH, 1330 County Route 7, Ancram 12502

FREE



BIOS

Paul Ricciardi (he/him) is co-director of the Ancram Opera House and
teaches the theater’s acting and voice classes. He is an Associate
Professor on the theatre faculty at the City University of New
York/Kingsborough CC. Previously he taught at Siena College, The University
at Albany, and Rhode Island College. He is Immediate Past Co-Chair for
Region I of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and a
two-time recipient of the Kennedy Center National Teaching Artist Award.
He received his MFA in Acting from Trinity Repertory Company, and studied
with renowned vocal coach Kristin Linklater, receiving his Linklater
Teacher Designation in 2012. Paul is also a director and
voice/speech/dialect coach.  Paul has designed dialects for countless
college theatre productions, as well as for professional theatres including
Stageworks/Hudson, WAM, America-in-Play, and others.  Memberships:  AEA,
VASTA.

Nana Dakin (she/her) is a queer Thai-American director of new work,
classics and devised performance based in NYC. Her work pursues social
equity by examining the way culture is constructed and unsettling dormant
biases. Upcoming: LOST COAST (The Playwrights Realm INK’D Festival) and
MAMMELEPHANT (Superhero Clubhouse/122CC). Recent: PASSAGE (University of
North Carolina School of the Arts), SORRY/NOT SORRY (Ars Nova ANT Fest),
SUNWATCHER (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Global Forms Festival, Ancram
Opera House Play Lab, Civilians FINDINGS Series), LOVE LETTER TO A SEED
(Clubbed Thumb Winterworks), WHITE PEARL (Royal Court Theatre), an
all-women and non-binary production of Shakespeare’s RICHARD III (Lenfest
Center for the Arts). She has developed new work at Ensemble Studio
Theatre, NYTW, The Song Collective, The Tank and Columbia University’s
International Play Reading Festival. MFA Theatre Directing: Columbia
University. www.nanadakin.com

Isabella Dawis (she/her) is a Filipina-American playwright and performer.
As a librettist and lyricist, she is the recipient of the 2022 Kleban
Prize, the 2021 Fred Ebb Award, and the 2020 Weston-Ghostlight New Musical
Award. Isabella currently holds a 2021-23 Composers and the Voice
Fellowship with the American Opera Project. Her musicals written with
composer Tidtaya Sinutoke include HALF THE SKY (5th Avenue Theatre Digital
Radio Play/First Draft Commission, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Theater Mu's
New Eyes Festival, Theater Latté Da's NEXT Festival) and SUNWATCHER
(Civilians' R&D Group, Goodspeed’s Writers Grove, Rattlestick Playwrights
Theater, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Tofte Lake Center). Isabella’s
writing has been supported by the Primary Stages Rockwell Scholarship, the
Kurt Weill Foundation's Lotte Lenya Songbook, Musical Theatre Factory,
Coalition of Asian American Leaders, and more. B.M. summa cum laude, piano
performance, University of Minnesota, with vocal study at New England
Conservatory. Isabelladawis.com <http://isabelladawis.com/>

Tidtaya Sinutoke (ฑิตยา สินุธก) (she/her) is a Thailand born, NYC-based
composer. Composition credits include HALF THE SKY (The 5th Avenue
Theatre's First Draft Commission & 20/21 Digital Season, Weston-Ghostlight
New Musical Award, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Richard Rodgers Award
finalist); SUNWATCHER (The Civilians R&D Group, Weston Playhouse's Songs
for Today, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
Global Forms Festival); and DEAR MR. C (NYFA’s City Artist Corps Grants,
Polyphone Festival). She was awarded the 2017 Jonathan Larson Grant, the
2020 Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award, the 2021 International Theatremaker Award
and the 2021 Fred Ebb Award. Her works have been supported by the American
Opera Project, Composer-Librettist Studio at New Dramatists, Yale Institute
for Music Theatre, Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, Johnny Mercer Writers
Grove at Goodspeed Musicals, Robert Rauschenberg Residency, EtM Con Edison
Composer-in-Residence, MTF's Makers Cohort, and the Kurt Weill Foundation.
A proud member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild, Maestra, MUSE, and Thai
Theatre Foundation. MFA: NYU. tidtayasinutoke.com

Celeste Lecesne (he/they) wrote the short film Trevor, which won an Academy
Award for Best Live Action Short, and he is co-founder of The Trevor Project,
the largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention Lifeline for LGBTQ+
youth.  He has written three novels for young adults, and created The
Letter Q, a collection of letters by queer writers written to their younger
selves. An actor of stage, screen and TV as well as a writer, Celeste is
best known for his award-winning Off Broadway solo shows including The
Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey for which the NYTimes ranked him
“among the most talented solo performers of his (or any) generation.” He is
also the co-founder of The Future Perfect, a national arts initiative for
LGBTQ+ youth. CelesteLecesne.com

2022 SPONSORS

The 2022 season at the Ancram Opera House is made possible by the New York
State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor
and the New York State Legislature.

ABOUT THE ANCRAM OPERA HOUSE

The Ancram Opera House in southern Columbia County, NY,  is an intimate
showcase for fresh, contemporary work by visionary theater and musical
artists where audiences can connect with performers in immersive, immediate
ways.

The Opera House was erected in 1927 as Ancram Grange #955, a chapter of the
National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, to address the social,
educational and economic concerns of the region’s farmers.  In 1972, the
building was repurposed and renamed the Ancram Opera House as an arts venue
focusing on light operatic fare.

Today, Ancram Opera House rededicates itself to aspects of its origins,
producing and presenting inventive contemporary theatrical performances to
be shared by a rural community.

For more information visit www.ancramoperahouse.org.

###


-- 
Gail M. Burns
57 Linden Street
Williamstown, MA 01267-2511
413-458-4246 home
413-346-3193 cell
gburns35 at gmail.com <gailmburns at roadrunner.com>
Reviews at BerkshireOnStage.com
<http://www.GailSez.org>
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