So you wanna drop by ACTOR THERAPY?  Please, be our guest!  See the bottom of the page for specific classes/days/guests.

What do you need to prepare?  Bring one full song, or two cuts (32 bars or less); dress for an audition; and prepare for critique by RSO and our evening’s guests!  We love new faces and seeing old friends!

PRICING
For information on doing an entire session of ACTOR THERAPY click here
OR One-class drop-in (new students) … $100
One-class drop-in (returning students) … $75
One-class drop-in (Actor Therapy Vets*) … $55

 

Which student are you?

New Student 1-day $100.00 USD Returning Student 1-day $75.00 USD Actor Therapy Vet* 1-day $55.00 USD

 

*Actor Therapy Vets are a group of students specifically approved by RSO and LM.  Wanna become one?  Email them at actortherapy@gmail.com.

Drop by one of our forthcoming ACTOR THERAPY Session 6 classes:

SESSION 6*

All classes are held at 939 Ripley-Grier, located at 939 8th Ave. (btw 55-56 st), 3rd floor, room 3A.

• Monday, June 17 with actress Krysta Rodriguez, actor Michael Lowney (La Cage aux Folles) and RSO
• Monday, June 24 with Benton Whitley CSA (Pippin), O&M press rep Andy Snyder, composer Jonathan Reid Gealt and RSO
• Monday, July 1, director Michael Greif, composer-lyricist Joe Iconis, producer/musical theatre historian Jen Tepper, and RSO
• Monday, July 8 with Kent Nicholson (Playwrights Horizons), actor Alex Brightman, and RSO

*All guests are subject to change without notice.  There are no refunds, but students will receive a 50% discount for a later class subject to availability if guests drop out last minute (in addition to attending the original class they paid for).

Director Craig Slaight says of Darling “I became interested in this work after exploring Ryan Scott Oliver’s extraordinary music in YC classes. Although set in Boston in 1929, the themes of the abandonment of young people by adults and the adolescent quest for place are timeless. Rebellion, the budding of first love, danger, and finally redemption lead these characters through a story inspired by J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.”

The production will feature the talents of young actors from all over the San Francisco Bay Area: Abby Arora, Kemp Atkinson, Aidan Elsesser, Christina Euphrat, Leah Gallagher, Carson Harvey, Hannah Herbert-Hunt, Zach Hollander, Kyleigh Hoye, Preston Kerwin-Battaglia, Oliver Klein, Chelsea Looy, Alexa Martinez, Michaela Marymor, Lucy Murphy, Meg Nakamura, Seana Nicol, Veronica Ortiz, Tobiah Richkind, Emma Roos, Peter Scattini, Fiona Scott, and Julian von Nagel.

Shows will take place at The Theater at the Children’s Creativity Museum, located at 221 4th Street in San Francisco, CA. Tickets are $20 can be purchased by visiting http://www.act-sf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=events_conservatory_yc or calling (415) 749-2228.

Creative team includes: co-directors Slaight and Domenique Lozano, music director Robert K. Rutt, choreographer Christine Mattison, set designers Slaight and Sarah Phykitt, lighting designer Krista Smith, and sound designers Michael Creason and Ashley Hanson.

With music and lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver and book by Brett Ryback, this lively jazz-age musical follows upper-crust teenager Ursula Morgan in 1929 Boston in the turbulent weeks before the stock market crash. Neglected by her excessive, self-absorbed parents, Ursula encounters a boy named Peter, who is being pursued by the captain of police for a heinous crime he may or may not have committed. When Peter offers Ursula the opportunity to run away with him, she finds herself swept into a seedy underground world of jazz, sex, and a mysterious white powder called Fairy Dust.

Slaight is a resident artist at A.C.T. and the director of the YC. He assumed the leadership of the YC in 1988. During his time at A.C.T., he has taught in all of the conservatory programs and served as a director on A.C.T. mainstage productions and as a member of the artistic team of the company. Slaight began the YC’s New Plays Program in 1989 with the mission to develop plays by outstanding professional playwrights that view the world through the eyes of the young. To date 45 new plays by leading American and British playwrights have been developed and produced. With A.C.T.’s director of academic affairs, Jack Sharrar, Slaight has edited numerous anthologies of scenes and monologues for actors and is the editor of five volumes of New Plays from A.C.T.’s Young Conservatory. Before coming to A.C.T., Slaight was an award-winning professional director in Los Angeles. He has also directed in England at the National Theatre and Theatre Royal Bath and His Majesty’s Theatre in Scotland.

At A.C.T.’s Tony Award–winning YC, students ages 8 to 19 develop their talents, perform in professional-caliber productions, and gain the confidence to succeed—all in a creative, fun, and encouraging environment. The ten sessions of classes and eight public productions offered throughout the year are designed to develop talent and creativity, as well as communication and cooperation skills, for young people with all levels of theater background. Working professional actors and directors lead students in a spectrum of classes, including acting, directing, voice and speech, musical theater, audition, and improvisation. Call 415.439.2444 or visit act-sf.org/conservatory for applications and information.

Derek Klena

Under the musical direction of Chris Fenwick (Giant), the demo features Derek Klena (Dogfight) as Peter, Emily Walton (Peter and the Starcatcher) as Ursula, Julia Mattison (Godspell), Justin Keyes (How to Succeed…) and Max Chernin (NYMF’s Really Bad Things). The demo was recorded under the supervision of Kurt Deutsch of Sh-K-Boom Records, after concerts in both Vermont and New York.

Tracks include:

• “The View from Here”
• “Never”
• “Clever”
• “Dull Little Ache”
• “Lost Boy”
• “Happy Thoughts”
• “When Lily Came”
• “To London”
• “Song of the Dead Fairy”
• “Ground”

Click “Playlist” on the Music Player to the left to listen to all the tracks.

Founded in 2000 by Kurt Deutsch and Sherie Rene Scott, Sh-K-Boom and its imprint Ghostlight Records has become the leading independent force in musical theatre recording—shining a light towards its future while continuing to honor its past. The label is renowned for its efforts to encourage and support the music of the most innovative new voices on Broadway, to help bridge the gap between pop/rock and musicals, and to preserve the scores of important works. As a label created by and for the Broadway community, the company has reinvented the musical theatre recording landscape through their high-quality recordings, innovative marketing techniques to reach the next generation of Broadway music fans, and the creation of a new type of ‘United Artists’ environment for Broadway producers and artists to participate in the funding and co-ownership of their albums.

Can’t make it to Scotland? Other future productions will be taking place in Pittsford, NY, Denver, CO, Layton, UT, Cambridge, MA, Manitoba, Canada and Lawrenceville, GA. Previous productions of 35mm include Encore Theatre in Dayton, OH, Ignore the Mongoose Productions in Alberta, Canada, Cobblestone Community Players in Churchville, NY, AKT Theatre Productions in Wynadotte, MI, and Philip Romano Presents at SUNY Genesco.

Representing a collision of artistic disciplines as disparate as musical theater, photography, and pop/rock music, 35mm pushes the limits of self-expression to create an art form utterly its own. A collection of “snapshot stories,” photos by Matthew Murphy, are woven together as each of the evening’s original songs, composed by RSO, is performed – with gusto and musical virtuosity — while the audience is immersed in stunning projections of the photography that inspired it. 35mm brings the connection between pleasures visual and aural into razor-sharp focus, creating a singular, multi-sensory emotional journey.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks in Scotland’s capital city. Every year thousands of performers take to a multitude of stages all over Edinburgh to present shows for every taste. From big names in the world of entertainment to unknown artists looking to build their careers, the festival caters for everyone and includes theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, musicals, operas, music, exhibitions and events.

As Told By Productions’ mission is celebrating bold stories and unique story-tellers. The production will feature Kirsty Marie Ayers, Rosie Ward, and Niall Rooney, as well as two more cast members still to be determined, and directed by Katie Pesskin of As Told By Productions.

Susie Mosher

On May 21^st, RSO performed at Backstage at 54 below, hosted by Susie Mosher (Hairspray, NEWSical). Three songs from Darling were featured, including Alex Brightman (Big Fish, Wicked) performing To London and Julia Mattison (Godspell) performing Dull Little Ache.

Darling, with music and lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver, and book by Brett Ryback, follows upper crust teenager Ursula Morgan in 1929 Boston as its society boils in the weeks before the Crash. Neglected by her excessive, self-absorbed parents, Ursula encounters Peter, a charming rent-boy of uncertain age, on the run from the Captain of Police who pursues him for a heinous crime he may or may not have committed. When she is offered the
opportunity to run away with him, she takes it and finds herself swept into a seedy underground of jazz, sex and a mysterious white powder called Fairy Dust. The show was featured on the “Bound for Broadway” episode of NBC’s The Apprentice and is also the recipient of the Weston Playhouse New Musical Award.