Students dabble in different performing arts techniques and styles taught by Broadway, TV and film professionals.
This summer, the Stephens College Theatre program is hosting a variety of talented industry professionals as instructors and ‘pop-in’ guests during the Summer Performing Arts Intensive (SPAI), a program for B.F.A. in Acting and Musical Theatre students who have completed their first year at Stephens.
During SPAI, Stephens students are focusing on the process of the work in a real-time, virtual six-week format; the intensive began on May 11 and runs through June 19.
During SPAI, students get the opportunity to dabble in different performing arts techniques and styles while adding to their actor’s “tool box,” which consists of techniques and tricks that a performer uses to help get into a character or state of being before jumping into a song and/or monologue.
This summer, students are taking courses in Lessac Voice & Bodywork (Lessac master instructor/actress/singer Nancy Krebs); Movement for the Actor (Movement specialist/actor/professor Jason Bohon); and The Michael Chekhov Acting Technique (Chekhov specialist/actor/musician Séamus Maynard). In addition, a course in Self-Tape/On-Camera Techniques will be taught by Hemphill as well as by over 10 “pop-in” guest instructors, including John Hemphill and Claire Rankin, cast members of the national tour of “Dear Evan Hansen”; and TV, film and theater professionals like Lauren “Coco” Cohn, Stacia Fernandez, Aaron Lazar and Geoffrey Wade, among others.
About SPAI
Summer Performing Arts Intensive (SPAI) is a part of the three-year/two-summer B.F.A. theatre program at Stephens in the School of Arts and Humanities. This summer, SPAI is being held as a real-time, virtual six-week program due to the coronavirus pandemic. Under normal conditions, SPAI will be held as a three-week, on-campus intensive; it replaces the longtime Summer Theatre Institute that produced free shows for the community. Learn more >