Actor and filmmaker Tom Noonan ("Manhunter", "Heat", "What Happened
Was...") is putting together a new workshop open to actors, writers,
directors.

If anyone is interested, or knows of anyone who might be interested,
contact Tom via his Web site: www.tomnoonan.com.

Jeremiah



-----Original Message-----
From: Tom N.
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2005 1:02 AM
To: Kipp, Jeremiah
Subject: Tom Noonan's new workshop...

Drama Workshop

An intensive eight day workshop open to all actors, writers, and
directors. The workshop will explore the nature of drama and provide the
tools necessary to create drama through acting, writing, and directing
(NOTE: this first workshop will focus on stage production - film
production will be the focus of a subsequent workshop).

The workshop will begin on a Sunday evening. A key element of the
workshop will be a commitment to produce a work of drama. The workshop
will culminate in a public exhibition on the last Sunday evening of the
scenes developed during the course of the week's workshop. You will be
free to invite your friends and colleagues.

Each participant will be required to write one scene, direct one scene,
and act in, most likely, two scenes. This approach is based on my
conviction that drama has an irreducible integrity - drama cannot be
broken down into more elemental components - it cannot be approached
from only one angle or discipline. For example, the Beatles or Bob Dylan
created great music - they weren't just instrumentalists or singers or
composers or singers - they did all of it. Drama is, in my opinion
similar. It is not an accident that many of our best writers were
actors: Shakespeare, Pinter, Mamet, Shepard. Or directors: Chaplin,
Welles, Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood among others.. And even though in
the marketplace one is often pigeon-holed into one 'job', experiencing
the various aspects of drama directly provides invaluable insight and
skills.

Particularly attention will paid to what are traditionally considered
the province of the director:
a) the audition - finding the actor - getting the part
b) developing and handling text,
c) blocking a scene,
d) the 'job' of the actor, writer, and director,
e) how a crew functions in a production
And these issues will be dealt with from every side of the 'fence'.

It is my experience that drama can only exist in the human being: in the
actor. So that is where we will start and that is where the process will
be completed - in the final performance of the scenes.

Every participant will be required to write a five page scene (five
minutes long) in preparation for the first session. These are the scenes
we will perform.


HOW THE WORKSHOP WILL OPERATE

1) The workshop will have four supervised sessions:
a) Sunday: 7pm to 11:30 / midnight
b) Tuesday: 7pm to 11:30 / midnight
c) Thursday: 7pm to 11:30 / midnight
d) the following Sunday there will be a runthrough at 6:30pm followed by
a performance of the work at 8pm.

2) Rehearsal sessions will be available by appointment during the course
of the week. These rehearsals are not supervised by me but, I believe,
they will be invaluable in the process. A good number of hours should be
available at various spaces in the theater and will be scheduled on a
first come/first serve basis.

3) The workshop is open to all actors, writers, and directors. After you
submit an application, you will be contacted for a phone interview.
Finalists will meet with me one-on-one. You will be selected based on
their previous experience and how you would 'mix' with the other
artists. But primarily your selection will be based on my interest in
your work and my sense that the workshop can make a real difference in
your work.

Space is limited - the workshop will have a maximum of 12 artists - a
minimum of 10.

By the end of the 1st Sunday night, the scenes will be cast. We will
break up into 10 or 12 working groups containing 1 writer, 1 director,
and 2 or 3 actors. (NOTE: It may be possible that a participant direct
or act in the scene he/she wrote but that would depend on some
logistical issues and cannot be guaranteed.)

4) Every artist will submit, one week before the workshop, a 5 page
scene. These scenes will be based on a specific set of requirements both
artistic and practical that will keep the scenes in the same general
'arena', convenient for our performance and study. I will give notes on
all scenes and some rewriting will probably be necessary previous to our
first session as well as during the production week.

5) The price of the workshop is $400 due upon acceptance. Once you are
accepted, a group of essays will be emailed to you for your to read.
These essays will provide some basis for the work and the ideas we will
be exploring during the week. Some of these essays are available for
your consideration on my website now. http://www.tomnoonan.com

I will be presenting the first workshop in mid-April (Sunday the 17th
thru Sunday the 24th). The 2nd and 3rd are scheduled for late June and
early August.

NOTE: In the future I will be holding specific workshops for artists who
wish to work on their skills as writer/directors, and/or
writer/director/actors.