Studies: William Shakespeare & Tennessee Williams June 20th - 25th The Youth Theatre Workshop is a one-week course training young people in the performing arts. Dr. Xan S. Johnson, a theatre professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and graduate of Portage High School, founded and directs the workshop. Dr. Johnson is joined by theatre professionals from around the country, as well as talented local professionals, who lead the youth in a wide variety of theatrical practices and programs. Workshop Courses: Acting, movement, voice, music theatre, and much more. Classes are divided into elementary (minimum of 10 years old), middle school and high school with limited space available in each class. Daily Schedule: Rotating classes, Mon., June 20st - Fri., June 25th, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. Rehearsal day, Sat., June 25th (times TBA). Special Event: Student who attend the Workshop are invited to join the PCA in marching in the Portage 4th of July Parade. Performance: Sat., June 25th at 6:30 p.m. students share performances and class work with parents and friends in the Zona Gale Theatre. This is free and open to the public. Uniform: Youth Theatre Workshop T-shirts. Workshop Fee: $120.00 per student. (Fee includes price of book for the middle and high school and a T-shirt for all. Refunds will not be made if cancellation occurs after June 7th.) Parents with financial concerns should contact the PCA. (Note: an earlier version of this page incorrectly listed the fee as $110) Registration Deadline: Now through June 20th (or until the workshop is filled.) For students entering 5th grade, please call before registering. For more information please contact the Portage Center for the Arts 301 East Cook Street | PO Box 866 | Portage, WI 53901 PortageCenterfortheArts@Frontier.Net www.PortageCenterfortheArts.com 608.742.5655
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	Faculty: Dr. Xan S. Johnson, Ph.D. Artistic Director of Zona Gale Young People's Theatre: Dr. Johnson has been a professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Utah since 1982. Dr. Johnson toured his internationally recognized youth program, Theater School for Youth, to dozens of major cities around the USA upon invitation to showcase at RMTA regional and AATE national theatre conferences. Out of the more than 100 stage productions directed by Dr. Johnson, nearly one-third have been original works. Dr. Johnson is also a published playwright, and freelances as a scriptwriter, director, and drama specialist. Dr. Johnson, who also has a background in Drama Therapy and Psychology, headed the University of Utah Child Abuse Prevention Program (U-CAPP) "Trust" Touring Company for 12 years, recognized by the Governor of Utah as one of the outstanding Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Programs in Utah ever. Since his creation of the program in 1991, Dr. Johnson continues to serve as Founder and Artistic Director of the Zona Gale Young People’s Theatre Program. In 1990, Dr. Johnson received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, where he completed his undergraduate B.A. in Theatre, Psychology, & Education. He followed this with an M.A. in Modern Theatre and Stage Directing from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Then, he completed an interdepartment Ph.D. in the School of Speech, combining Theatre, Interpretation, and Communication with a study and research focus in Child Drama and Child Psychology from Northwestern University.       Valérie Lanciaux France: Valérie Lanciaux discovered the contemporary dance world in the 90’s. From 2001, she co-directed the “Lignes de Corps” festival, international festival for contemporary dance and performance. She took part in some research workshops with different choreographers, such as Régine Chopinot, Isabelle Schad, Ludger Lamers, Lisa Nelson...  At the same time, from 2003, getting more and more interested and involved in the dance world she started filming and making video editions ; especially documentaries about the work of choreographers, from interviews and rehearsal images (with Myriam Gourfink, Elena Cordoba, Daria Faïn, DD Dorvillier, Jan Ritsema, Monica Valenciano, Isabelle Schad…). She followed the work of artists such as Vera Mantero, Xavier Le Roy... In 2009 she decided to work with the dance world in a different way, making production and tour management.  She started with Norwegian artist of Iranian roots Hooman Sharifi in July 2009. Her aim is, above all, to accompany the artists, support their projects, be an adviser, a “look” and make them know thanks to the network she developed during the last years, especially between Germany, France and Spain. Very early Valérie Lanciaux became fond of singing and music… she discovered these two arts through musicals particularly in which she performed at school. She was trained as an actress by the Jeune Théâtre International (France) and worked with the company between 1995 and 2008 on different creations (Eschylus, Euripide, Baudelaire, Trakl, Kleist…). She also worked with children and teenagers aged from 5 to 18 for 11 years (working on voice, movement and poetry). She took part in the elaboration and organization of the event called “International Meeting of Children’s Theatre” between 2002 and 2006.  She has also been assisting video-artist Frédérique Ribis (Paris) for the last three years on a project dedicated to women in the business world particularly. Her next video projects are about women (immigrated in Madrid) and contemporary choreographers, based in France or abroad.  Since 2008, she has been developing her own projects of theatre/performance and video.   She also lead voice and singing workshops with the students of the HÜZ in Berlin (Bachelor of Arts) in 2008 and 2009.       Scott Fults Houston, TX: Mr. Fults has a long history of professional acting experience spanning theatre and film. Most recently, he has appeared in Houston Shakespeare Festival productions of The Tempest, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Comedy of Errors, and Love’s Labor’s Lost to name a few. As a company member at the Alley Theatre, his assignments included roles in Spring Awakening, Sweet Bird of Youth, Balm in Gilead among others. In Houston, he has also appeared in A Christmas Memory with Bettye Fitzpatrick at Christ Church Cathedral, Tango at Stages, The Foreigner at Unity Theatre, and Brighton Beach Memoirs at Actor’s Theatre of Houston. Regionally, his credits include Love’s Labor’s Lost at the Old Globe in San Diego for director Craig Noel, and the American premiere of Breaking the Silence at the Pasadena Playhouse. In 2002, Scotty was nominated as Best Actor in the Dublin Theatre Festival for his performance in the European Premiere of the one man show, Fully Committed. His television credits include a series regular on the Brit-com She Wolf of London, recurring regular roles on Beverly Hills, 90210, Evening Shade and Tour of Duty, and Guest Star appearances on Quantum Leap, Saved by the Bell, 21 Jump Street, Tales From the Crypt, and Highway to Heaven. Though not a Wisconsin native, Scott is a staunch Packer-Backer (he's a founding member of the Cheddarhead Pack of Houston) and has a deep affinity for fried cheese curds.       Brianna Stapleton Welch Phoenix, AZ: Brianna Stapleton Welch is a candidate for the MFA in Theatre for Youth at Arizona State University. As a teaching artist in the Phoenix area, Brianna focuses on community-embedded projects and arts integration in the classroom. Brianna works for Childsplay children's theatre company as a corps teaching artist on several professional development partnerships with local schools and has served as an ArtsBridge America scholar. She has also worked as a teaching artist for Phoenix Theatre,The Herberger Institute Community School, and Wisconsin 4-H Arts and Communication Projects. Her adaptation of The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish premiered for young audiences in Appleton, Wisconsin in 2008. Brianna also teaches drama for middle school students at St. John Bosco Catholic School in Phoenix. Brianna earned her BA in Theatre from Lawrence University and studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland.       Patrick Strain Resident Designer for Zona Gale Young People's Theatre: Mr. Strain is a designer, director, playwright who has been the Zona Gale Young People's Theatre resident designer since 2003. He has designed professionally in various theatres in the Midwest and East Coast. After getting his BA in Theatre and English from Luther College in Decorah, IA, he taught High School English and theatre for a couple years in Iowa. After earning his MFA in Theatre Design at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, he joined his wife in Germany for a three year tour of duty. There he worked with the US Army's Roadside Theatre in Heidelberg, Germany, where he worked on several shows with Scott Fults. In addition to design work, Patrick has directed both for the ZGYPT and Portage High School. He also is playwright, having recently adapted A Christmas Carol for the ZGYPT and an original script, Our Tomorrow, which premiered at the PCA.

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A couple pics from the 2010 Workshop:

 

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