By Katherine Hong
Student actors donned red, bulbous noses and rainbow-colored wigs as they showcased the art of clowning, which was just one of the many theatrical disciplines they learned this summer.
Performing Arts teacher Christopher Moore and 32 professional teachers, directors and artists worked with 30 students in the Summer Intensive Acting Workshop held at the upper school campus this summer.
The SIAW, which is offered every other summer, runs for three weeks, eight hours a day.
“The SIAW is a training program offering theater students many opportunities to further develop their craft,” Moore said. “It would be difficult to find many of the workshops we offer throughout our three-week SIAW in a college theater program.”
This summer, the workshop took field trips to see two local shows and had two showcase performances, the first of which was a scene study showcase. Students were assigned 10-minute scenes or plays and worked with professional directors before performing before an audience of 170 family members and friends.
The last showcase the students held highlighted the different aspects and disciplines of theater they learned over the previous three weeks.
“I loved our last showcase, where we combined all of the workshops that weâd been taking and gave the audience a taste of what SIAW was like,” Sarah Brandon â09 said. “The whole show had so much energy, and there was a really fun sense of camaraderie when the whole ensemble got to put on a show together.”
Moore believes the workshop was successful as well.
“I was extremely proud of all the students who were involved and how hard they worked in all the workshops. They bonded as an ensemble,” he said.
Incoming sophomores and current upper school students are eligible to apply for the SIAW, but it is not a prerequisite for any theatrical productions.
