Pigeonholed Offers Children's After School Acting Classes Spring Session

Pigeonholed, a nonprofit New York City-based theater company, announces the Spring 2018 Children's Class Schedule, with classes in improvisation and story building, and scene study and acting technique. Classes will be held at Chaos Studios at 247 Water Street, Suite 202 in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

Pigeonholed's belief is that children learn and grow from doing. These classes were created from Pigeonholed founders, Justin Cimino and Sasha Lazare's own professional experience as actors as well as their extensive experience as educators. They believe that combination is essential in creating an environment where students are challenged to mature as independent thinkers and to trust their individual creative instincts. Equally critical to their curriculum, over the course of the program students will also participate in a highly diverse set of group activities, which will be aimed at fostering a spirit of teamwork amongst all the participants. By the end of the program students can be both more self-assured and comfortable in front of a crowd, more intuitive and empathetic as artists, and will better understand how to channel their own creative impulses into productive work that the world needs to see. For more information visit https://www.pigeonholedtheater.org/classes-for-kids.

Creating Your Own Character

Thursdays from 4-5pm

This age range encompasses children at their most spectacularly imaginative. In this class, we encourage the students to use that imagination to create a world and character(s) all of their own. They will learn theatre games, improvisation, listening and communication skills, as well as how to devise an original play. Throughout the session, they will develop and build upon a fully formed character and story, which will culminate in an invited rehearsal where they will present their original, short play.

Acting Technique and Scene Study

Thursdays from 5-6pm

This class focuses both on improvisation and scene study with a focus on various acting techniques. At this age, students are able to develop a physical and emotional connection to characters and scenarios presented to them. The first half of the session will focus on theatre games, improvisation, clowning, and devising their own work, with the second half focusing on close scene study. By the end of the session the students will have created and written their own work as well as memorized and staged scenes from classic plays assigned by the instructors. Performance techniques taught will include Meisner, movement, and voice/speech, which will all be incorporated into their final presentation. Parents will be welcome to attend an invited rehearsal on the last day of classes.

Spring session starts Thursday, April 12 and runs until June 14. Registration ends April 11.

Under their new education wing, they will also be offering adult Clowning classes on Mondays from 10am-1pm, beginning April 9.

To register, or for more information, visit https://www.pigeonholedtheater.org/classes-for-kids.

Pigeonholed, founded in December 2016, creates a space for actors, both young and old, to break away from being labeled, typecast, and stuck. They aim to find their own unique ways to use theater to engage with the world around them. They tell immediate, socially relevant stories that spark vital conversation, understanding and empathy. Their first season included Detroitby Lisa D'Amour at the IATI Theater, a staged reading of the stage adaptation of The Princess Bride at Raven's Head Public House, and Not Clown at the Robert Moss Theater.

For more information, visit www.pigeonholedtheater.org.

Sasha Lazare holds a BFA in Drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a minor in Applied Theatre. As both a working actor and teaching artist, she has had a passion for teaching children's theatre for over 10 years. Her work at Stage/Play Brooklyn School of Acting over the last 3 ½ years has included classes in improvisation, scene study, and devising, as well as private lessons and audition coaching. She will be joining the staff of Interlochen Center for the Arts in summer 2018 as Assistant Director of the Intermediate Acting Company and is a volunteer with Zara Aina, a nonprofit that brings theater and clowning to at-risk youth. She is so excited to be leading the Pigeonholed Junior program in its first year!

Justin Cimino received his BFA in Drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He is an actor and teacher in NYC. He has been teaching theater to children for over 10 years. He is currently the Education Director and Operations Manager for Zara Aina, a nonprofit organization that brings clowning and theater work to at-risk youth in Madagascar and the United States. He was hired by UNICEF to use Zara Aina's clown-based work to mobilize communities in Madagascar to fight polio. He has directed and taught clowning and the devised "moment work" of the Tectonic Theater Project at NYU Tisch, the Studio/NY, Theater 68, Shakespeare in the Square, and the Shakespeare Society.

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