After-School Classes in Acting Unveiled as part of Asheville's Professional Children's Theatre's 5th Milestone Season

AFTER SCHOOL ACTING CLASSES - for Grades 1-3 & 4-6

OFFERED BY ASHEVILLE'S PROFESSIONAL CHILDREN'S THEATRE

6 Thursdays February 9 - March 16

Asheville Creative Arts (ACA), Asheville's professional children's theatre has unveiled new educational initiatives, and will offer 2 After-School Theatre Classes led by Instructor Katie Jones.

6 Thursday Evenings from Feb 9- March 16, 2017.

DREAM A PLAY will be held from 4:30-6:00 and is for Students grades 1-3. In this class students will use their imaginations to create original characters, then create a world in which these characters live and meet each other. A celebration of the collective human imagination, this class will help young people explore the universe through stories.

CREATING CHARACTERS will be held from 6:30 - 8:00 for Students grades 4-6. In this class students will learn the basics of embodying a character in a play and will focus on analyzing text, finding a character's movement and speech, and creating the character's history. Taking into account the idea that a playwright's script is set, a director's vision is clear and firm, still within those parameters an actor has limitless possibilities for creating a character that is interesting, beautiful and uniquely their own.

The course's instructor, Katie Jones, is a director, performer and passionate theatre educator. Since 2004, she has been teaching students of all ages, and has served as Education Coordinator at major regional theatres, such as Asolo Rep, Northlight Theatre, and American Theater Company, has served as an artist-in-residence at Chicago Public Schools, and as a playwriting mentor for Steppenwolf's Crosstown exchange program. She also worked for three years at the Civic Leadership Foundation, where she taught Producing and Project Management for high school students.

Both courses culminate in a sharing for friends and family. Tuition for 6 weeks is $200 per student- scholarships available. For registration and scholarship inquiries please contact Abby Felder at 914/830-3000 or abby@ashevillecreativearts.org.

These educational offerings are part of ACA's 5th milestone season, in which the company rolled out a new brand and brand new initiatives that will focus on the art and act of storytelling, and empowering young people to see the value in their own stories and points of view, while modeling the tools for expression. In addition to after-school acting classes, the season will include innovative mainstage productions, THE LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD SHOW (April 6-9) and CLICK, CLACK, MOO: COWS THAT TYPE (July 21-30), plus the continuation of its Incubator Series with BUGS (May 6), a new musical by Jonesalee. Additional details available at ACA's website.

"5-years is an exciting milestone to have reached, and we look forward to honing our mission and elevating our work through a renewed commitment to the talented artists and discerning audiences that make Asheville so unique," says Abby Felder. She continues "in the coming years, in addition to adding these fabulous new educational opportunities, we will challenge ourselves artistically by exploring modern theatrical aesthetics during adaptations of favorite stories appearing on the Mainstage, with a fresh take on the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood, which delves into fears around cyberbullying and trusting your kids, and a timely and relevant piece about peaceful protest and the power of lifting your voice illustrated with Farmer Brown's disgruntled animals. We will also nurture new musicals that alternately explore adolescence refracted through the lens of the secret life of bugs, and a puppet driven drama about children who worked in the North Carolina textile industry at the turn of the century as part of our Incubator Series."

Asheville Creative Arts is Asheville's critically acclaimed, award winning theatre devoted to creating works for children of all ages since 2013. Led by Abby Felder with Gina Stewart and Brenda Gambill of Jonesalee, and with a new Resident Company of local talent helmed by Katie Jones and Alex Smith, ACA has the following mission: To produce, present and create professional and innovative theatre for the very young to the young at heart, and embrace diverse cultures with a main stage season of productions of musical, literary adaptations, and puppet based work that push the boundaries of children's theatre; to train the next generation of artists; and to ensure that all families in Western NC and beyond have access to theatre arts through outreach such as touring, and "in-reach" such as specially discounted performances for school and community groups. In honor of contributions to the cultural landscape, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer declared July 18, 2014 "Asheville Creative Arts Day;" and ACA's production of HOW I BECAME A PIRATE was the 2016 recipient of a Grassroots Partnership Award- a grant from the NC Arts Council, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, distributed by the Asheville Area Arts Council.

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