Dallas Theater Center to Host 2013 Skokos Learning Lab Showcase, 4/27

Dallas Theater Center hosts the fourth annual Skokos Learning Lab Showcase, the culmination of the Ted and Shannon Skokos Learning Lab collaboration between DTC and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (BTW), on Saturday, April 27 in the Studio Theatre at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. The performance is free and open to the general public. No tickets are required.

DTC and BTW formed the collaborative partnership when DTC moved into the Wyly Theatre in 2009 and the students participating in this year's showcase were freshman when the program began. Eighteen seniors from the theater cluster at BTW will perform alongside nine professional adult actors, all members of DTC's Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company. The one-hour performance features the student and professional actors performing scenes from contemporary and classical plays. The showcase is the final project for the year-long Advanced Acting Class at the high school; a college level master acting class team-taught by BTW teacher Charlton Gavitt, DTC resident actor and master teacher Christie Vela and additional members of The Acting Company.

"From access to DTC rehearsals to one-on-one training with DTC's company members, this program is an example of DTC's commitment to education, community collaboration and making theater accessible to a younger generation," said Vela, "This year's class has had the opportunity to see the benefits of participating in the Skokos Learning Lab since its inception in 2009. It is a gift to work with these students and their energy, curiosity and fearlessness reminds me every day why I chose this profession."

The Skokos Learning Lab is comprised of a year-long Advanced Acting class for seniors, internships for non-acting theater students, and a variety of observation and theater-going experiences. Internships are offered to seniors in the areas of stage management, costumes, stage operations and directing. Over the course of a semester, students are matched with professional mentors at DTC who provide them with hands-on experience through working on rehearsals and set construction, and assisting in playwriting, directing, and stage operations. The theater-going component provides free tickets and workshops for all senior theater students at BTW to attend performances of each DTC production during the school year.

Students participating in the 2013 Skokos Learning Lab Showcase are Scynetria Bartee, Daryl Barth, Maddrey Blackwood, Courtney Christine, Allie Donnelly, Mary Erhlicher, Alyssa Franks, Alex Hoover, Gracyn Lewins, Emily Mikolitch, Naomi Moehlis, Tanner Murray Presley Oldham, Maddie Purches, Luke Roberts, Jackie Saplicki, Karina Schmidt and Kylie Zeko. Students will work with actors Hassan El-Amin, Michael Connolly, Chamblee Ferguson, Tiffany Hobbs, Liz Mikel, Lee Trull, Sally Nystuen Vahle, Christie Vela and Steven Walters

Admission for the Skokos Learning Lab Showcase is free. The Skokos Learning Lab Showcase will take place on Saturday, April 27 at 5:00 p.m. in the Studio Theatre at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

The Ted and Shannon Skokos Learning Lab is a unique educational partnership between Dallas Theater Center and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual arts that began when DTC moved to the Dee and Charles Wyly Theater in 2009. By providing talented young theater students with unprecedented access to the artists and staff at Dallas Theater Center, the Skokos Learning Lab offers invaluable training by top professional theater artists while providing DTC with an opportunity to engage with fresh, young artists and see the world from their perspective. This year-long course for seniors in the theater cluster at BTW, focuses on advanced theater skills and introduces them to DTC's professional artists. Additional opportunities are provided for non-acting students to participate as interns at DTC in the areas of costumes, stage management, stage operations, and directing. All seniors in the theater department are provided with free tickets to attend DTC's full season of productions and participate in pre-show workshops and post-show discussions with the artists.

One of the leading regional theaters in the country, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 120,000 North Texas residents annually. Founded in 1959, DTC is now a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its Mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas and at its original home, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and Managing Director Heather M. Kitchen, DTC produces a seven-play subscription series of classics, musicals and new plays and an annual production of A Christmas Carol; extensive education programs, including Project Discovery, SummerStage and partnerships with Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts; and community outreach efforts including leading the DFW Foote Festival and recent collaborations with the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Public Library, Dallas Holocaust Museum, North Texas Food Bank, Dallas Opera, and Dallas Black Dance Theater. Throughout its history, DTC has produced many new works, including The Texas Trilogy by Preston Jones in 1978, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, adapted by Adrian Hall, in 1986, and recent premieres of Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson, The Trinity River Plays by ReGina Taylor, the revised It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, Give It Up! (now titled Lysistrata Jones and recently on Broadway) by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn, Sarah, Plain and Tall by Julia Jordan, Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin and The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson.

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