Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts has announced Master Class with Ben Vereen, a one-day online acting class led by Tony Award-winner Ben Vereen, on Monday, November 16, from 7 to 9 p.m. via Zoom. This is an exclusive opportunity to work with a Tony Award-winning master, and is available to just 12 students, whom Ben will guide through the craft of character acting and interpretation. Registration is open to adults ages 18 and up for only $99. Prior experience in the performing arts is required. Participants should prepare a monologue of no longer than 90 seconds, or 16 bars of song with an accompaniment track. For more information, contact Bay Street's Director of Education & Community Outreach, Allen O'Reilly, at allen@baystreet.org.
"Authenticity" is the key word to describe
Ben Vereen's master class: to be, as opposed to becoming the character. Ben not only brings his amazing talent as an actor and entertainer, but his knowledge of taking the content and bringing it into another dimension of interpretation. Within a two-hour time frame, he will work with students on either a portion of a song or a monologue of their choice, breaking down the form and language, before circling back with an individual sense of style and self-confidence. Following each person's performance, Ben will lead a question-and-answer session that involves the other students. Please note: what happens in the room, stays in the room-to protect each student and to help all who participate to grow into the talented artists they are meant to be.
Few entertainers today are as accomplished as
Ben Vereen. He won a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award in the 1972 Broadway debut of Pippin, has starred in such musicals as Jesus Christ Superstar, Fosse, Hair, Jelly's Last Jam, Chicago, Wicked, and I'm Not Rappaport, to name a few. He is best known for films Sweet Charity and All That Jazz, and the role of Chicken George in Roots. He appeared in the CBS television series Bull and Magnum PI; multiple episodes on FOX's Star; was a series regular on Sneaky Pete for Amazon alongside
Bryan Cranston; appeared in the Rocky Horror Picture Show; co-starred with
Richard Gere in Time Out Of Mind; and appeared alongside
Chris Rock in Top Five. He is now working on his new Broadway musical, Reflections, to be directed by
Josh Bergasse and with music by
Stephen Schwartz, and the television pilot Midas, where everything he touches does turn to gold. He continues to give motivational speeches around the country.
Ben Vereen is a member of Americans for the Arts. He has spoken before Congress defending the National Endowment for the Arts against the proposed budget cuts, and has attended the Democratic National Convention, where he discussed the arts and education, and sang What The World Needs Now. In June 2020, he produced a virtual fundraising event, Virtual Vereen and Friends, to benefit Care For the Homeless, a nonprofit that provides free medical and mental health care, shelters, and low income housing for the homeless. He is the ambassador to Broadway in the Hood, which provides arts and education for inner-city kids.
Bay Street Theater is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center, which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. It serves as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists.
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