LIFELONG LEARNING SERIES Returns With Free Online Seminars

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts has announced the return of Lifelong Learning Series, a free, four-part, online seminar series sponsored by AARP Long Island. The series consists of monthly 60-minute seminars focusing on topics such as stage acting, playwriting, storytelling, and exercises in creative motivation. All seminars are recommended for adults ages 18 and over, and are free to attend! Advance registration is required. For additional information, contact Director of Education & Community Outreach, Allen O'Reilly, at allen@baystreet.org.

• On Thursday, May 20, from 7 to 8 p.m., New York-based multidisciplinary artist Reggie D. White will host Intro To Acting, a fun, interactive presentation for anyone whose bucket list includes "Take an Acting Class."
• On Thursday, June 17, from 7 to 8 p.m., playwright and Bay Street Theater's Literary Manager Hope Villanueva will host Writing for The Stage. For theatre lovers and anyone who has ever had a desire to write a play, this is the seminar for you. An educational and inspirational introduction for potential playwrights!
• On Thursday, July 15, from 7 to 8 p.m., Bay Street Theater's Associate Artistic Director Will Pomerantz-master storyteller, playwright, and director-will present Writing Your Life Story, a unique writing seminar where students will learn how to access their creative writing skills to write their own story in their own words.
• On Thursday, August 19, from 7 to 8 p.m., motivational speaker Jim Ryan will conduct an inspiring and fun seminar on how we can all lighten up and rejuvenate our creativity during these stressful times! Jim's presentation includes exercises and inspiration right from his award winning book, Simple Happiness: 52 Easy Ways to Lighten Up.

Reggie D. White is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist and educator who most recently wrote and directed the world premiere of the online theatrical production In Case You Hadn't Heard with Bay Street Theater. He also appeared in the Vineyard Theatre's virtual piece, Lessons in Survival, which he co-conceived. Before Broadway began its indefinite shutdown, he also appeared in the 11-time Tony-nominated two-part epic, The Inheritance. Other acting credits include NYTW, The Public Theater, 59E59, Arden Theatre, Berkeley Rep, and La Jolla Playhouse. As a director, his work has been featured at Bay Street Theater, The Public Theater, Atlantic Acting School, New York Winterfest, Bay Area Children's Theatre, Berkeley Playhouse, AlterTheatre Ensemble, and more. He is an alumnus of the Atlantic Acting School, where he now serves as School Artistic Director, a recipient of the TBA TITAN Award, the TCG Fox Fellowship, and is a company member of The Williams Project, a living wage theatre company. reggiedwhite.com.

Hope Villanueva is an AEA stage manager who holds a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Playwriting. Her plays have been seen at Honolulu Theatre for Youth, the Next Act! New Play Summit, The Capital Fringe Festival, The Baltimore Playwrights' Festival, The Black and Latino Playwrights' Conference, The Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival, The Discovery New Play Festival, and The Kitchen Dog New Play Festival. She was invited to be a participant in the HMBG Winter Playwright Retreat in 2017, and her play, The Veils, received its first full production in February 2018 in Washington, D.C. as a part of the Women's Voices Festival. The Head that Wears the Crown was produced by Ally Theatre Company in 2019. Across the River, about the friendship between an American woman and a novice monk who meet in Bangkok, was part of the INKubator On Air series, and is a part of the WTF Occupy the Space Festival this November. The QoL Mandate has been developed at NextStop Theatre Company and with The Quarantine Reading Society in NYC. She is also a member of the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive and is the founder of the D.C.-based playwrights' workshopping program, The Garden Script Development.

Will Pomerantz is a writer and director who has developed new plays and musicals with such theaters as American Repertory Theatre, 2nd Stage, The Guthrie, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, Hartford Stage, and the New York Theater Workshop. He became the first American director to be invited to direct for The National Theatre of Poland, and his production of Cinders by Janusz Glowacki was performed as part of their repertory for four years. His own scripts for the plays and musicals, This Side of Paradise, For The Last Time and About Love have been produced in New York and regionally.

Jim Ryan is the founder and president of Jim Ryan Talks, an organization dedicated to the cultivation and development of each individual's potential for living a life full of joy, fulfillment and success. Jim has the unique ability to take profound, life-changing concepts and turn them into easily understood solutions. He is author of the award-winning book, Simple Happiness: 52 Easy Ways to Lighten Up.

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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