Upcoming Workshops...
In association with Northern Sky Theater
The Ecstatic Actor Workshop
TUESDAY JULY 27, 9am -12pm
WEDNESDAY JULY 28, 9am - 12pm
Kress Pavilion
7845 Church St, Egg Harbor, WI
Pay what you can! (Suggested donation $15)
Door County, WI
The Ecstatic Actor Workshop is facilitated by award winning theatre artists AMY CHAFFEE and JEFF MILLS- The original co-founders of DOOR SHAKESPEARE and long time associates of NORTHERN SKY THEATER.
"To resound life: the emotive voice" AMY teaches performance classes all over the world. She is a professor at Tulane University were her class load includes story theatre, acting, audition technique, embodied voice, Extended Voice, vocal strengthening, voice for musicians, speech, text analysis and embodied acting practice and entry into "the industry." Her focus is always on finding the fun and the "hyper-practical" - she is also very good in a pillow fight.
"Voice is the muscle of the soul." - Alfred Wolfsohn As a voice teacher, she is a Certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework which is a somatic methodology with roots in bioenergetics, trauma therapy and shiatsu. Over the past 8 years, she has spent hundreds of hours at the Roy Hart Theatre (CAIRH) expanding her vocal, physical and spiritual range. For a decade, she has been an consistent participant, lead presenter and producer at International conferences: the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), the Association of Theatre in Higher Eduacaion (ATHE) and The Fitzmaurice Institute's Freedom and Focus Encuentros. Since 2007, Amy has been a Dialect Coach in film, tv, theatre and at universities. Partial clientele list includes: Oscar/Emmy winner Ellen Burstyn, Oscar/Olivier winner Colin Firth, Oscar winner Melissa Leo, Oscar Winner/ Tony Nominee and 2-time Emmy winner Kathy Bates and Oscar and Tony Nominee Patricia Clarkson,. Other on-camera clients include: Charlie Hunnam, Bruce Willis, Amber Tamblyn, Orlando Bloom, Kevin McKidd, David Fynn, Stephanie Sigman and Nicky Whelan. In 2013, she worked with musical artist Andre 3000 creating the vocal character for his portrayal of Jimi Hendrix in the Biopic written by Academy Award Winning Screenwriter, John Ridley, in his directing debut, "All is By My Side." Current projects are super secret (stupid NDA's) but will be seen soon on Netflix and Amazon!
As a performer, many may recognize Amy's work at Northern Sky Theatre (even back when it was known as American Folklore Theatre) as the original Rosemary Roger's in the premiere production of "Lumberjacks in Love," (1996) as well as "Goodnight, Irene," (1994) "Our Night in Frog Station," (1995) "The Passage" (1994), "Bob Dumkee's Farm," (2001) and "Home For the Holidays," (2015). Amy's more recent performances in "Why Women Kill" just dropped in July and can be currently viewed on Peacock where she plays a gossipy neighbor (clearly a less kind cousin of Dottie Dumkee).
JEFF is the Head of BFA Acting at The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago. He is an award winning actor, director, fight director, playwright and musician. He holds an MFA from the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver, CO. He is best known for his work with the award winning BOXTALES Theatre Company in Santa Barbara. As a core member of BOXTALES, Jeff co-created ten original works in as many years including his direction of OM: An Indian Tale of Good and Evil (The Ramayana) and his portrayal of Odysseus in The Odyssey. Jeff and BOXALES have toured their innovative theater for young audiences throughout the U.S. and in Mexico. Nationally and internationally, Jeff has performed with the Denver Center Theater Company, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Northern Sky Theater, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Door Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Shakespeare Festival, Wooden O Theater, the International City Theater, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, PCPA Theaterfest, Shakespeare Santa Barbara, Pominencer Census (Munich,) the Estudia Busqueda de Pantomima Teatro (Guanajuato, MX) and Theater Mitu/Visthar Center (Bangalore, India.) In 2014/2015 Jeff played the title role in Lit Moon's Hamlet at the National Theater of China in Beijing and the Bitola International Shakespeare Festival in Bitola, Macedonia and the BTL Festival in Bialystok, Poland. In 2004 Jeff appeared on screen as Tristan in Bill Viola's and Peter Sellars' production of the opera Tristan and Isolde which was performed at the Opera National in Paris, the Disney Hall in Los Angeles the Lincoln Center in New York. Jeff is currently the Artistic Director of Proboscis Theatre Company in Chicago where he co-creates original works of mask, puppet and physical theater exploring Science, Shakespeare, Vaudeville, Social Justice and all around theatrical mayhem.
The Ecstatic Actor Experience
HOW will performing artists step into this post-pandemic moment with muscles to voice and move that they have not used in months?
WILL we go back to old, familiar routines and obsolete modalities? Or will we dance with what time, rest and this unforseen hiatus has given us play our way toward connection and empowerment?
ARTISTS must be at the forefront, shapeshifting, surprising and guiding spectators toward truth. With live venues closed for more than a year, audiences are hungrier than ever for potent performances and connection. They long to witness performers in ACTION; and to mirror, echo and respond to what they see and hear. Our audiences crave ecstatic transformation and live performers must be physically and vocally primed to provide it!
In the ECSTATIC ACTOR WORKSHOP we will...
RE-DISCOVER Trust
Trust is a muscle. Muscles need practice to build. Only after we develop our own trustworthiness can we begin to trust in a group. Through practice we can find our center and strengthen our sense of universal belonging. This personal strength will sustain us in any room. We don’t have to depend on someone else to create a “safe space” if we can create a brave space for ourselves. We will explore the fundamentals of flying together and practice the basic principles of Acro-Yoga.
RE-INHABIT our BODIES
Months of quarantine have left many of us feeling disconnected to our bodies. Embodied voice and movement practice will enliven all of your energy centers.. In the Ecstatic Actor Workshop we will play with sonic and physical gesture, embody our most brilliant ideas and bring our wildest dreams to life!
RE-EMERGE into action.
To act is to do. Stories cannot be told without action. Music is not made by thinking about notes on a page. Now is the time to screw our courage to the sticking place, step down center and act with certainty, simplicity and beauty.
RE-ORIENT in Collaboration:
Now is the time to get back in a room and create together! Social anxiety is real and quarantine has made it more intense than ever. It's time to re-emerge from the cocoon, mindfully, healthily and imaginatively. Now we must lean into and through that discomfort toward artistic courage! The answer is play play play play play play play play together!