Homer Council on the Arts Broadway Bootcamp is taking place Aug. 6-10 at the Homer Mariner Theatre. Broadway Bootcamp is a five-day theater intensive workshop for youth in grades eight to 12 culminating in a final performance on Aug. 10 at 7 p.m.
In conjunction with this, HCOA will also be providing two adult workshops with instructors from the camp.
On Aug. 7, reporter and actor Lonnie Quinn from New York City will instruct a course on communication using the Meisner Technique. Quinn was a student of acting instructor Sanford Meisner.
According to Jim Anderson, director and producer for Broadway Bootcamp, “Meisner was revolutionary in his approach to acting technique and theory.”
He described the approach as getting actors “out of their heads” and engaging in better listening and communication skills that can be useful in daily conversation as well as in script dialogue. The workshop is designed to improve communication skills for professionals.
On Aug. 8, Dr. Linda Brennan, who is on staff with the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on the Los Angeles campus, will offer a second course.
Anderson described Brennan as one of the top recruiters for the academy and called the academy “the oldest professional acting Conservatory in the English-speaking world.” Brennan is also a top dialects coach for Hollywood movie sets, he said.
Her workshop will be based on “speech and dialects.” The workshop is “really going to have a lot of fun with different international dialects, U.S. regional dialects and also Standard American English,” Anderson said.
Students in this workshop will dabble in course material with dialects from all over the world. He mentioned specifically Indian, Scottish, high British, French and German dialects.
Brennan’s course will provide take-home material related to the structural process of studying dialects, including phonetics and diphthongs, Anderson said.
These courses are designed for adults but if high school students are interested they can contact Homer Council on the Arts to see if there is space available, Anderson said. More information and course descriptions are available on the HCOA website at homerart.org/event/broadway-bootcamp-2024.
Anderson said another addition to the youth camp is a question-and-answer session that will be held at the Mariner Theatre on Aug. 9 at 5:30 p.m. for students and parents about preparing for education in an arts curriculum or an arts-focused program at a university or conservatory. Students do not need to be registered for the camp to attend
Anderson noted that registration for the youth component of Broadway Bootcamp is available on the HCOA website. He’s had several students contact him from other communities on the peninsula and is helping coordinate host family housing for students coming from outside of Homer.
Anderson said that if an adult is interested in participating in the youth camp, that is a possibility, too. Sign-up information can be found on the HCOA website.
