acting 101 for adults- Bay Area
December 17, 2018 2:12 PM   Subscribe

Looking for recommendations on exploring the theater itch, for zero-experience adults. I'm in the Bay Area and would love any Bay Area-specific program recommendations, though please provide any general advice you think is useful for people elsewhere. Also interested in voice acting. Details below the fold.

I'm taking the winter to explore a bunch of totally-new-to-me activities. One thing I'm planning is to take an improv class, something like BATS Foundation 1 or it's equivalent at another school.

I'm also interested in reviving a very long-dormant interest in drama and theater, both for it's own sake, and as part of making my other performance/art better. I am also vaguely interested in exploring voice acting because I'm already a singer who works very regularly on my voice.

What classes should I take, what books should I read, and what stuff on YouTube might be interesting?

Why I'm interested in playing around with acting training at this late stage:
I grew up immersed in ballet and theater due to a parent in the industry, have spent a lot of time backstage and at rehearsals, and as a kid, messed around with playwriting. I did a bunch of theater in junior high and high school, though mostly as a producer/assistant director rather than actor- we spun off a decent all-ages community theater project from my unusually motivated junior high theater class. I believe it was actually fairly rigorous for a childhood experience in theater. As an adult my performance opportunities have mostly been as a singer or musician and I greatly enjoy being on stage and doing the work involved. I am part of an events community in the Bay Area that does a bunch of improv-flavored and clowning-flavored interactive art. I create a lot of art projects for these events. I also read a lot of audiobooks and pay a lot of attention to how the narrators' craft affects my experience.

I'm interested in recommendations for a very preliminary exploration of acting training- I think I have lots of options for improv. I'm interested in drama itself, with maybe an eye to someday finding some community theater type outlet for my now-dormant interests in acting. I'm also interested in voice acting-type resources.

It'd be great if some of this was classes and some of this was recommendations on books and videos relevant to acting and voice acting craft.
posted by twoplussix to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I took Acting 1 at A.C.T.'s studio and got a lot of value out of it. Here's their site.

I also went through BATS whole program (and more) and definitely recommend it, especially since you're looking to get into acting acting. Their teaching is very "actorly" relative to a lot of improv, which is usually more narrowly targeted at making you funnier. If you want a more standard improv training I recommend checking out Endgames or Leela. They both have drop-in classes that will give you a sense of their vibe.
posted by wemayfreeze at 3:50 PM on December 17, 2018


Response by poster: ooh, thank you for these suggestions on improv or on the differences in the schools' approach!!!! That's very helpful as I try to decide which place to go to.
posted by twoplussix at 4:02 PM on December 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


Classes and plays at community colleges are great.
posted by Mr. Papagiorgio at 8:17 PM on December 17, 2018


Response by poster: I could probably take some classes through either Laney College's Theater Arts stuff (well, maybe not this semester, looks like one of the basic classes is full currently) or the equivalent at CCSF. Does anyone still reading this have experience with either campus for their theater program?
posted by twoplussix at 8:50 AM on December 18, 2018


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