- Celebration set for May 11, 2015: Cocktails, Awards, and an Address by Founder Joy Zinoman
- Final Scenes for the Fall 2014 Semester showcase scope and depth of training; open to the public
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40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
All are welcome to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory, to be held May 11, 2015. Founded in 1975, the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory continues its role as a leading training institution of theatrical talent in Washington DC. During its four decades, the Conservatory has continued to serve Washington and the Washington theatre community, training more than 10,000 actors and directors in its three-year core curriculum and offering classes to many others.
Conservatory alums include many noted performers in the DC area and around the country. In the past four seasons alone, the following former and current students have performed at Studio Theatre: Sarah Marshall, Jennifer Mendenhal, Holly Twyford, Nancy Robinette, Elizabeth Pierotti, Kimberly Schraf, Shravan Amin, Maya Brettell, Vince Brown, Youngsun Cho, Logan DalBello, Ashley Faye Dillard, Kayla Dixon, Davis Hasty, Aaren Keith, Emily Kester, Victor Maldonado, Sam O’Brien, JB Tadena, Aaron Tone, and Jason McIntosh. In that same time, Studio has featured the work of directing students Tom Story, Holly Twyford, Elena Day, Chris Gallu, Jennifer Harris, and Hunter Styles. Other area directing alums include Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith, Source Theatre Founding Artistic Director Bart Whiteman, GALA Hispanic Theatre Associate Producing Director Abel Lopez, former Studio Theatre Managing Director and Artistic Director 2ndStage Keith Alan Baker and Studio’s Producing Director Serge Seiden.
A public celebration of the Conservatory is set for Monday, May 11, 2015. The evening will start with an open house and cocktail party for alumni and current students. A program will follow, honoring its faculty of longest tenure--Nancy Paris, who has taught acting at the Conservatory for 39 years; Colette Yglesias Silver, who teaches movement, and Meade Andrews, who teaches Alexander Technique and improvisation, both of whom have taught for 25 years; George Fulginiti-Shakar, who has taught musical theater for 21 years; Serge Seiden, an acting teacher at the Conservatory for the past 19 years; and Denise Diggs, who has taught voice for 14 years. They will be introduced by alumni actors and directors.
Following these awards, Joy Zinoman, founder of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory as well as Studio Theatre, will give an address titled “A Unified Field Theory of Acting,” drawing on her forty years as a teacher and director to address the development of acting, the transmission of acting technique, and most centrally, the life of an actor—the practice of living life with an eye towards one’s experiences as raw material for an actor’s work on stage. A celebratory dinner for the faculty will follow the formal program.
This event will introduce the Nancy Paris Scholarship in Comedy, which will go to one student in each Comedy class. This event will also launch an alumni page on Studio’s website, which will include the nearly 10,000 adult alumni of the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory.
More information, including instructions on how to register for the free event, will be available at the Studio Theatre Acting Conservatory office and on the website on February 15.