Description
Hit your mark.
Know your cue.
Say the words.
Precision. Accuracy. Dependability. All virtues in the craft regardless of theatrical medium or artistic genre. And yet Michael Shurtleff aptly reminds us, “Consistency is the death of good acting”. So how can we at once honor the requisite vision of the Director, the story of the Playwright, and the needs of our fellow Actors without losing personal values of spontaneity, playfulness and discovery? What are the adjustments that take place in a portrayal based on shifts in space, time, energy and the unexpected event on stage or in the audience? Through daring and collaborative experimentation in scenes and monologues, this artistic lab class offers an opportunity to push traditional boundaries with unconventional casting and gut choice making to negotiate the boundaries of play in form and freedom.
Application deadline is Jan. 15. Click here for the application form.
· Submit headshot and resume for consideration.
· Financial assistance and discounted class rates available.
· Participants will present material that they are drawn to and would not otherwise be cast in: one monologue (self-selected) and one scene (instructor assigned, student informed).
About the Instructor
Lawrence (Larry) Grimm is a founding ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre as well as a board member. As an actor at A Red Orchid, he has appeared in American Bottom, Do You Feel Anger?, Small Mouth Sounds, Traitor, 3C, Trevor (which earned him a Jeff Award nomination), In A Garden, Solstice, Megacosm, Abigail’s Party, Pumpgirl, The Meek, The Physicists, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Mr. Kolpert, and Born Guilty. As a director, he helmed the remount of Mierka Girten’s With or Without Wings, The Cut, and various AROT youth ensemble projects for Collaboraction’s Sketchbook and Theatre 7’s Landmark Project. He served as producer of the A Red Orchid project created for the citywide Now is The Time Project on youth violence and bullying.
Larry has performed at Chicago Shakespeare Theater (King Charles III, The Tempest), the Goodman (2666), Timeline (My Name is Asher Lev), Victory Gardens (In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play), Shattered Globe (The Heavens Are Hung in Black, Hannah & Martin), Next Theatre (Maple & Vine, Welcome Home Jenny Sutter), Court (Orlando), Lookingglass (The Brothers Karamazov, 1984, The Naked King), Steppenwolf (I Never Sang for My Father, Wolf Lullaby), and Piven Theatre Workshop (King Lear, Two by Pinter), as well as many other Chicago-based theaters. His performance in Raven Theatre’s Glass Menagerie earned him a Jeff Award. Film credits include Eric Larue, Night’s End, Captive State, Welcome to Me, Perfect Manhattan, and Cicero in Winter. TV credits include: Chicago PD, Chicago Med, and Chicago Fire. He is also the co-creator of the Grimmagination podcast.
As an avid arts educator and teacher, he has worked at Stevenson High School, Lincoln Center Institute, Steppenwolf for Young Audiences, CAPE, Lookingglass, Writer’s Theater, the Illinois Arts Council, Piven Theater Workshop, and the Acting Studio.
He has a Masters in Education from DePaul University and taught for 4 years at Chi-Arts, Chicago’s first public high school for the arts. As well as being a member of the Board at AROT, he also is a board member of Chicago Youth Shakespeare.
