“How do you learn all those lines?” An actor’s experience from auditions through closing performance

Purchase tickets for this event HERE. 

“How do you learn all those lines?”  This is one of the most asked questions of theatre actors.  Actually, learning the lines is just a small part of the process an actor goes through to get ready for performance. This class will look at the many steps in that process; from auditioning, getting cast, the many stages of the rehearsal process, through performances; in both a professional theatre as well as a community theatre.

We will then dive deeper into what is happening in an actor’s brain, using some of the latest research in cognitive science related to memory, gestures and emotions.  We will look at what actually happens in the actor’s brain and the audience members’ brains during a performance.  What role does the audience play in affecting the performance?  How does that make each performance unique?

Participants of this class should walk away with knowledge of the technical process an actor goes through, as well as the cognitive processes that occurs in the brains of all members of a theatre performance, audience members - as well as those onstage and off.

Oddfellows, January 15, 1-3 p.m

Tom Ammon retired from a 38 year career in software development in 2013, but he has been active in theatre since 1979.  Tom has acted in / directed over 100 plays in Ohio, North Carolina, the San Franciso Bay area as well as here on the central coast.  Some of his favorite roles include Roy Cohn (Angels in America, Part 1), George (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf), Stage Manager (Our Town), and Alan Turing (Breaking The Code).

Purchase tickets for this event HERE.