Tues/Thurs; 9:00 AM call time
4 credits; non-graded, non-union
Instructor: Timothy Frost; MFA, MBA
Email: [email protected]
Course Description:
In this course you will learn several performance techniques for entertaining a corporate day job “just to pay the bills for now.” Not open to students who have rich parents.
Learning Objectives:
1. Audition Skills During the Interview Process
While acting (i.e. lying) will come in handy, we’ll craft believable character performances by examining small talk tactics with a focus on current weather conditions, topical sporting events, and pets. Key learnings will also include LinkedIn-appropriate headshots, how to write thank-you notes to ensure a callback, and professional resumé writing that showcases non-theater experience (bartender, camp counselor, intern at nonprofit, et. al.).
2. Professional Relationships: Co-workers vs. Castmates
We’ll utilize sense memory to translate your theater experiences of gossiping, backstabbing, and “stage crushing” into the workplace for professional advancement through familiar feelings of comradery, envy, jealousy, and sexual tension. We’ll roleplay asking for a promotion through the nuanced lens of suggestion versus blackmail.
3. Double-Life Balance
How can you best prepare for the rigorous recurring role of workforce member while still pursuing your dream of acting for the stage? We’ll explore code-switching, appropriate drinking habits for stress reduction, and workshop faking sick to attend weekday, daytime auditions.
4. Business Wardrobe
DIY costuming to meet business professional standards. This unit will also include best practices for wearing bright colors without being typecast as “the fun one”—which could lead to performing “comedy” monologues about company culture at meetings.
5. Office Dialogue and Dialects
Each student will work one-on-one with a dramaturg to review common office props and how to reference them (e.g. “the damn printer is jammed again”). Students will also master inflections on such phrases as “this is exciting stuff,” “good stuff,” and “this is some great stuff.”
Instructor Note: This unit will include discussing the sensitive topic of saying “good luck”—a common office phrase a la “break a leg.” If you feel uncomfortable with this material, an alternative assignment can be substituted.
6. Ways to Express Yourself Besides Breaking Into Song
We’ll first rehearse expressing ideas and thoughts in plain dialogue and eventually move onto tactics for how to keep those ideas and thoughts to yourself.
7. Celebrations in the Workplace: Happy Hours and Holiday Parties
This is an immersive unit at Guthrie's Pub downtown. Date and time TBD. If you’ve heard horror stories from the Seniors before you, they’re all true.
Required Reading:
Frost, Timothy (2012). Give Up! And Other Mantras for Young Actors. Self-published. Available at TimFrostPlaywright.com
About The Instructor:
Professor Frost has been seen in classrooms across campus since 2012, when he decided to become an adjunct professor after quitting his barista job and getting an MBA online. Some favorite classes include: THTR 203: Basics for Negating Script Notes Because You’re a Misunderstood Genius, THTR 208: The Craft of Talking About “What You’re Working On,” and THTR 303: A Jaded Analysis of the Arts. He would like to thank his lovely wife Sharon and beg her not to leave him.
No midterm. No final. Pass/Fail determined by if you know a producer who is willing to read a new one-act play.