I’ve never learned so much about any craft in such a short amount of time. It’s amaz­ing what I’ve taken away from this expe­ri­ence.
Izzy Custodio (Acting Major 2011)
Age 16 from San Antonio, Texas

AARON CLIFTON MOTEN, Juilliard Graduate/Broadway Actor to Head Acting Program Summer 2014

Aaron Clifton Moten, Juilliard Graduate, joins the Texas Arts Project Faculty as Head of Acting 2014! Austin born, Aaron is a St. Stephen’s alum­nus and is eager to return to his roots for three weeks this sum­mer after hav­ing begun his very suc­cess­ful career in NYC. Aaron’s Broadway debut was “A Streetcar Named Desire” with Blair Underwood, Nicole Ari Parker and Daphne Rubin-​Vega. He has appeared on TV in “Happyish” (ShowTime), “Criminal Justice” (HBO), and “NCIS” (CBS). Most recently, Aaron orig­i­nated the role of Avery in the Pulitzer Prize win­ning play “The Flick.” The Playwrights Horizons Off-​Broadway play gar­nered Aaron a Drama Desk Nomination. The tim­ing just worked out per­fectly as he has one month off this sum­mer before he moves on to his next project. We are so very for­tu­nate to have this amaz­ing actor/​teacher on our team.

Philosophy

Acting majors at TAP camp are chal­lenged on a daily basis through rig­or­ous class work and rehearsal meth­ods. As campers come from a vari­ety of schools or pro­grams, the fac­ulty assesses each stu­dent, uti­liz­ing his or her per­sonal foun­da­tion as a start­ing point ensur­ing the most poten­tial growth in each indi­vid­ual camper.

Acting majors are divided into two groups based on age, expe­ri­ence and skill level. The campers are immersed in daily classes in the morn­ings that cover act­ing, impro­vi­sa­tion, voice/​movement and more. As TAP camp strives to train the “com­plete artist,” campers are assigned to classes in voice and dance in the after­noons. Additionally all campers rehearse sec­tions of the final show­case together once daily. In the evenings, act­ing majors work with a direc­tor and a team of assis­tants as they cre­ate orig­i­nal pieces of the show­case and rehearse scenes and mono­logues from con­tem­po­rary plays. The act­ing majors also have the priv­i­lege of per­form­ing in the stu­dent films. Additional film act­ing classes are instructed so that act­ing majors are com­fort­able on camera.

Curriculum

The TAP act­ing classes are process-​oriented empha­siz­ing tech­nique, styles, and meth­ods. Students develop aware­ness about them­selves and their rela­tion­ship with oth­ers and the world around them as actors. Students are intro­duced to the essen­tial skills of act­ing from impro­vi­sa­tion to char­ac­ter devel­op­ment to text analy­sis and performance.

Concentration is on the prepa­ra­tion of devel­op­ing char­ac­ters through script analy­sis, prepa­ra­tion and per­for­mance. Students will be expected to par­tic­i­pate in mono­logue and scene work so that they may estab­lish short and long term goals for them­selves. Emphasis will be placed on tak­ing cre­ative risks and find­ing truth in per­for­mance. In addi­tion to gain­ing knowl­edge of the actor’s process, these act­ing classes help stu­dents expand self-​awareness, fos­ter self-​confidence, and place trust in others.

Course Descriptions

Acting

Focus on text analy­sis, sen­sory work, actions and truth­ful behav­ior within a scene or mono­logue. A vari­ety of act­ing meth­ods will be exam­ined through the study of con­tem­po­rary plays. Techniques for approach­ing the craft of act­ing are explored through exer­cises, group dis­cus­sions, scene study, and self-​assessments.

Improvisation

Develop tech­niques of impro­vi­sa­tion, which can be used in char­ac­ter explo­ration. Learn to think on your feet, make bold choices and prac­tice cre­ative col­lab­o­ra­tion with fel­low performers.

Theatre Past and Present

Through lec­ture and dis­cus­sion, explore the­atre his­tory as it relates to cur­rent trends in the­atri­cal performance.

Auditioning

Examine tech­niques for more effec­tive audi­tions includ­ing pre­sen­ta­tion, prepa­ra­tion and fol­low through.

Voice/Movement

Strengthen vocal and phys­i­cal skills through release of ten­sion, pos­ture, vocal exer­cises and mus­cle exten­sion. Examine var­i­ous tech­niques for body/​voice train­ing to expand your phys­i­cal and vocal capabilities.

Film Acting

Use scenes from films to explore tech­niques for act­ing on cam­era. As the actors in the stu­dent films at TAP Camp, Acting majors par­tic­i­pate in a com­bi­na­tion of both class­room and hands-​on experience.

Specials

Acting Majors have the oppor­tu­nity to take make-​up classes. Beginners take the basics while more advanced stu­dents learn old age and scar­ring meth­ods. Guest artists may be brought in for spe­cial top­ics such as Stage Combat, Shakespeare, Suzuki, Viewpoints, etc.

Rehearsals

Rehearsals are con­ducted in the evenings. During the first week, campers read scenes and mono­logues and take classes in film act­ing to pre­pare for film shoots dur­ing week two. The Director of Acting chooses mono­logues and scenes for the act­ing majors and rehearsals begin dur­ing week two. Rehearsals are divided into time slots so that each scene or mono­logue is indi­vid­u­ally coached mul­ti­ple times over the course of a week. On the third week of camp, we assem­ble the show­case com­bin­ing majors and cre­at­ing a cohe­sive show­case. Acting majors may have the oppor­tu­nity to per­form in dances or songs as well.

Showcase

In the past, act­ing majors have engaged in writ­ing work­shops, cre­at­ing orig­i­nal pieces for the show­case based on the theme. Scenes and mono­logues have been per­formed from many con­tem­po­rary play­wrights, includ­ing Tony Kushner, Steven Dietz, Larry Shue, Margaret Edson, Kenneth Lonergan, Neil Simon and Lee Blessing.

Don't forget to check out...

• Suggest Packing List 2014
• Placement Audition Information
• FAQ_​2014