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Classes and Workshops
The Acting Symposium
The Acting Symposium Coaches
Bio's
Acting Symposium Pictures
Acting Symposium Testimonials
Courier Article on the Acting Symposium
The Acting Symposium
Contact
jean@theactorsvoice.com 928-778-5177
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The Acting Symposium Coaches Bio's
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Jean & JP |
JP graduated from UCLA with a degree in
Theater and Film Arts and went on to develop a successful film and
television career. JP appeared in The Golden Girls,
Matlock, China Beach, Eight is
Enough and, his crowning achievement, the lead in the television series
The Last Precinct. Jonathan left the screen and subsequently
developed a career in graphic design and added computer consultant to his
growing list of job titles. JP moved to Prescott in 2002 and now writes and
produces scripts for short format feature film projects. His love of acting
drew him back to the theater, however, and he has appeared with the Arizona
Classical Theater group in A Christmas Carol and Twelfth Night.
He made his PFAA debut as Chief in the 2004 production of One Flew Over
the Cuckoo’s Nest. Jonathan most recently successfully directed
Hamlet for the ACT 2005 season and played Batista in Taming of the
Shrew and Brutus in Julius Caesar for the 2006 season.
Before
moving to Prescott, Jean spent many years of her spare time in California
taking both private and college acting classes, and in productions. Jean
jumped right back into theater as soon as she moved to Prescott and was cast
in The Uninvited. Subsequently she portrayed Maxine in Stepping
Out and Leonora in Ladies in Retirement. In 2001, in response to
a need, she started teaching acting classes by herself before teaming up
with J.P. She wrote and directed Annie’s Fallen Angel For the
Sharlot Hall Museum and has directed Cat’s Cradle, Proof and
Picnic for PFAA. This past summer she directed The Taming of the
Shrew for ACT. Jean started The Actor’s Voice in 2001 as a
newsletter for actors before putting it on line.
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Acting Symposium Pictures


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Acting Symposium Testimonials
•As a first timer,
I felt Jean and JP created a space for learning. Their encouragement was
remarkable and their ability to demonstrate, coach and teach was helpful. They
kept it lively, interesting and challenging and made it safe for me to jump into
this new experience. John Morris
•Jean and JP made
taking an acting class safe and exhilarating. Mary Sanz
•Thanks for the
expert, caring, intuitive direction and memorable workshop.
Barbara Gardner
•This class has
been such a wonderful experience. The information that JP and Jean provide is
so valuable. Robin Tye
•Great for finding
out who you are, you never know till you try. Nichole Phillips
•This acting class
not only helped me with my acting skills, but also helps build confidence. Love
the improv. Catherine
Hinckley
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Courier Article on the Acting Symposium
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Drama veterans, rookies
sharpen their stage skills
Feel the character
By Lorin McLain
The Daily
Courier
Sunday,
April 06, 2008
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The Daily Courier/Matt Hinshaw
Instructor Jonathan “JP” Perpich performs an improvisation with student
and actor Lance Sandleben in
Prescott during a community acting class. |
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The Daily Courier/Matt Hinshaw
Instructor
Jean Lippincott performs an improvisation with student and actor Paul
Epoch |
Twelve adults
and one
Chino
Valley high school student lie silently face up, palms against the ground,
eyes closed.
Their instructor tells them to take deep breaths, three times in and holding
it to a count of three, slowly exhaling.
Meditation?
Well, sort of.
The exercise is one of many drama instructors Jean Lippincott and Jonathan
"J.P." Pervich lead acting students through in the scene work workshop.
"I want you to say your character's name in your head. Say it in different
ways, slowly drawing out the syllables. Say it the way you mother would say
it when she was mad," Perpich says, before taking students through other
aspects of "getting into your character's skin."
Lippincott, a veteran director and performer with the Prescott Fine Arts
Association, and Perpich, a veteran performer with PFAA and Arizona
Classical Theatre teach the weekly class running in seven-week sessions in
Lippincott's home on Wednesday evenings.
During the three-hour session, Perpich and Lippincott lead the students
through a variety of technique exercises, like this class' opening exercise
of depicting an emotion with a given physical movement, in addition to
improvisation and working in pairs on scene development.
Perpich said the objective of the class is for participants to leave the
class with a set of tools to create characters in whatever roles they might
assume in future projects.
Participants range from veteran performers like Paul Epoch and Linda Fine -
skilled actors who regularly act with Prescott Fine Arts Association - and
two newcomers who have never acted before.
The blood starts pumping with a rapid fire improv exercise called
"hitchhiker" that demands spontaneous interaction from four actors at a
time, or a call and response "bomb dropping" routine: a girl tells her dad
she is "knocked up," a nun tells the mother superior she has a crush on her,
a man tells his wife about his sex change, and so on.
Perpich said the exercise helps actors develop their trusting instincts, and
"to help the other actor out of a jam and not take away" in an event such as
forgetting a line or a hang up in a scene.
An actor has "to learn to trust your instincts, and not try to think of
something clever and grind through a moment," he said.
To learn about aspects of character development, the actors pair up to
perform scenes from assigned scripts they received in earlier class
sessions.
Lippincott and Perpich drilled Fine and Lance Sandleben as they played out a
scene from "Last of the Red Hot Lovers." Perpich asked Sandleben to name
three things about the apartment where the scene takes place, what he wants
from Fine's character, what he is afraid she might do and how would he react
at his job if a customer bared her breasts.
"Where did you just come from? What are you afraid will happen," he asked
Fine.
"The more you can do to get in that character's skin, the more you'll start
to discover," he said.
"It's all about making sure you know who they are."
In a scene between Briana Polland, a Chino Valley student who starred in the
PFAA's "The Children's Hour," and newcomer Becky Mills, Lippincott asks them
to drop the scripts.
"Talk to her, don't worry about the words. If you don't know, improvise,"
she said.
Eileen Dirienzo, who has never acted before and took the class out of
curiosity, said acting entails more work she originally assumed.
"To develop a character, you have to use your imagination to fill in the
parts of the character that the script doesn't tell you," she said.
Perpich said that talented veteran actors returning to the workshops
reassures him that they are offering valuable insight to the craft.
Lippincott said she tries to mix a steady balance of improvisation and
technique exercises, scene work and one class on cold reading "so that they
have some idea of what goes on" in working on a stage production.
Contact the reporter at lmclain@prescottaz.com
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