Join Sherard Theatre on Saturday, June 15 from 11-5 at Workshop West Playwrights Theatre, 11516- 103 Street for the second of our Workshops By Request Theatre Alberta Workshop, Character Development with Ian Leung, Drama Professor, Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta.

In this exciting workshop we will explore:

• Defining your character
• Creating a story and background
• Motivations
• Taking Direction
• Making the character your own
• Improvising

Participants should come with a role they are interested in preparing for, the play that it’s from, and to do the exercise of writing down the following (word for word) from the script:

• Everything your character says about themselves
• Everything any other character says about your character (make sure you keep track of the which character says what)
• Everything your character says about any other character or characters (make sure you keep track of what’s been said about which character)
• Everything the playwright says about your character (in the list of characters, stage direction)

Participants should bring:

• Whatever tools needed to make notes
• A pencil and eraser
• The play the character they want to work on is from
• A photocopy of a scene from the play that they’d like to do bookwork on; it should be a key scene for their character.

Participants should wear:

• Clothes they can move freely in (jeans and tight outfits are not ideal)
• Participants should be prepared to do a fair bit of moving around and do a little bit of improv.

Ian Leung is an Edmonton-based actor, director, playwright, instructor, and independent producer. He is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA acting program (1994) and its MFA directing program (2007). In 2008 he founded theatre no. 6, an independent company that currently focusses on work exploring ideas about Canada and what it means to be Canadian. For that company, he has produced and directed his own first play U: The Comedy of Global Warming (2009), Wallace Shawn’s The Fever (2014), and Michael Healey’s Proud (2014). As a sessional instructor for the University of Alberta’s Department of Drama, he specializes in teaching acting with Shakespeare, and has also taught directing, basic scene study, and oral communication and interpretation. Over the course of his acting career he has performed at the Citadel Theatre, the National Arts Centre, the Shaw Festival, and Neptune Theatre, among others. Most recently he appeared as James Wormold in Our Man in Havana (Bright Young Things), Professor Ogawa in Pugwash (Ship’s Company Theatre), Doyle Trigorin in Stupid F***ing Bird (Edmonton Actors Theatre), King Berenger in Exit the King (Studio Theatre) and Daedalus in Slight of Mind (Theatre Yes/Citadel Theatre).

Cost: $25 (Non-Members) $5 (For Sherard Members)

Register Here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0E4FA4AC28A6FD0-character

This workshop is sponsored by Theatre Alberta with funding from The Alberta Foundation for the Arts as part of the ‘Workshops by Request: Hometown Series’.

Full payment is due within 48 hours of Registration by E transfer to sherardmusicaltheatre@gmail.com (Please use Sherard as your question and answer) Please note that refunds for cancellations will be issued back via E transfer minus a $5 admin fee if cancelled 48 hours prior to the workshop.