A devising class at the Elysian focused on kickstarting the creation of a new show from your "auto-mythology." Generate new material from prompts that unpack personal memories, stories, opinions, quirks, obsessions, and big ideas, maybe even unsent email drafts–in order to turn them into performance-worthy gems. Expand your experimental toolbox to find the most compelling ways to craft your ideas for an audience.
Trawling through an archive of ideas and observations, weaving references from past and present, and using elements of collage, deconstruction, and beyond, we'll bust open stories and spin them into action in performance. The goal of this workshop is to help students feel more empowered as writers, performers, and directors of their own work as they create something not only highly personal, but highly portable. So we'll lean into a DIY indie-theater aesthetic, making magic out of spare parts, and creating worlds using only what we have on hand.
The class will culminate in a showing of 20 minutes of your new work on the Elysian stage, date TBD
Wednesdays
August 19th, August 26th, September 2nd, September 9, September 16, September 23, September 30, October 7th
12pm-3:30pm
in the Skunk
Testimonials from previous Playing Yourself students:
“Taking this class has been one the most impactful, freeing and revivifying things I’ve done in my creative career. It’s provided me with a safe space to experiment, reach past my comfort zone, try, fail and succeed. Being in an industry that so often feels like you’re constantly having to prove yourself with every audition, script and meeting, it’s been affirming and renewing to be in a supportive space that truly values risk-taking. Jacquelyn is an incredible teacher! She’ll remind you of what it is to be an artist again!”
-Cass Buggé
“Before I took this class, I found it hard to imagine how I would write and produce an entire show, and now that path feels not only possible, but imperative to see through to the final result. It's such a unique and special type of class and I highly recommend Playing Yourself to anyone who wants to create solo performance without being alone, under the supportive and insightful guidance of a brilliant teacher such as Jacquelyn.”
-Elizabeth Levy
“I HIGHLY recommend "Playing Yourself" to anyone interested in making a solo show. Jacquelyn is a wonderful teacher with a wealth of knowledge and insights to share. I feel like I have so many tools available to me now that help unlock imaginative and theatrical storytelling, and I feel more comfortable sharing in-progress work and taking risks.We need art and creative expression now more than ever, not only for ourselves, but for the collective, and this workshop inspires and provides tools for artists to explore their own experiences and open them up to something larger.”
-Emma Irene Olson
About the Instructor
Jacquelyn Landgraf is the Artistic Director of the Elysian. She is a director, performer, writer, and teacher, with a focus on new and developing work, and supporting artists-in-process. Alum of the experimental comedy collective The New York Neo-Futurists, the writer/performers of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, The Infinite Wrench, and a long roster of downtown performance pieces. For over fifteen years, she was on the acting faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts/Atlantic Acting School, teaching scene study for Atlantic’s NYU Studio and Professional Conservatory. For those programs, she also created the class Moment Lab, a study of chasing the sincere and unplanned moment in performance and deepening connection between actors and audience. She teaches performance and writing workshops across the country and internationally, including at the Williamstown Theater Festival, Austin Film Festival, London’s Central Film School, Hollins University MFA program in Berlin, On Time Productions in Mexico City, Brave Studios in Melbourne, Australia, and the U.S. State Department. As an actor, Jacquelyn was in the original cast of the U.S. premieres of Deaf West’s Orpheé, Anna Nicole the Opera directed by Richard Jones at BAM/New York City Opera, John Guare’s 3 Kinds of Exile directed by Neil Pepe at the Atlantic Theater, Suzan Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays at The Public, and The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill, vol. 1, which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for “Unique Theatrical Experience.” She created the two-season musical fiction podcast It Makes A Sound, and produced its original soundtrack album, Wim Faros: the Attic Tape.
Class cancellation policy: No refunds, exchanges, or transfers.