High School Arts Festival 2010

Friday, May 7th

Workshop Offerings: 1. Improvisation with Dr. Milton Polsky ______Let's Improvise! Put your imaginations in motion, create all kinds of familiar and fantastical characters, and enjoy playing together in a very relaxed and joyful atmosphere! Starting with nonverbal ice-breakers, we will move on to creating images, situations, and scenes of characters in conflict, using a variety of settings and emotions. Creative fun for all!

2. Textile Design with Suzanne Tick Suzanne’s Studio 6 students maximum. ______Weaving is one of the oldest art forms. Used as blankets, wall hangings, clothes, upholstery, wall covering, place mats. Bring yarns, twigs, paper strips, t-shirts... Anything you can think of....Or utilize the materials we have to offer in our weaving studio. Learn about weaving and weave your own samples.

3. Architecture with Isaac-Daniel Astrachan 7 students maximum. ______Seven students will tour the architecture and design offices of the SBJGroup with firm Principal Isaac- Daniel Astrachan and will then tour the new Gansevoort Park Hotel still under construction and due to open this summer. Students will learn about the design and construction process by reviewing drawings and interviewing architects and contractors in the office and on the construction site.

4. Figure Drawing with Anne Delaney 6 students maximum. ______Figure drawing with a live model at Anne’s studio on Grand Street in Soho. We will draw with charcoal on paper. We will start with quick gesture drawings and move into longer poses and ending with a 40 min pose. Students will be encouraged to draw the figure in the context of the studio and be interpretive or abstract the image as they choose. No prior figure drawing required but some drawing experience is helpful.

5. Afrobeat, Fela, and Music Improv with Jordan McLean ( Fela! on Broadway, Antibalas) Music Studio ______How do you get to Broadway and "break the mold" with the show Fela!? Work with Jordan McLean associate musical director for TONY winning choreographer Bill T. Jones on the production of FELA!, How did Fela Kuti (Nigeria) use his music as a vehicle to protest oppression? How can we create music that can orchestrate change? In this workshop you will create a Music Improv group that runs the gamut from Afrobeat to Funk to Blues to Electronic, while discovering what the message is music and art. As a group, you will collaborate and create an interesting collage of music & spoken word.

6. Hip-Hop Dance with Jennifer Archibald GYM ______Take Hip Hop with choreographer Jennifer Archibald. Immerse your body and soul in a dance style that combines the dance technique of hip-hop and club steps. Contemporary hip hop, locking, poppin, and breakin. Classes start off with a basic warm-up. Jennifer breaks the class down with a hip-hop combination. The Hip Hop workshop is geared toward students who are beginner/advanced. Wear comfortable clothing (no jeans) and jazz sneakers, or sneakers that you don't wear outdoors.

7. Portrait Painting in the "Wet Into Wet" Technique with James & Shauna HS Art Studio ______In this workshop participants will use a fundamental oil painting technique to develop a portrait painting. Portrait images will be provided, or photographs can be taken in class. Students will do an initial charcoal drawing directly on the canvas, then paint over it in stages, beginning with a mid tone, then lights and shadows. This class is an opportunity to explore a painting method, which has been used by artists for centuries to dramatic effect.

8. Viewpoints Acting Technique with Dee Pelletier ______Get out of your heads and into your bodies! Explore your intuitive impulses. Construct a physical vocabulary to create story with or without words. We'll investigate aspects of the Viewpoints technique and other game-playing exercises. The workshop will culminate in a fast and furious composition that will challenge your preconceptions about storytelling. Wear clothes you can move in.

9. Hilarity & Misogyny: Adventures in Operetta with Rachel Rothman-Cohen and Carrie Korn ______What is this G & S stuff?! What musical genre has been featured on The Simpsons, Indiana Jones, and in books by Anne McCaffrey? We are the very models of a modern major general! But what does that mean? Though you may not realize it, Gilbert and Sullivan operettas have seeped in to our society. There are festivals, on-line groups, community theater troupes and thousands of crazy die-hard enthusiasts around the world focused on the work of these two Victorian era Englishmen. The operettas are cutting political commentaries and slapstick humor with ridiculous conventions that have somehow withstood the test of time. Join Rachel Rothman-Cohen, experienced G & S player, to explore this wacky world of improbable situations, extreme characterizations, and over-the-top delivery. You'll be surprised at how much you may already recognize, and see if you can deliver these lines with a straight face.

10. Introduction to Animation Julia Parshina ______The first part will be a hands-on exercise, during which students will create a simple, short film (either as one group or in several teams, depending on the number of students). The second part will be an overview of the broad spectrum of jobs within the animation industry (from traditional frame-by- frame projects to stop motion, 3d animation, film FX, interactive work, etc.) I can also include a list of universities with strong departments for each type of animation job.

11. Pen and Ink Collage with Marina Kharkover MS Classroom ______Students will make their own hand painted textures and construct collages based on a cutting and pasting technique. Compositional planning and demonstration on nib/sumi ink, "pen and ink" technique will be demonstrated which will facilitate making figurative collages.

12. Comedy Theatre Sports - Thinking On Your Feet with John Shorter ____ This is an active workshop, which will teach you a variety of skills to think on your feet. This workshop will teach participants the basic concepts of comic improvisation. They will learn to think on their feet and develop ideas spontaneously. Theatre games will be used to teach acting skills people have seen employed by professionals on shows like “Whose life is It Anyway.” This workshop will help participants release the performers, which are hidden inside of them. No experience necessary.

13. Rhythm is the Cure: Folk Dances and Drumming with Alessandra Belloni _____ In this workshop with Alessandra Belloni, Artistic Director and Founder of I Giullari di Piazza (the Players of the Square), we will learn how to use Southern Italian ritual folk dances and rituals as a joyous form of music and dance. We will begin with drumming and ancient Neapolitan chants used for healing and to honor the Black Madonna, and then learn several ancient ritual dances: the Tammurriata, a beautiful dance from Naples; the Pizzica Tarantata, and a Calabrian spinning dance, similar to certain Sufi trance-inducing arts. We will also learn the basic techniques of the tambourine, its accents and accompanying chants and discover other healing rituals. Learn how to release stress, open your heart, and achieve deep relaxation.

14. Abstract Art with Allen Furbeck _____ 12 to 15 students maximum. Art history and Drawing in Allen Furbeck’s studio. We'll spend the time looking at, making, and talking about abstract art. I'll start by showing you a bit about the history of abstraction and the artists who made it, and share with you a few of my own ideas and anecdotes. Then we'll take some time to do a few exercises and make some drawings. And finally we'll discuss it all. You'll get a chance to tell me how silly, or inspiring, or whatever you think abstract art is, and we'll talk about what you thought about the drawings we worked on. I've been studying, making, and thinking about the stuff for more than 30 years so I have lots of ideas on the subject, but I'm also always interested in what other people think about abstraction, and what they might learn from it. Please bring mark making implements to draw with.

15. A History of Storyboards with JP Cummings _____ Filmmaking is a medium of visual story-telling and the storyboard bridges the communication gap between the director and his/her team. We will cover concepts such as continuity, pacing and transitions using examples from movies like "The Dark Knight," "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings" and Star Wars. Finally, we'll create a short sequence that will demonstrate these concepts.

16. Light and Shade with John Wellington Lab A ______10 students maximum. Recreating in two dimensions the world of three dimensions convincingly takes a great understanding of how lights and shadows define form. By drawing a skull and other objects, we will focus on how to understand the nature of both form and cast shadows, halftones, highlights, and reflected lights. Working on a grey middle toned paper, drawings will be done with black and white pencils. If a student would prefer to work with pastel, gouache, or some other medium, they should bring their own art materials to the workshop.

17. Monologue with Scott Cohen _____ Join stage, TV and film actor Scott Cohen to work on self-created monologues. Students will work with Scott to prepare these pieces for performance in the afternoon share session in the Performing Arts Center.

18. Knitting with Linda Bledstein 5 student maximum. _____ Knitting workshop for beginners to advanced students. Knitters, please bring your ongoing projects.

19. Mask Making with Jorge Dieppa ______Students will get an introduction to various styles of masks historically used for dramatic purposes. Students will then create half masks based on the commedia dell’arte stock characters.

20. Experimental Filmmaking with Bruno & Rueben student led workshop _____ Bruno and Rueben will lead a workshop in experimental filmmaking incorporating expressive music. Through music you can express nearly anything on screen, but choosing the right song can be the hardest part. We will work in the Media lab using cameras and laptops. Students are asked to bring music to the workshop.

21. Solarization Photography with Kostas Kiritsis Dark Room 10 student maximum ______Solarisation is a technique, a phenomenon in black & white darkroom photography, which results in completely or partially reversed tones of the image. This rare and often precious technique was used by many famous photographers including Man Ray. Students should bring 3 to 5 negatives (35mm) with high thematical contrast: Architecture against the sky Winter trees (no leaves) against the sky Dark objects or models against light background Etc.