Workshops
Hone your skills or learn something new!
We offer workshops in acting, directing, improv and other stagecraft throughout the year.
​
Note: If registering through PayPal isn't your thing, you can always pay at the first class. However, you do need to contact us to sign up in advance, so we can manage the numbers. Thanks!
​
The Voice of Your Life: Wellness, Ease, Strength, and Integrity
with Joanna Cazden
Mondays, June 3, 10, 17 & Tuesday, June 25, 2024
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Renew your expressive voice through solo and group exercises, health tips, and explorations of your vocal biography. Through these four evening sessions you’ll expand your repertoire of warmups and understand why they work; rediscover the fundamentals of technique and vocal wellness; and appreciate your personal voice as a multi-dimensional channel for art and life.
​
Cost: $75
​
For more information, visit: www.joannacazden.com.
"Having enrolled in the class I'm more enlightened about the anatomy and function of the human voice. I am also equipped with many exercises to maintain my vocal character."
—Vincent Meade
Voice of Your Life workshop
"Through a blend of engaging conversations, clinical and scientific information, group and individual activities, I learned more about making friends with my voice—caring, exercising and trusting its natural state. I gained practical and practicable skills. I recommend this class highly."
—Carol Geortner
Voice of Your Life workshop
Joanna Cazden, MFA, MS-CCC, is a voice specialist who has taught at CalArts, American Academy
of Dramatic Art, several CSU campuses, and teacher-training programs across the US and UK.
She is certified in Fitzmaurice Voicework and Performing Arts Medicine; and has trained with Catherine Fitzmaurice, Fran Bennett, Paul Blake, and the RSC’s Robert Lloyd. From 2001-2020, she was senior voice therapist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Voice Clinic, Los Angeles, treating injured actors and singers. Her book “Everyday Voice Care: The Lifestyle Guide” (Hal Leonard) is in wide use in arts conservatories; other publication topics include the vocal risks faced by actors in videogames and the neuroscience of vocal emotion. Also a singer-songwriter with six solo albums to her credit, Joanna is known for voice work that is holistic, practical, cross-disciplinary, and well-informed. She has resided in Santa Cruz since 2022 and has offered workshops for the Santa Cruz Jazz Society and several choral groups.
Discovering Yourself and Your Character with Breathwork
with Brian Frishman
Sundays, March 16, 23, 30 & April 6, 13, 20, 2025
10 am to 1 pm (final session: 10 am to 2 pm)
In this workshop, actors will deepen their understanding of themselves, increase vulnerability, build inner strength, and improve their ability for more mindful and powerful emotional expression in both life and character development.
All students for this workshop must have some classroom or acting experience, and be considered an intermediate actor or more with experience in character development. You do not need to have been in a play but must have done scene work and character development. All actors must be over 18 years old.
The course is based on the acting, directing, teaching, and breathwork the instructor has done for 47 years. There will be a non-mandatory 45 minute Zoom Course Information Session for prospective students 2-3 weeks before the workshop begins. There may be a recording that people who can’t attend can watch. Visit Brian's website nurturingbreathwork.com to read more about breathwork.
​
Maximum of 10 participants.
Cost: $250
Two half-scholarships are available. Contact Brian if cost is an issue for you.
​
For more information,contact: nurturingbreathwork@gmail.com
Brian Frishman, MFA, has 47 years experience in acting as a stage actor and for film and television, and as a director, teacher, and acting coach. He’s been the founding artistic director for both a for-profit theater and a youth conservatory.
He has taught privately and in community colleges and independent schools. He earned his MFA in theatre directing from the UCLA Theatre Film and Television department. In the 1980s, he began using breathwork as an actor, acting coach, and director for developing characters. Over the last several decades, he has taught these techniques to professional actors, college and high school acting students, and theatre companies.
"The visual vocabulary Mr. Frishman developed with his actors was in itself beautiful to watch and fit perfectly every moment of the action of the play. What he did with movement, he did with voice as well."
—Leon Katz
Professor Emeritus Yale University
Collaborative Directing
with Cathy D. Warner & Greg Fritch
Tuesday, September 16 & Thursday, September 18
from 6:30 to 9:30 pm
This workshop is designed for directors and actors who are interested in a hands-on approach to growing their understanding and skills of the art of collaboration. You may participate as an actor, a director or an actor/director. We will explore what it means to co-direct, and the unique opportunities presented by a collaborative approach. While directors can learn a great deal by watching performances (the culminating result of another’s work), we rarely have the opportunity to grow the actual skills
used during the rehearsal process except by what we glean from “research” and our own experiences experimenting with what seems to work or not to work with actors in rehearsal.
​
This workshop will provide a learning opportunity for directors and actors to grow this layer of our craft through reflecting about and sharing how we approach directing, experimenting with co-directing, and observing the rehearsal process of other directors and co-directors. Please be ready to share pivotal events, flashes of inspiration and important insights in your
artistic journey. It will help us select material that will best meet the needs of the group.
-
Actors: Please prepare a 1-minute monologue (this is not an audition). Please bring your resume and your thoughts about what draws you to growing your skills as a collaborative artist to the first session.
-
Directors: Please bring your resume and your thoughts about what draws you to growing your skills as a collaborative artist to the first session.
​
Cost: $50 (All proceeds benefit Actors' Theatre and the Young Directors Endowment Fund to support and encourage new directors.)
Maximum of 24 participants.
Reach out to Greg Fritch (gdfritsch@comcast.net) or Cathy Warner (cathyldwarner@gmail.com) for more information or with questions.
​
Email sccactorstheatre@gmail.com or use the PayPal button to sign up.
Greg Fritsch is passionate about directing and teaching. He has directed plays, musicals and
operas for a wide range of organizations in a variety of venues.
He has taught directing and acting at Santa Clara University, Notre Damede Namur University in Belmont and the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Cathy D. Warner is a theatre artist, dancer and choreographer who was the head of the Theatre Arts and Dance Dept at Harbor High School for
37 years, where she
designed a student-centered, collaborative approach to teaching.
She has co-directed many arts institutes for The California Arts Project, directed several plays for the 8 Tens @ 8 Festival, and co-directed several seasons of The Best of the Rest. She has vast experience in working with all levels of teachers and students, and igniting their passion for the arts.
Bill Peters is a professor emeritus at San Francisco State University where he taught playwriting, acting, directing and Shakespeare performance for many years.
​His directing credits include projects at the Manhattan Theatre Club, The Denver Center, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Jewel Theater in Santa Cruz, and the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. He has directed many times for Actors' Theatre's 8 Tens @ 8 Festival.