It was a very exciting weekend for me because Jon Kellam and I were able to take the education program to Arizona and work with a group of students from Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy. After seeing multiple productions at The Actors' Gang, Mike Levin the Theater Instructor for the Academy, asked us to come out and teach a Style Workshop to his talented group of students. Jon and I flew in Friday night, after a ridiculously bumpy ride into the mountains, and were welcomed with open arms by this amazing community. We taught for 8 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday and the students couldn't get enough! As a teacher it was one of the most rewarding teaching experiences I have every had. As you can see from these pictures, the students and a couple of community members, picked up the States and the characters extremely quickly. Fortunately we were able to use the costumes from the local community theater, so the students could develop their images with full costume and make-up. Some of the comments we heard the students say throughout the weekend were: "This is the best theatrical experience I have ever had", "I already know I am a better actor because of this weekend intensive", and "Vanessa is so funny". Ok, so the last one I made up, but honestly it was a great experience all around. If you ever find yourself in Flagstaff, please check out this school because these students are amazing artists. Hopefully we can lure them to LA when they graduate to be a part of the company. This weekend reconfirmed for me the special work that we do as a company and we both were so proud to represent The Actors' Gang!!
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