Workshops and Trainings
Workshops for Students and Performers
Pursuing a career as a performer is uniquely joyful and uniquely challenging. Training programs are designed to give performers the tools they need to succeed in this industry: how to take a good headshot, how to present yourself at an audition, how to build a book, how to market yourself to agents — and so on. But what I found as a performer and theatre educator is that most training programs leave out a crucial piece: how to care for your mental and emotional health so your career can be not just successful, but sustainable.
My workshops for students and performers are designed to fill in the gaps left by traditional training programs. Ranging from two-hour sessions to full-day intensives, these workshops offer practical, trauma-informed strategies for tending to the wellbeing of the whole actor. Grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, they take a values-based, holistic approach to common challenges performers face, like self-care, performance anxiety, imposter syndrome, de-roleing, and coping with rejection.
My background as a professional performer and a theatre educator combined with my expertise as a licensed therapist gives me a unique perspective on the specific needs of performers. Ready to support your performers’ wellbeing? Let’s build a workshop that fits your community.
Workshops for Faculty and Staff
Theatre educators are expected to know and do it all, from Meisner to Stanislavsky, from Shakespeare to Mamet, the business of theatre, acting for stage, acting for camera — the list goes on. Depending on the training program you attended, be it an M.F.A. or a PhD, you may have gotten some amount of training in pedagogy, but most programs focus on the content you’ll be teaching, not on how to get it across in a way that cares for the wellbeing of the actor. Of course you care about your students; that goes without saying. But does your teaching or directing approach consistently place the actor’s wellbeing at the forefront?
So many of us were in training programs operating under the “break you down to build you up” model. I know that the best theatre educators and directors are working hard to dismantle that model and do better, but there isn’t much of a roadmap for that. My workshops for faculty and creative staff provide a path for a holistic, trauma-informed leadership approach that cares for the whole actor, while still getting the content across and pulling from them the performance of a lifetime.
As a former theatre educator, I know that you’re often asked to do the impossible with little guidance or support. I know you want to do what’s best for your actors because I’ve been there. We want them to be successful actors, yes, but above all, we want them to thrive. Let’s work together to make that happen. Contact me today to bring a training for faculty and staff to your institution or creative company.