Theatre Arts

Come push your theatre artistry to the max by exploring and studying Performance Stage Craft with Theater Professionals.  Learn to harness your acting and creative sensitivity to the world around you and dare to be open and available to creating new visions of social artistic education.   Join us and become part of the mission to create societal growth through theatre arts.

Theory and Practice of verbal and nonverbal creative exploration and character development is our order of business. 

This is a beginning to advanced process class.  The emphasis is on building ways of working for the actor in training.  The main thrust is to provide the student with a solid foundation in using one’s inner resources (Internal Process Techniques) with emphasis on the following: Imagination, Concentration, Emotional Memory, Sense Memory, Justification, Observation and Artistic Focus. This is also a survey of theatre, including basic elements and principals, styles, and historical perspectives of theatre, dramatic literature, and criticism.  Writing assignment, as appropriate to the discipline, are part of the course.

The external process will also be developed with emphasis on: Sensory exploration (Sensorial Perception), Freedom of Physical Self, Stage Atmosphere and Ensemble Work.

The culmination of these skills will be employed in learning the basics of characterization and scoring a role.  The exploration of theatrical arts in relation to the other arts: music, visual arts, poetry, dance and mime is an essential objective. 

Your greatest resource in this class is yourself and your primary responsibility is the discovery and development of your potential to explore creatively the human condition as a student artist.  Be positive about your journey and the journey of others.

CLASS SYLLABUS

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Student Work: 2019-2020

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Student Work from Previous Years:

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Meet the Teachers!

Meet Brian!
Brian Weddington is an instructor of Theatre and Speech with the City Colleges of Chicago and past Assistant Professor of Theater with the University of Illinois at Chicago where he also received his B.A. in Theater.  Continuing his studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey earned him the M.F.A. in Acting.  His professional acting career is extensive and varied with theatrical, film and television work throughout the United States and abroad.  Some of his creative works include:  Episodes of NBC’s Chicago Fire and Chicago Med, the hit movie Barbershop 2, ABC’s One Life to Live, the National Black Arts Theater Festival production of “The People Who Could Fly”, the Kennedy Center’s theater production of “The Darker Face of the Earth” and “Thieves Carnival”, which was performed at the theater of Southwest Moscow.  He has several national and regional television commercials to his credit including All State Insurance, McDonald’s and Century 21. 

His service and dedication to arts in education has allowed him to instruct youth in many performance methods within various community programs including The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Chicago Public Schools Advanced Arts Education Program at Gallery 37, After School Matters, Upward Bound, Project CHANCE and the Boys and Girls Club of America.  He has worked with Harran Production Foundation to produce “Do you know Your Human Rights” with students from the After School Matters Program at Gallery 37.  The group has performed University of Chicago’s Professor Emeritus Dr. Shakeela Hassan’s poem; giving it sound, rhythm, and movement while presenting it at various events including Chicago Unity Month at Soldier’s Field, CUSP Conference, and Chicago Sunday Evening Club’s Greater Chicago Leadership Breakfast.

​He is the Managing Director of Theatre Arts and Co-Founder of the HHW School for the Performing Arts, and has presently completed a book of scenes and monologues from the African American Christian experience entitled “LIFTED”. 

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Meet Sarah!
Sarah Mostad is in her 17th year of teaching in Chicago, her 14th in CPS. Ms. Mostad started with the Advanced Arts Program back in the fall of 2011 co-teaching Honors Theatre Arts.

Ms. Mostad won the Heart of The Schools Award with the Archdiocese of Chicago, was nominated for a Golden Apple Award, and has won several grants over the years to bring various projects to her various schools. Ms Mostad partners with several area theatres including Steppenwolf, Goodman, Court Theatre, Pegasus Theatre Chicago and has additional educational relationships with Victory Gardens and Rivendell theatre. As a board member, Ms. Mostad serves as president of the board with Pegasus Theatre Chicago and Secretary with Akvavit theatre, a theatre company dedicated to contemporary Scandinavian theatre. In her past life, Ms. Mostad assistant directed, stage managed, acted, directed, and produced around the Chicagoland area.

One of Ms. Mostad's greatest joys is seeing alums from the AAP program growing their careers in Chicago theatre scene and beyond.  They are bring their talents and activist hearts to rising generations of theatre artists. Be seen. Be heard!

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Meet Anjelica!
Anjelica is a BFA  graduate from the UIC School of Theatre & Music, and has performed for both stage and film. She has portrayed various roles in a diverse range of productions from Shakespeare to August Wilson. Some of her recent credits include JAM (7-13 Production), Later (Preston Productions), Sex Marks the Spot (Grippo Stage Company) and Breath, Boom (Eclipse Theatre). Anjelica is currently writing, directing and producing her own web-series entitled the Newbie.

Anjelica is a sought-after teacher and advocate for youth arts education. In the fall of 2014 she was appointed Teaching Artist with Chicago Public School’s Advanced Arts Program at Gallery 37 Center for the Arts in downtown Chicago where she instructs and choreographs movement classes for teens. She is also a teacher with Global Explorer Kids, an organization that provides students K-5 with the opportunity to learn multicultural awareness through the arts.

You can see more of her work by visiting her website: anjelicamasson.com and by following her on Instagram to keep up with her day-to-day activities.

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