UCLA - Spectrum Theater

This one-week camp experience is designed to add important performance techniques and understanding to the actor's "performance spectrum" - from Shakespeare to Hip Hop Theater. It brings a new dimension to the theater actor's traditional training.

Details

This one-week camp experience is designed to add important performance techniques and understanding to the actor's "performance spectrum" - from Shakespeare to Hip Hop Theater. It brings a new dimension to the theater actor's traditional training.

Based in the curriculum of the UCLA Theater Department, this workshop will focus on the acting techniques of Shakespearean Theater - not as an old form, but as a new form, and its relevance to contemporary culture and society. The student will find an emerging acting performance through blending the energetic elements of hip hop culture, poetry, movement, and sounds with the traditional elements of theater and storytelling.

* Additional Information

College Credit Information

Click here for 2008 UCLA College Credit Information

Information Packets

Information Packets for students registered for summer 2008 are available for download NOW!
Please contact us for download instructions.
The packets will be mailed mid May for those who requested them.
If you already have a user name and password click here to view packets.

Those who requested their packet by standard mail should be receiving them in the next few days.

If you are interested in signing up for a program or need more information please click here.

Program Directors

Armin Shimmerman, Program Co-Director
The Shakespearean portion of Spectrum Theater is led by Armin Shimmerman, one of the leading proponents of bringing Shakespeare to Los Angeles youth. He has performed countless Shakespearean roles. He is well known to viewing audiences from the hit television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek: The Next Generation. With his passion and excitement as a coach, an educator, and an artist, he is an exciting addition to the UCLA Arts Camps Faculty.

Faculty (Faculty subject to availability)

Giovanni Ortega
US Performing Arts is pleased to have actor and Hip Hop Performance Artists Giovanni Ortega as a faculty in our Spectrum Theater Workshop. He received his B.A. degree in English, with a focus on Poetry at the University of Illinois where he wrote and directed Colonial Mentality , a Hip-Hop Theater piece that combined traditional Indian dance with Hip-Hop Music. He performed his one man show Ako, the spoken word Griot Speaks Out in Milwaukee, WI . After pursuing a successful career as a performer in the Midwest, he attended graduate school and was fortunate to be accepted to the UCLA MFA program in Theater, Film and TV, where he experienced the world of writing and performance at its highest form.

While at UCLA, he curated three musical and spoken-word pieces: Felicity is a Cynical Art, Noche de Cultura, Carnal Cabaret and Corazon Perdido (Fowler Museum) . In addition, he was also a dancer for Do Brasil Dance Co. and Akimbo Dance Project. Upon graduation, he returned to the Hip-Hop Spoken Word Circuit and was invited to be a guest performer in such venues as Tuesday Nights at the Cafe, FPAC, FilipinoTown and Skylight Books. Giovanni currently performs in and around Hollywood (East West Players, Latino Theater Company, Playwright's Arena, Will and CO., Boston Court, American New Musical Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Colony and Kirk Douglas Theater). In addition, he has danced in Music Videos for Hip-Hop and Pop Artists P. Diddy, Kaci Brown and Double. He is the founder of MEZÇLAÕ Artistas where he directed Rocka in the La La Land of Lights and currently hosts Noche de Artistas, at Sabor y Cultura Café and guest instructor at the Asian American Theater Workshop in San Francisco. A consummate actor performer and teacher, Gio's Film and T.V. Credits include: Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, Ray of Sunshine (Newport Beach Film Festival), Twixter, Coffee Date, CSI, and the critically acclaimed NBC series Heroes. His Spoken Word Poetry will come out in a literary anthology called Completely Mixed-Up: An Anthology of Mixed Race Asian North American and Art. His energy and excitement along with Armin Shimerman makes Spectrum Theater an extraordinary experience for any devotee of the acting and performing arts.

Location Information

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) is the only university in the country where the study of theater, film, television and digital media is integrated within a single professional school.

The Department of Film, Television and Digital Media offers a wide range of courses for undergraduates in the study of three areas of moving images: Critical Studies, including the history, theory and aesthetics of both film and television; Production/Directing, including film, television (studio and field), digital, experimental and animation; and the film and television disciplines, including writing, producing, cinematography, sound recording and editing.

At the graduate level, there are five areas of concentration: Critical Studies, which offers film and television history and theory; aesthetics and popular culture, films from diverse genres and extensive national cinemas; Production/Directing, which trains students in all aspects of directing narrative fiction, documentaries and/or experimental film, emphasizing the aesthetic components; Screenwriting, in which the elements of character, dialogue, story and tone are explored; Animation, in which students are trained to create an individual style and voice; and the Producers Program, in which students learn the business and art of making films and television programs.

At UCLA's Department of Theater, we believe that great theater programs must prepare and train students for careers in all contemporary and emerging entertainment forms -- including live theater, film, television, video, themed entertainment, interactive gaming, and more. Our students live in a world that is interactive, collaborative, and fueled by their passion for our art form -- one that encompasses the many forms of professional practice as well as the theoretical exploration of current and emerging entertainment forms.

Igniting our students' talent and passion to achieve success is our goal. That is why students work with a distinguished faculty composed of professional and creative artists who have excelled in their fields. UCLA Theater has some of the most distinguished faculty and visiting artists in the world, among them Mel Shapiro, Annette Bening, Anthony Hopkins, Larry Moss, Neil Jampolis, Deborah Scott and Jerry Katzman. With this professional training, students are following in the footsteps of such illustrious alumni as Francis Ford Coppola, Tim Robbins, James Dean, Carol Burnett, Susan Egan, Jack Black, Ben Stiller and many others.

TFT's extraordinary undergraduate and graduate students are drawn from an admissions pool of the finest students from around the world, and enjoy participation in small classes with faculty members who themselves are accomplished artists and industry leaders.

We invite you to explore our US Performing Arts Camps web site further where you can register online for any of the ucla summer programs offered to high school students.

Students attending a UCLA Arts Camp, in association with US Performing Arts, have the option of enrolling for college credit. Please ask our staff for more details.

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