Do you have a story to share?  Do you want to learn performance skills in company with other adults?  Theater artist and West Orange resident Julie Kline will lead this exploration into personal life stories - be they hilarious, moving, or thought-provoking - and teach skills designed to help storytellers craft them into performance-ready pieces.  You'll also explore writing tools, character work, and physical and vocal expression, with the aim of sharing your story with the community in a final culminating event.  All are welcome.  No experience necessary.

Course Parameters

The class is limited to 12 participants. Participants register for the class with the understanding that they are committing to the seven sessions, which are held once a week on the same day and time (Mondays, 1:00pm-2:30pm). While unavoidable absences are understood, the idea is to commit to the full course as the lessons build sequentially. 

Class Dates: Sept 30; Oct 7, 14, 21, 28; Nov 4
Performance Date: Nov 11 

About the Teaching Artist

Julie Kline is a New York and New Jersey-based director, actor, and writer.  Her productions include world premiere plays that have toured nationally and internationally, and community-based performances that theatricalize personal stories.  Most recently, Julie directed the benefit reading of JANE starring Cynthia Nixon, Ana Gasteyer, Monique Coleman, and Kathy Najimy.  Other recent directing credits include MAGDALEN (Edinburgh Festival Fringe and theaters across the US), THE IMMIGRANTS (Lyth Arts Centre, Scotland), DOUBT (Franklin Stage Company), RAISING JO (Theater Row), and BOMBSHELL OF RHYTHM (Soho Playhouse).  Julie conceived, wrote, and directed SENIORS AND THE CITY with oral historian Liza Zapol - a series of original theater works performed by older adults in Manhattan based on their life stories, supported by the Distracted Globe Foundation, NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of the Aging.  Julie was an inaugural grantee of the Charlene Victor and Ella J. Weiss Cultural Entrepreneur Fund, awarded by the Brooklyn Arts Council for outstanding women artists and arts leaders in the borough. She is currently the Director of Education and Training for the national service organization, Lifetime Arts, and leads trainings in creative aging for teaching artists, museums, libraries, and more across the country.  She holds a BFA in Acting from The Theater School of DePaul University in Chicago. www.juliekline.com  

This event is made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment of the Arts.