Bottle Tree Productions offers drama classes in Kingston's West end at the Kingston Christian School on Saturdays.
Starting Saturday September 18th, Bottle Tree Productions which has been serving kids in the downtown core now offers drama classes to the children in the west end. Charles Robertson and Anne Marie Mortensen began Bottle Tree Productions 5 years ago along with Toronto actor Mackenzie Gruer. Robertson and Mortensen also run the Wellington Street Theatre in downtown Kingston. In t6he last few Years Bottle Tree Productions has produced such shows as musicals like CATS, Sweeney Todd, The Pirates of Penzance and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This year they are producing the World War Two Epic; 'Til The Boys Come Home' and a musical fairy tale version of 'Sleeping Beauty'. "Our philosophy is to give the kids as much support as possible" Says Co-founder Mortensen. "We believe that helping a child realize his or her full potential is a very exciting process.The website www.bottletreeinc.com provides many free acting tips and audition pieces for young actors looking to get work in this highly competitive field."
There will be classes for children aged 6 and up.
Stage Right 6 - 10 year olds Saturdays 9:30am - 10:30am $130 plus hst
Stage Right 11 & 12 year olds Saturdays 10:30am - noon $195 plus hst
Stage Right Teens Saturdays noon - 2pm $260 plus hst
Bottle Tree Productions works mainly with young people with the goal of putting them onstage.
Mortensen went on to say that "Young people that exhibit talent, hard work, and team work will do very well in the performing arts. Instructors work to develop the child's potential and self-confidence. Instruction is tailored to the individual's needs and abilities. From the least experienced to the most experienced, we can help your child achieve their goals. From entry-level theatre games up to the sophisticated skills required for professional acting, Bottle Tree Productions is the place to be."
For further information contact Bottle Tree Productions at 613-384-8433 and ask for Anne Marie or check out the website www.bottletreeinc.com.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Sleeping Beauty
We have an excellent, entertaining family show opening in July.
Sleeping Beauty is an old familiar story, retold and set to music by Kingston's own Charles Robertson and Michael K. Myers. Check the website for further details.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
The Tao of Acting
I came across something on the web which solidified for me what acting was all about. It is called the Tao of Acting by Ken Plonkey.
For years I have not found a suitable acting system out there which I could identify with. For years I would hear people talking in theatre about their various systems and teaching methods, none of which I could identify with. I could not see why anyone would need to spend three to four years in a theatre school. I have first-hand anecdotal evidence that suggests that going to theatre school worsens an actor's abilities.
All that mumbo jumbo about studying the text, and the subtext, and objectives, about cultist Mask Work, about unlicensed psychotherapy, about discarding what an actor is good at, about ruining an actor's confidence, about confessionals, about going to theatre school and not performing, about acting a colour, about the draining of emotions, about analyzing the text, all that seemed foreign to me, because I know full well, that over the centuries actors have succeeded with different methods of acting, that styles change, that what works for one actor does not work for another.
The key to acting lies in performance; not in the absence of performance. The less time one spends on stage the less skilled one becomes, the less time that the actor's talent is realized. Practice makes perfect, but it is the practice on the stage under the lights, not in the shadows, not in rooms without an audience. The actor's best teacher is the audience. Judge, jury and executioner. One cannot learn acting without the presence and the teachings of the audience.
When I was pointed in the direction of The Tao of Acting, I realized that other people in theatre shared my views. Read the Tao of Acting. I will not explain what it is, for I wish you to take that journey yourself. Any actor who wishes to succeed should read it. I will just quote a little bit of what Ken said to me:
'Tao acting is also partially based on the early idea of Stanislavsky that the actor's personality is the key to an honest, creative and vulnerable performance. That is the key. Method Acting and all the others want the actor to create a character, but the playwright has already done that. Tao acting asks that the actor use himself as the character, wedding his emotional responses to the dialog and action of the play'
Just to add Ken's point; Stanislavsky was also trying to exercise the actor's imagination, to break them from the methods of acting that Russian actors had been taught. He had joined up with the Russian writer, Anton Chekov, to create reality on stage, and to create that reality, the Russian actor had to learn to imagine.
Read these two articles: 'Modern Times Need Modern Methods" and especially, "Tao and the Art of Acting"
I highly recommend it!
For years I have not found a suitable acting system out there which I could identify with. For years I would hear people talking in theatre about their various systems and teaching methods, none of which I could identify with. I could not see why anyone would need to spend three to four years in a theatre school. I have first-hand anecdotal evidence that suggests that going to theatre school worsens an actor's abilities.
All that mumbo jumbo about studying the text, and the subtext, and objectives, about cultist Mask Work, about unlicensed psychotherapy, about discarding what an actor is good at, about ruining an actor's confidence, about confessionals, about going to theatre school and not performing, about acting a colour, about the draining of emotions, about analyzing the text, all that seemed foreign to me, because I know full well, that over the centuries actors have succeeded with different methods of acting, that styles change, that what works for one actor does not work for another.
The key to acting lies in performance; not in the absence of performance. The less time one spends on stage the less skilled one becomes, the less time that the actor's talent is realized. Practice makes perfect, but it is the practice on the stage under the lights, not in the shadows, not in rooms without an audience. The actor's best teacher is the audience. Judge, jury and executioner. One cannot learn acting without the presence and the teachings of the audience.
When I was pointed in the direction of The Tao of Acting, I realized that other people in theatre shared my views. Read the Tao of Acting. I will not explain what it is, for I wish you to take that journey yourself. Any actor who wishes to succeed should read it. I will just quote a little bit of what Ken said to me:
'Tao acting is also partially based on the early idea of Stanislavsky that the actor's personality is the key to an honest, creative and vulnerable performance. That is the key. Method Acting and all the others want the actor to create a character, but the playwright has already done that. Tao acting asks that the actor use himself as the character, wedding his emotional responses to the dialog and action of the play'
Just to add Ken's point; Stanislavsky was also trying to exercise the actor's imagination, to break them from the methods of acting that Russian actors had been taught. He had joined up with the Russian writer, Anton Chekov, to create reality on stage, and to create that reality, the Russian actor had to learn to imagine.
Read these two articles: 'Modern Times Need Modern Methods" and especially, "Tao and the Art of Acting"
I highly recommend it!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Sweeney Todd First performance in Kingston
Bottle Tree Productions presents Sweeney Todd-The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
The School edition. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler
Directed by Anne Marie Mortensen. Choreography by Chelsea Swain. Stage Manager Judy Roberts
The first performance of Sweeney Todd in Kingston!
The recent Tim Burton movie starred Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter as the partners in gore. Adam Eliot and Hannah Smith lend their gifted voices to the merchants of mayhem. Anton Kaduck is a revelation as the hanging judge. Megan Ready-Walters and her sweet soprano voice makes her the perfect ingenue. The Gothic church that is The Wellington Street Theatre is the perfect environment for Fleet Street and its sordid neighbourhood. Adam Eliot's Sweeney Todd arrives back in England after being unjustly sentenced for crimes he did not commit. All he ever loved has been taken from him and he is looking for revenge. He falls in with Hannah Smith's Mrs. Lovett, and between them they go on a murderous spree, which ultimately consumes them in the fires of hate.
Sweeney Todd has been regarded for years more as urban legend than actual real-life flesh and bones. Cheap sordid novels in the early eighteen hundreds
chilled and thrilled English readers. Sweeney Todd was the Freddy Kruger, the zombie horde, the vampire of his time. Some evidence exists to suggest that Mister Todd did himself exist. Sondeim and Wheeler have given Sweeney more noble reasons for what he is driven to do, more noble then the avarice and greed accorded him by earlier writers, but the end result is the same.
Sondheim's brilliant, complicated music and Hugh Wheeler's clever script are complicit in providing a great night's entertainment.
Show dates:
February 25,26,27 Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $15 General admission.
At The Wellington Street Theatre, 126 Wellington Street, Kingston, Ontario
www.bottletreeinc.com 613-542-0070
Grand Theatre Box Office 218 Princess Street Phone 613-530-2050
Box Office open Mondays-Saturdays from 12 noon to 6 pm.
www.kingstongrand.ca
The School edition. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler
Directed by Anne Marie Mortensen. Choreography by Chelsea Swain. Stage Manager Judy Roberts
The first performance of Sweeney Todd in Kingston!
The recent Tim Burton movie starred Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter as the partners in gore. Adam Eliot and Hannah Smith lend their gifted voices to the merchants of mayhem. Anton Kaduck is a revelation as the hanging judge. Megan Ready-Walters and her sweet soprano voice makes her the perfect ingenue. The Gothic church that is The Wellington Street Theatre is the perfect environment for Fleet Street and its sordid neighbourhood. Adam Eliot's Sweeney Todd arrives back in England after being unjustly sentenced for crimes he did not commit. All he ever loved has been taken from him and he is looking for revenge. He falls in with Hannah Smith's Mrs. Lovett, and between them they go on a murderous spree, which ultimately consumes them in the fires of hate.
Sweeney Todd has been regarded for years more as urban legend than actual real-life flesh and bones. Cheap sordid novels in the early eighteen hundreds
chilled and thrilled English readers. Sweeney Todd was the Freddy Kruger, the zombie horde, the vampire of his time. Some evidence exists to suggest that Mister Todd did himself exist. Sondeim and Wheeler have given Sweeney more noble reasons for what he is driven to do, more noble then the avarice and greed accorded him by earlier writers, but the end result is the same.
Sondheim's brilliant, complicated music and Hugh Wheeler's clever script are complicit in providing a great night's entertainment.
Show dates:
February 25,26,27 Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $15 General admission.
At The Wellington Street Theatre, 126 Wellington Street, Kingston, Ontario
www.bottletreeinc.com 613-542-0070
Grand Theatre Box Office 218 Princess Street Phone 613-530-2050
Box Office open Mondays-Saturdays from 12 noon to 6 pm.
www.kingstongrand.ca
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