Theatre 55 Offers Creativity Classes for Seniors
Theatre 55 believes in the creativity and vitality of seniors, and is dedicated to offering opportunities for growth and learning.
This fall, we’ve got classes in Dance taught by nationally-known choreographer Stuart Pimsler, and two levels of Improvisation, taught by Theatre 55 regular, Dane Stauffer.
Fall 2024 Classes
Dance “Don’t Sit Down, Please”
Beginning Improv
“Cheat Out” (Advanced Improv)
“Don’t Sit Down, Please”
Dance with Stuart Pimsler
Don’t Sit Down, Please blends full-body warmups, improvisation, speaking while moving exercises, gentle partnering and personal story-telling.
The workshops are thematically connected through an emphasis on the Lindy-Hop—an American movement form popularized during the swing eras of the 1930’s-early ‘40s. The rhythms and style of the Lindy-Hop will serve as theatrical inspirations for both physical and personal movement explorations.
Participants will learn new techniques for keeping their bodies moving, accessing their personal creativity and most importantly, how to enjoy and appreciate their current physicality.
The only prerequisite for these workshops is a willingness to be open and an inclination for having fun. Participants should bring soft, comfortable, pliable shoes/sneakers and wear comfy clothes. And remember, Don’t Sit Down, Please!
Dance Class Info & Registration
Instructor: Stuart Pimsler
Dates: Six Saturdays October 5–November 9, 2024
Time: 11:00am–12:20pm
Location: Center for Performing Arts, 3754 Pleasant Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55409
Max Enrollment: 15
Cost: $195
(Click the + next to the 0 to add a registration before clicking “Get Tickets”)
Beginning Improv with Dane Stauffer
Improvisation is proliferating! Come find out why!
In a playful atmosphere, step out of your comfort zone and enjoy the brain- boosting, spirit -lifting, day-brightening fun of IMPROVISATION!
Through theatre games, ritual, insight and lots of laughter, we will build spontaneous stories together. Affirm your ideas and creative impulses.
Deepen your listening skills and boost your creative imagination. Make
Learn confidence boosting games to share with others, and team- building skills that’ll last a laugh-time. Leap into Fall with a hearty “What if?” and a rousing “yes, and!”
Improv 1 Class Info & Registration
Instructor: Dane Stauffer
Dates: Six Saturdays September 28–November 2, 2024
Time: 11:00am–12:20pm
Location: Center for Performing Arts, 3754 Pleasant Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55409
Max Enrollment: 15
Cost: $195
(Click the + next to the 0 to add a registration before clicking “Get Tickets”)
“Cheat Out”
Advanced Improv
with Dane Stauffer
“Cheat Out” is a continuation of the session earlier this year. We will brush up on our skills: Listening, “Yes, and…” and use games to create characters, scenes and stories, and we will focus on some “Stagecraft.”
Participants will learn to transform the stage into a fully realized world through group agreement, physical embodiment” and more than a few laughs. Learn how writers of stage and screen use “beats” and how knowing this dramatic structure will clarify the scene’s “Emotional Hook,” and sharpen your scene work.
Through mastering beats and stagecraft, you will connect your inside improv game to your spontaneous actions, learning to work your scenes like an athlete and the stage like a pro.
Previous Improv experience is suggested to register for this class.
Improv Class Info & Registration
Instructor: Dane Stauffer
Dates: Six Saturdays September 28–November 2, 2024
Time: 12:30pm–1:50pm
Location: Center for Performing Arts, 3754 Pleasant Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55409
Max Enrollment: 15
Cost: $195
(Click the + next to the 0 to add a registration before clicking “Get Tickets”)
Instructors
Stuart Pimsler
STUART PIMSLER, a native of New York City, is the founder and artistic director of the Minneapolis-based STUART PIMSLER DANCE & THEATER (SPDT). For nearly five decades, Stuart and his company have toured the world, having been presented throughout the U.S. as well as in China, Israel, Bermuda, Canada, Russia, Mexico, and Western Europe. Locally, SPDT’s The Ends of Love was commissioned and presented by the Guthrie Theater while the Walker Art Center and University of Minnesota have also been new work producers.
Stuart’s critically-acclaimed performance work has often been partnered with his company’s community-engaged programs. Stuart’s Life Stories for senior citizens and his Families in Motion for family partners are two popular offerings. Stuart has been at the forefront of the Arts & Healthcare
field since introducing the signature program, Caring for the Caregiver™ in 1992. His book, The Choreography of Care/Engaging Caregivers in Creative Expression chronicles the arts-in-healthwork he and Suzanne Costello have continued to present worldwide. His work has been recognized for “Best Practices” by the National Endowment for the Arts and as a “national model” by The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Dane Stauffer
Fresh off a successful run starring in the IVEY award winning musical “Glensheen,” at the History Theatre, Dane Stauffer is pleased to teach this improv workshop. He studied at the Children’s Theatre School of Minneapolis as a kid, where improv was used extensively to develop full-length plays, and spent several happy teen years improvising Commedia del Arte at Renaissance festivals.
A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Dane had two years of theatre games with Omar Shapli, (one of the founding members of Compass Theatre and Second City Chicago) He returned to the Twin Cities, quickly becoming a resident company member of Dudley Riggs’s Brave New Workshop, writing sketches and improvising nightly. He was cast leader on the Inaugural improv cruise of “The Disney Magic” and studied in Los Angeles with Avery Schreiber, of Second City and “Burns and Schreiber” fame. (Not to mention the Doritos ad.) Dane has a long list of credits as an actor and playwright, which can be viewed at www.danestauffer.com
