TexARTS Video and August 17 Open House Spotlight Arts Education Programs

Announcement and 2011 video from

TexARTS Open House
Saturday, August 17, 2013, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
2300 Lohman's Spur, Ste 160, Austin, TX 78734 -- click for map

TexARTS Association for the Performing and Visual Arts welcomes the community to an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, August 17, 2013. The celebration will kick off the 2013-2014 Academy year.
In addition to getting first chance at registering for the upcoming fall classes, attendees can also participate in free dance and visual arts classes; meet the TexARTS instructors - many of whom are Broadway veterans and serve on the faculty of nationally recognized Texas State University musical theatre program; watch selected performances from recent TexARTS productions; enjoy refreshments; and win tickets to upcoming shows.

TexARTS upcoming season includes: “Holiday Extravaganza” (Dec. 7-8), “The Nutcracker” (Dec. 14-15), Disney’s “The Jungle Book” (Jan. 11-19) and the Elvis Presley jukebox musical “All Shook Up” (Feb. 1-9).


TexARTS is a nonprofit organization that offers year-round classes in acting, voice, dance and the visual arts as well as completely staged youth and professional productions. TexARTS’ mission is to cultivate a thriving arts community by exposing all people to the visual and performing arts.

For more information or to register for TexARTS’ upcoming after school and weekend arts education programs, please visit tex-arts.org or call 512-852-9079.

Audition Workshop with Scott Tatum, Zilker Productions' Director for The Sound of Music, March 3

Looking to find your "showmance?" Audition workshops for The Sound of Music will be held on Saturday, March 3rd.

Join The Sound of Music Director, M. Scott Tatum, and our Creative Team for a FREE workshop to help potential auditioners and Austin area musical theatre performers. This workshop will cover vocals, dancing, and audition etiquette. Sessions will be at McCallum High School, 6500 Sunshine (click for map). Free of charge to all participants

When: Ages 7 - 14: March 3 from 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. -- Ages 15 - Adult: March 3 from 12 - 2 p.m.

Registration is required to attend this event. Please contact auditions@zilker.org to register.

Stay tuned for The Sound of Music audition dates, which will be publicized soon! Know someone who may be interested in auditioning? This information will be announced via our Newsletter first, so be sure to subscribe at www.zilker.org, and then via Facebook. In the meantime, mark your calendars for the show's run dates, which will be from July 6 to August 11, with performances Thursday through Sunday evenings.

Opportunity for Teaching, Theatre Action Project

Found on-line:

Have a Direct Impact on Austin Area Youth: Join the Tap Team

by Patrick Torres, Middle School and High School Program Director

Theatre Action Project (TAP) is seeking artists to join us in helping students see the arts as a tool for social change! We are a team of professionally trained artists and educators that work in partnership with school communities to lead unique and engaging arts programs which allow young people to learn critical life skills, gain tools for creative expression and have successful experiences that build self-esteem and confidence.

We are currently seeking Teaching Artists for the 2011-2012 school year to work with Austin area youth in our TAP After School programming for grades pre-K – 1h.

Applicants must have professional artistic experience and demonstrate a genuine interest in arts education. Teaching Artists (TAs) at TAP must be highly creative, energetic, enthusiastic team players with experience in writing curriculum. All TAs are hired as part-time employees for the duration of the school year, August – June. TAs are expected to have general availability between the hours of 2:00 PM and 6:30 PM Monday – Friday, although specific schedules will be determined according to school placements. TAs must be available for training starting August 22.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED in this position please email your CV or resume to patrick@theatreactionproject.org no later than July 31, 2011.

If you love TAP, but don’t feel qualified to teach or just can’t find time in your busy schedule to work in our after school programs, YOU CAN STILL HELP, just:

• Forward this notice to any one who you believe might make a good addition to our team.

• Volunteer to help us get ready for the start of our fall programming.

• Make a donation to us to ensure we can continue to bring high quality arts programming to the area’s youth!

• Come to our events to see the work of our city’s talented youth!

Upcoming: 'Leveraging Investments in Creativity,' Judilee Reed, November 4

Received directly from the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division:

Judilee Reed, Leveraging Investments in Creativity

Where: Austin Playhouse 3601 S. Congress Penn Field Austin, TX 78704 Driving Directions When: Thursday November 4, 2010 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM CDT Add to my calendar

Learn about LINC, national trends in the field, and how they connect to Austin! Please join the Cultural Arts Division, and our co-host the Austin Creative Alliance, for an evening with Judilee Reed, Executive Director of Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC). LINCis a ten-year national initiative to improve the conditions for artists working in all disciplines. LINC builds on research by the Urban Institute that identifies the need for new efforts that expand financial supports for artists' work; improve artists' access to essential material supports such as live-work space and insurance; and bolster knowledge, collaborations, and public policies that affect the work of artists and their contributions to communities. Launched in July 2003, LINC is quickly coming up to the end of its ten-year initiative. Judilee's presentation in Austin will offer an overview of the work of LINC, national trends in the field, and how they connect to what is happening in Austin now. Get more information RSVP Now! Please call 512-974-7860 if you have any questions about this event. You can also visit the Next Level website for more information about our workshops and speaker series. Sincerely, Cultural Arts Division City of Austin EGRSO culturalarts@ci.austin.tx.us 512 9747875

Education: Babs George Teaches Acting at State Theatre & ACC, September 15 - October 20

Found on-line:

The Creativity of Acting for Film & Stage

presented by State Theatre School of Acting

in association with Austin Community College at The State Theatre

Wednesdays, September 15-October 20, 7 - 10 p.m.

Intuitive acting. What does it mean? Where does it come from? How do you get there consistently?

Living in the moment, in a highly intuitive state is the method explored, (learned from Charles Conrad, now retired, but well known Los Angeles acting teacher of 40 years). Improvisation and cold reading scenes will be the bulk of the class work. Both film and stage scripts will be used, with some work filmed for playback and critique.

Beginning- Advanced Beginning. Led by Babs George Sept. 15-Oct. 20 (6 weeks) Wednesdays 1-3:30pm $165 DRAM 3003 100

Seminar: Writing the Impossible, with C. Denby Swanson, Austin Scriptworks at Dougherty Arts Center, June 26

Received directly:

Austin Script Works Dramatis Personae Series

WRITING THE IMPOSSIBLE

A workshop with Colin Denby Swanson

Saturday, June 26th from 2-4pm
Dougherty Arts Center , 1110 Barton Springs Rd.

COST: $20 ASW members/ $30 General
INFO/RESERVATIONS: 512.454.9727; christi@scriptworks.org

Playwright Jose Rivera encourages us to include at least one impossible thing in each of our plays. In the play that you are writing or even just thinking about, what is your one impossible thing? What *can* it be? We’ll study Rivera’s “36 Assumptions About Playwriting,” and specifically the idea of impossibility. The workshop will also include writing exercises to make room for impossibility in character, dialogue, scene direction and events.

More information at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Role of the Innovation Workforce & Creative Sector

On May 1 state senator Florence Shapiro (Plano) and other notables released with ceremony the study The Role of the Innovation Workforce & Creative Sector in the Texas Economy.

Latifah Taormina, executive director of the Austin Circle of Theatres, had advised ACOT members by e-mail, reprising the press release from the Texas Cultural Trust characterizing the study as "a powerful report on value of arts, arts education & creative industries to growth of Texas economy." ACOT commented, "The report demonstrates direct links between creative sector and Texas economy at a time when state leaders are debating: (1) the best way to prepare Texas schoolchildren as the workforce for the future, and (2) state funding of the arts."

ALT has spent some time with the report, which is available at the website of the lobbying campaign Create Texas. It's an easy, generally anecdotal read, one that quotes pop sociology observers such as Richard Florida and Daniel Pink. The drafters from Texas Perspectives, Inc. (TXP) re-chew studies done in their own office and elsewhere, including particularly a 2005 national study by Americans for the Arts and a 2001 compendium issue brief The Role of the Arts in Economic Development: prepared for the National Governor's [sic] Association. These sources offer observations that pretty much all arts lovers will endorse:

• The arts generate employment, tourism, tax revenues well beyond modest subsidies, better students, mutual understanding and better citizens.

• Knowledge-based professions and industries tend to cluster in urban areas with lively arts communities.

• Disadvantaged students benefit disproportionately from participating in arts.

• America's global comparative advantage is the creativity of its people, a quality that can't be outsourced beyond our boundaries.

• Arts education enhances that creativity. (In this connection, my favorite quote from this piece: "The number of students obtaining an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) has dramatically increased in recent years, and corporate recruiters now routinely visit the top arts graduate schools in search of talent. The high-concept abilities of an artist are often more valuable than the easily replicated skills of an entry-level business graduate."

Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .