Playwriting and acting courses in West End arts center

Long Branch — New Jersey Repertory Company has announced it will present playwriting and acting classes this fall in the new West End Performing Arts Center.

Gail Winar, an actor, director, producer and university professor will teach Intro to Acting.

Calling all aspiring writers and actors. Now is your chance to take your talents and skills to the next level. Beginners to experienced, anyone can apply and everyone has a story to tell and a dream to fulfill. NJ Rep is offering Intro to Acting, Advanced Acting and Playwriting courses taught by accredited professionals in their field.

Engage your mind, free your imagination and challenge yourself by learning the art of acting. Learn improvisational skills by using traditional theatrical techniques. Writers of all levels are encouraged to learn playwriting basics and practice techniques for effective storytelling. Write short plays, develop your inner writers’ voice and have your play read on stage!

NJ Rep’s Literary Manager Joel Stone will teach Playwriting October 20 and October 27; November 3, November 10, November 17, December 1 and December 8 from 6:30 pm–9:15 pm. The cost for 8 classes is $275.

Joel Stone is formerly the artistic director of Off-Off Broadway’s The Theatre Asylum.  On May 17, 1998, his play Horrors of Doctor Moreau (published by Samuel French, Inc.) became the first script-in-hand reading to debut at New Jersey Repertory Company. Several of his other works have been presented at NJ Rep as well.

From 2000-2002, he was the Theatre Education Coordinator for the New York City Board/Department of Education. In 2014, he was the Director/Mentor of the award-winning NJ Rep Young Playwrights Project, “Shelter from the Storm,” where local high school students wrote short plays about Hurricane Sandy.

For the past three years, he has been an adjunct professor of playwriting in the English Department at Monmouth University and recently joined the Theatre Department to teach improvisation.

Gail Winar will teach Intro to Acting October 19, October 26, November 2, November 9, November 16, November 30, December 7 and December 14 from 6:30 pm–8: 30 pm. The cost for 8 classes is $275.

This class is a fun way for beginners to dip their toes into the actors’ pool. Learn basic acting skills and techniques to loosen your core and get into character by performing technical exercises, cold readings, script analysis, improvisation, and scene performances.

Winar is an actor, director, producer and university professor. She has a BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts; certificate from the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain; and an MFA from the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Academy for Classical Acting/GWU.​

She has toured throughout the US and Europe, and performed regionally across the country.  She originated roles in the world premieres of Trans Scripts at 59E59 and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Missa Solemnis at the Barrow Theatre; Beyond Gravity at New Jersey Repertory Company and What I Heard About Iraq at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

She has also performed in, literally, hundreds of live corporate events, industrials and workshops for Sony, IBM, General Electric, Bristol-Myers and Deloitte & Touche – just to name a few.

Winar is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at Kean University in Union, NJ and Marymount Manhattan College in NYC, and has taught for the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute/NYU, CUNY, Columbia Teacher’s College, Vassar College, Stockholm University, and the Jakarta International School in Indonesia.

She is a Master Teaching Artist with the Roundabout Theatre Company on Broadway, conducting hundreds of theater arts residencies each year for middle schools and high schools throughout the five boroughs.

Wendy Peace will teach Acting in the Afternoon October 18, October 25, November 1, November 10, November 15, November 29, December 6 and December 13 from 3:00 pm–5:00 pm.  The cost for 8 classes is $275.

Deepen your acting chops and take your craft to the next level by honing your skills and learning character development, script analysis, monologue study, contemporary and classic scene studies.

Advanced Acting, also instructed by Wendy Peace, will be October 18, October 25, November 1, November 10, November 15, November 29, December 6 and December 13 from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm. The cost for 8 classes is $275.

Peace has appeared as Melinda in Robert Caisley’s Happy and Alice in The Housewives of Mannheim, a role she went on to play in Indianapolis, Santa Barbara and Off-Broadway. She has also worked extensively regionally and on national tour in the USA, Canada and the UK.

Other favorite roles include Elmire in Tartuffe (in French and English), Adriana in Comedy of Errors, Kate in Taming of the Shrew, Pam in The Poetry of Pizza, Lady M in Macbeth, and Claudius in an all-female version of Hamlet.
Over the last two years she has performed eight characters in Robin Rice Lichtig’s solo show Listen! The River in New York, Edinburgh and London.

She has directed several productions, including winners of one-act play festivals. Wendy was the Program Director for the NJ Rep Young Playwright’s Project. This award-winning program saw eight New Jersey high school students write plays in response to Hurricane Sandy.
To sign up for classes, contact 732-229-3166 or visit www.njrep.org and fill out an application online.  All courses will be held at the West End Performing Arts Center located at 132 West End Avenue, the former West End School building.