About Alan Aymie
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Writing and Producing the One-Man Show (10 weeks)
The most challenging aspect of doing a solo show is doing it. Writing alone, developing the show alone, and ultimately performing it alone, makes for a daunting task that a lot of people take on only to let fall by the wayside. This course is meant to enable you to overcome the obstacles and bring your thoughts and ideas, and your passions, to life on stage.
We'll cover the history of the one-person show and a variety of other topics. Weekly writing assignments will help you discover sources of inspiration for writing and performing. You'll be taught to mine your own life for material. You'll learn to disengage from your internal critic to free your creativity, and we'll look at the importance of self-editing. Each week you'll submit new writing for feedback in a supportive environment that encourages further writing. As you get a feel for your personal style of writing, you'll start to develop a body of work that points in the direction you want to go with your show.
Later classes will focus on self-producing the show, learning about festivals for one-person performances, seeking out alternative performance sites, staging your piece, locating a director and the rigors of publicizing. The last class will consist of a "mini-performance" of student work.
With experience, you'll come to understand that the ultimate success of writing a one-person show is not in what you might create for yourself as an actor, but in how the process develops your ability to express yourself with confidence and freedom.
COURSE OUTLINE
1. The benefits of doing a 1-person show.
2. What to write about.
3. How to get started.
4. Looking for material.
5. Staying the course.
6. Creating your piece.
7. Sharpening the material.
8. Finding a place to perform it.
9. Producing, publicizing and keeping the ball rolling!
10. Putting it all together!
About Alan Aymie
ALAN AYMIE received his BFA in Theater from the University of Maryland and has worked professionally on stage, film and TV in DC, Baltimore, LA and NY; including The Maryland Stage Company, The Kennedy Center, A NOISE WITHIN and The Shakespeare Theater. Alan's first one-man play, The Sheik Comes to Cooper's Coffee was seen in Los Angeles at Theater Geo. Other works written and performed include, the one-man play, Songs My Father Taught Me, seen at The Pulse Theater Ensemble as well as the one-act play, Rats in The Coffeehouse which was recently given a staged reading at the ROAD THEATER COMPANY in North Hollywood, CA. His one-man play Child's Play was produced at The U.S. COMEDY ARTS FESTIVAL in Aspen, Colorado as well as theaters in NY, LA and Boston including The HBO WORKSPACE, COMEDY CENTRAL PERFORMANCE SPACE and PSNBC. Currently, it is in pre-production for filming. Most recently, Alan's short film, The Passion of the Couch was premiered at the Faux Film Festival in Portland, Oregon (given 7 out of 10 stars on IMDB). Alan teaches writing at the Los Angeles City College. For more information, see www.alanaymie.com.
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