Super Sunday at WCSU
Join us on Sunday, November 6, 2022 for a Super Sunday with the Department of Theatre at WCSU! All high school juniors and seniors are encouraged to attend this free event. At Super Sunday, you will get a look at our facilities including our state-of-the-art Visual and Performing Art Center, take workshops with our esteemed faculty in your area of interest, get to know our current students, and see a matinee of our mainstage musical Bat Boy: The Musical for free!
Registration has now closed for Super Sunday. We hope you’ll join us at our next event!
Full schedule of Super Sunday
8:00am-8:30am – Check-in
8:30am-9:20am – Welcome by WCSU Dept. of Theatre Faculty
9:30am-10:50am – Workshop 1* (Your choice from below options)
11:00am-12:20pm – Workshop 2* (Your choice from below options)
12:30pm-2:00pm – Lunch Provided with Current Students and Faculty
2:00pm-4:30pm – Bat Boy: The Musical performance
4:30pm-5:00pm – Q&A with Cast and Technicians, Wrap up
Options for Workshop 1
- Distressing without Distress (Scenic Painting)
- See How The Magic Happens (Rigging, Scenery, Props, Lighting)
- Don’t Bother Buying the Director Coffee: They Might Not Be Working Here Tomorrow. (Stage Management)
- Nail That Audition! (Acting and Auditioning)
Options for Workshop 2
- Life in Miniature (Stage Design)
- From Sketch to Stage: How Costumes are Realized (Costumes)
- There’s No Tune Like a Showtune – How Songs Tell More Than They Tell (Analysis and Dramaturgy)
- Nail That Audition! (Acting and Auditioning)
About the workshops & faculty
Options for Workshop 1
A Scenic Painting Workshop
Come try your hand at theatrical magic as you make things look AGED, PEELED, RUSTED and DECAYED on painted surfaces for stage and screen. All Materials and instructional sheets supplied. Plan to take a masterpiece of urban archeological decay exploration home with you! This workshop is hosted by Professor Elizabeth Popiel, member United Scenic Artists local 829 and Art Director for Good Morning America Weekend Edition.
See How The Magic Happens: Mounting a Mainstage Musical
A Behind the Scenes Technical Theatre Workshop
This workshop will take you backstage before the matinee performance of Bat Boy: The Musical, giving you a behind-the-scenes look at our state of the art equipment and facilities. See and learn all about the craft of technical theatre, ranging from stage rigging, scenery and props, to lighting. This workshop is hosted by Assistant Professor Tom Swetz.
Don’t Bother Buying the Director Coffee: They Might Not Be Working Here Tomorrow.
A Stage Management Workshop
Come join University Assistant John Bonanni in an informative 80 minutes of advice and anecdotes in how to enter the battleground of stage management and come out a loved and respected leader. In this workshop, you will learn:
- How to manage sensitive personalities.
- How to organize totally unorganized people.
- How to calm the high strung, the vulnerable, the nasty, the egotist.
- The secret to getting people to respond to you.
- Why BB King, Eminem, Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, Alicia Keys were the nicest people in the business.
- Why Miley Cyrus, Rage Against the Machine, Beck, the producers of Barney were not.
- Why you should buy coffee for the producer, who is your boss, and who pays you.
Stage management is an organizational specialty. You manage inspiration, revelation, and ideas within a budget. If you are interested in spending time with a group of folks who are usually quite sensitive and vulnerable, this is for you. Bring tissues.
John spent a management career on Broadway, Radio City Music Hall, car show announcements, hotel ballrooms, pharmaceutical break out meetings, and street fairs. He holds an MFA in Creative & Professional Writing from Western Connecticut State University. His writings have appeared in Adelaide Magazine, Poor Yorick Literary Journal, the Raven’s Perch, and The San Antonio Review. His backstage memoir, Just Off, Stage Right, is available at amazon.com and adelaidebooks.org.
Nail That Audition!
An Acting and Audition Workshop
Improve your audition skills. This is a workshop in sharpening your audition techniques. Learn how to prepare and perform better. We will go over script breakdown skills prior to performance and then tips and tricks on performing. Other areas covered will be material selection, relaxation and how to begin to approach the material. Please bring your audition material to perform with a short feedback section to follow. Or just come watch! This workshop is hosted by Professor Sal Trapani (Law and Order, One Life to Live, Circle East Theatre Company).
Options for Workshop 2
A Scenic Design Workshop
This workshop, for the aspiring set designer or technical director, will explore how to draw some quick scenic shapes and turn them into a “white model” in 1/4” scale that you can take home and be proud of! Hosted by Professor Elizabeth Popiel, member United Scenic Artists local 829 and Art Director for Good Morning America Weekend Edition.
A Costume Workshop
“There Is No Tune Like a Showtune”: How Songs Tell More Than They Tell
A Dramaturgy and Analysis Workshop
Want to write a great musical? Let’s listen to some songs from Hamilton and Follies to see how both the lyrics and the music work together to move audiences in ways that even the audience itself may not perceive. This workshop is hosted by Professor Dr. Don Gagnon (Author: The Politics of Oscar Hammerstein II).
Nail That Audition!
An Acting and Audition Workshop
Improve your audition skills. This is a workshop in sharpening your audition techniques. Learn how to prepare and perform better. We will go over script breakdown skills prior to performance and then tips and tricks on performing. Other areas covered will be material selection, relaxation and how to begin to approach the material. Please bring your audition material to perform with a short feedback section to follow. Or just come watch! This workshop is hosted by Professor Sal Trapani (Law and Order, One Life to Live, Circle East Theatre Company).