Paula will be coaching/directing the State Theatre Industry Showcase. The auditions for the showcase had a huge turn out of excellent candidates.
Ten wonderful actors were chosen and will begin work on Sunday, October 25th for the Dec 2nd showcase. Paula’s Wednesday evening class at the State Theatre is also already full. Therefore, Paula will re-institute her Monday night ongoing workshop at her home studio. If you want to be on the list for that class or want more information, e-mail Paula at russells@rockisland.com. If you wish to observe her classes at State Theatre, contact Paula for details.
Reel Women of Austin, Texas will present Speed Mentoring with industry professionals including Casting Directors, Agents, Film editors, Directors, Producers, Coaches and much more. Paula will be mentoring as a coach. see reelwomen.com for details. And remember that men are welcome.

Summer Weekend Intensive and Fall State Theatre Industry Showcase

Three-Day Weekend Intensive
for Actors, Directors, Teachers, Writers, Seekers & Others

Schedule for Three-Day Intensive Workshop: Limited to 10 students
6:30 P.M. – 10:30 P.M. Thursday, September 17, 2009
10 A.M.- 6 P.M. Saturday, September 19
10 A.M.- 6 P.M. Sunday, September 20
Summer low rate: $175!!
South Austin location, easy free parking.

Embrace mistakes, plan accidents; surprise yourself, fellow actors and your audience. Workshops are often a mix of highly trained professional actors and teachers with beginners. This is a healthy mix from which everyone benefits. Using wildly creative yet reliable classic acting techniques, within the specific disciplines of relaxation, character study and text breakdown, learn to stay spontaneous, true and unpredictable from cold reading to call-back to final performance in a safe and positive professional environment. Find that ‘still and magic place within that lights up a screen.’

Work is based on individual needs with one-on-one attention in the following:

* Relaxation: releases tension and behavior controls, heightens awareness
* Character Study through Improvisation: sensory / body work
* Character Study through Text: given circumstances, active objectives
* Personalizations through Theatre Games
* Staying in the Here and Now & Listening
* Full Use of the Self: tantrums, telling jokes, sensory work, back-story, etc.
* Working through Activities with Props and Food
* Using Surprises and Planned Accidents
* Breaking the “4th Wall”: a sense of place and play
* Eccentric Choices: Taking Chances, Embracing Mistakes
* Cold Reading & Audition Skills: First Reading to Final Callback
* Optional: monologs: 2 1/2 minutes max, scenes: 5 minutes max (with a partner)

Please dress in comfortable rehearsal clothes [no shorts; protect knees] in which you can move freely.

The weekend is a great way to start the work and then continue when you are available in the Monday drop-in to prep for interviews of any kind, hone auditions, performance or speaking engagement, practice commercial reading and monologues, and work out to keep that instrument tuned!

Paula will teach the SHOWCASE class for State Theatre. One must audition for this class on Oct. 11th. The class is 6 weeks. The Showcase for Casting Directors, Agents and Producers is Dec 2nd. See State Theatre website for details.

Paula will teach the 6 Week Beginning Acting Class at State Theatre starting October 14.

June 16th new 6 Week Class starts! also Weekend Intensive

The Six Week Class starts on June 16th. ONE TIME ONLY summer price $145.
Meets at S. Lamar studio with plenty of easy, free parking.

Tuesday evenings from June 16 thru July 20th from 6:45 to 10:45. If those reservations are not in by June 14, there will not be a 6 week class. So if you really want this class, try to recruit a scene partner to make it happen.

You must e-mail Paula to reserve this class by Sunday, June 14th. There are 3 spaces available. E-mail to russells@rockisland.com or click on Contact on the web site.

Both the Weekend and the Six Weeks will go with a minimum of 6 and maximum of 10. So if you want this to happen, contact Paula asap regarding payment to reserve your space!

The Weekend Intensive format offers 20 hours of class in 2 1/2 days. Most responders to the previous announcement preferred the following dates.

Thurs eve June 25th 7pm-11pm. [this time is flexible], followed by all day Sat and Sun, June 27 and 28, 10am-6pm.
Must be reserved by June 18th.

Read below for information on fall classes and content and return to site for more complete information.

PAULA’S CURRENT NEWS:

Start preparing now to audition for the Industry Showcase workshop in October. Read below for details.

Paula’s May through June Acting for Film class at State Theatre School is full.

Paula is coaching the cast and directing one in a series of short original plays that open at Long Center’s Rollins Theatre on May 14th.

The Monday drop in class is currently taken up with the cast of “Are You Alive?” There may be openings after May 11th.

To audition for the State Theatre Showcase for Agents and Casting Directors, prepare either a 3 minute scene or a 2 minute monologue. Choose material suited to film and television that is not highly identified with a major star. Pick a role you’d likely be cast in.

Auditions will take place Sunday, October 11th from 5-7PM at the State Theatre.

You must audition for the Showcase class. The class will meet Sunday, October 25 through November 29th. the showcase is Wednesday, December 2nd. Everyone in the class will be in the Showcase and will have a professional packet with their photos and resume’ provided to the industry guests. Plan to have updated photos ready for that!

It is not to soon to look for material and begin to prepare. You can check out Paula’s Monday class to work on your audition if you are not already in a class where you can do that. Or you can schedule private or semi or group sessions.

contact Paula at russells@rockisland.com for full information.

March 27, 28, 29 Weekend Intensive

Three-Day Weekend Intensive at State Theatre School
for Actors, Directors, Teachers, Writers, Seekers & Others

Using wildly creative yet reliable classic acting techniques, within the specific disciplines of relaxation, character study and text breakdown, learn to stay spontaneous, true and unpredictable from cold reading to call-back to final performance in a safe and positive professional environment. Embrace mistakes, plan accidents, surprise yourself, fellow actors and your audience. Workshops are often a mix of highly trained professional actors and teachers with beginners. This is a healthy mix from which everyone benefits

Work is based on individual needs with one-on-one attention in the following:

* Relaxation: releases tension and behavior controls, heightens awareness
* Character Study through Improvisation: sensory / body work
* Character Study through Text: given circumstances, active objectives
* Personalizations through Theatre Games
* Staying in the Here and Now & Listening
* Full Use of the Self: tantrums, telling jokes, sensory work, back-story, etc.
* Working through Activities with Props and Food
* Using Surprises and Planned Accidents
* Breaking the “4th Wall”: a sense of place and play
* Eccentric Choices: Taking Chances, Embracing Mistakes
* Cold Reading & Audition Skills: First Reading to Final Callback
* Optional: monologs: 2 1/2 minutes max, scenes: 5 minutes max (with a partner)

Please dress in comfortable rehearsal clothes [no shorts] in which you can move freely.

Schedule for Three-Day Intensive Workshop
6:30 P.M. – 10 P.M. Thursday, March 27
10 A.M.- 6 P.M. Saturday, March 28
10 A.M.- 6 P.M. Sunday, March 29

fee: $185. (pay to State Theatre School of Acting.)

Call to register at 512-692-0517
Limited to 10 students.
REMINDER: The ongoing drop-in Monday class is in session. See News on Paula’s website or call her at 360-317-6363 for details and directions.

The weekend is a great way to start the work and then continue when you are available in the Monday drop-in to prep for interviews of any kind, hone auditions, performance or speaking engagement, practice commercial reading and monologues, and work out to keep that instrument tuned!

Monday evening ongoing Workshop

Paula Russell’s “You Can Never Get it Neat” Mondays

Work-out on a pay per class basis, or pay per month for lower rate.

Monday evenings: 6:30 to 10:30.
Ongoing: Begins Monday, Feb 23rd.

Studio in So. Central Austin, 78704.
Parking is easy and free.

Communication Arts for Everyone: beginners and advanced
actors, teachers, writers, directors, speakers, seekers and others.

All sessions begin with essential Relaxation Work followed by Games and Exercises incorporating Sensory and Personalization work specific to individual needs. Everyone plays together for the first hour.

Three hours devoted to individual needs. Bring in any material you wish to explore, experiment with or polish. You may work on interview and audition techniques, public speaking, in depth scene study, monologues, workshop original material, musical performance, or use the session for in- depth acting exercises in preparation for a specific role, creative project or public presentation. And learn to tell a good joke!

paula-russell.com to read testimonials, workshop details, philosophy.

Paula has been a professional coach to actors, political candidates, teachers, directors, writers, retired seniors, teenagers and others for thirty years.

$25 per four consecutive 4-hour sessions paid in advance: $100.
$30 per four-hour Drop-in.

e-mail or call to reserve time and space and for directions to studio.

Reminder: Reel Women workshop is Feb 21st. from 1-4 PM. This is a benefit for Reel Women. The fee goes to support the organization.

Reminder 2 (again): Join TXMPA and participate on March 3 and 4.

This workshop is for adults. Contact Paula if you wish to spear-head a class for teenagers.

Happy 2009. Paula’s next workshop at the State Theatre School begins Thursday evening, February 5th. Limited to ten students. The last class of 12 students filled, so sign up early to secure your space.

Austin Workshops

The November-December Six Weeks scene study class is full. For information or to reserve space in Paula’s next classes at State Theatre in 2009,  call 512-692-0517.  Or contact Paula at russells@rockisland.com  to schedule customized classes or private sessions.

Directors Guild/ Emmy Award-winning director Joan Darling writes: “Paula is one of the few people who really understands the technique of acting and the artistic center of it.” Austin’s own CK McFarland describes Paula’s work as “Offering new and wonderful layers of insight to the work… Refreshing and fun…easy and accessible.”  Producer/director, Will Wallace writes, “Paula has a wonderful gift to teach…powerful insight.”

In this work you can: Become more of the best of who you already are.

The purpose of class is to offer the place, time, permission and artistry for that expansion to happen, so that you own it and carry it with you into your life and work.

Learn a complete craft for actors, directors, teachers and others within which you joyfully exercise muscles needed to develop and/or maintain your skills as artists in “ready-working” condition.  Whether you are a professional or a novice, artistic muscles work best when kept fine-tuned and adaptable.

Class blends classic techniques of Adler, Meisner, Strasberg, Hagen and Spolin to develop/release your innate, unique creativity. Play in a positive, professional environment where personal privacy is never invaded. Build, maintain and strengthen artistic muscle through physical (sensory/voice/ movement) relaxation work designed specifically for artists; text and character study including improvisation, dynamic choices, embracing accidents, planning surprises, natural staging and ensemble. Feel free to bring in material with which you’d like to experiment, or work with exercise scenes provided.

When actors break the bonds of their preconceptions to experience themselves as fully alive in the moment in front of an audience, they can NEVER GET it NEAT!  Whether it happens in a darkened theatre in front of an audience or in front of a camera operator in a cramped room, performance art is alive. If you try to tidy it up, you will kill it.

For new and continuing students, this class expands on the work described in the Weekend Intensive with the addition of refined, memorized scene and/or monologue work, improvisation, and The popular Moment Alone Exercise. No negative critiques are given or allowed. To quote Joan Darling, This work is designed so that you can’t fail!

More details on Austin workshops below.

The classes are intentionally designed for artists at all levels of experience to work together and impact one another, like in the real world of film and theatre. Emphasis is on the kind of truth backed by power choices that is essential for film and for theatre. That may not be a big sell, but it’s how one really learns. It’s not a quick-fix approach; it’s building, maintaining and expanding artistic muscle.

Brief Bio:

Paula Russell recently moved to Austin after several guest-teaching visits and directing the successful, full-length original play, “Shards” in the new Long Center Rollins Theatre.

As a member of Actors Equity Association, SAG, and AFTRA for 30 years, Paula acted in theatre, film and television and directed critically well-received theater in Los Angeles at The Cast, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, Actors Playhouse and independent venues. She interned by invitation as director-in-training on “Taxi,” “Cheers,” “WKRP” and Newhart” under James Brooks, James Burroughs, Will McKenzie, Joan Darling and others.
Paula has been teaching and directing non-stop for 28 years, offering workshop intensives, classes, private and production coaching for both professionals and community groups. She taught acting and directing professionally for 15 years in association with Directors Guild and Emmy Award-winner, Joan Darling.

Paula created and taught weekend Actor/Director Intensive Seminars titled “You Can Never Get It Neat” at UCSB Extension, Monterey City College, Orcas Center Theater, Actors Theatre of Orcas Island, Alleywood Studios, Austin, Old Pueblo Players, Tucson, and private venues in Santa Barbara, Tucson, Austin and L.A.

She created and taught acting & on-camera commercial classes at SAG franchised La Belle Agency in Santa Barbara for 3 years, ongoing weekly class for Orcas Center Theatre, annual Six-Week Scene Performance Workshop at Actors Theatre (in 5th year), Directing and acting intensives for Orcas Theatre Conservatory, and Theatre at Orcas High School.

She taught Conflict Resolution Through Theatre Games at elementary schools, grades 3-6, and to faculties; a highly successful program throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.

Paula facilitated the training of law enforcement officers in domestic dispute mediation through filmed improvisation for the Burbank, California Police Department. She has coached political candidates, diplomats, mayors, lawyers & public speakers.

Paula’s most recent professional work as an actor includes three SAG commercials in 2006-7, the title role in “Always, Patsy Cline” under an Equity contract and a special appearance in The Vagina Monologues.

Attended San Francisco State University, College of Marin, LACC, The American National Theatre and Academy. Additional training includes David Craig’s Musical Theater (for professionals only by recommendation), Off the Wall Improvisation Co., Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum Shakespeare Company, Sherman Marks Master Class, Joan Darling Master class and more.
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Paula has been on stage or back-stage since the age of two. She studied acting with Paul Rebillot, at San Francisco State University, where she had her own radio show, and at The College of Marin before moving to Los Angeles. Her first mentor/teacher there was the late, great Francis Lederer who trained with Eva Le Gallienne and founded the American National Theatre and Academy.
For several years, Paula studied and did plays with Stella Adler and Sandy Meisner teacher, Mary Carver from whom she learned a solid working craft. She was accepted into Sherman Mark’s advanced scene-work master class. Other influences include working-out at Off-the-Wall improvisation group, several years performing Shakespeare at Ellen & Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, working on Tennessee Williams with Brando’s “Streetcar Named Desire” understudy, actor/coach, Clark Gordon and acting under the direction of his wife, Eve McVeagh, voice with Robert Edwards, Tae Kwon Do with Jun Chong, and Alexander Technique with Pam Hartman.

The fierce, brilliant musical performance teacher, David Craig’s unparalleled work with precision, focus, timing and back-story still influences Paula’s work as a teacher, director, actor and singer.

Commercial workshops with the wonderful Carolyne Barry still influence Paula’s teaching, especially in camera and cold-reading/audition technique.

Whether one has years of experience or is a novice, there is an astonishing gift that Joan Darling offered to artists through a unique combination of deep and playful exercises, analysis, sensory work and philosophy. It is Paula’s privilege to pass this gift on to those who seek a joyful place of disciplined, passionate purpose in which to work, experiment and grow.

For a direct link re Paula’s next Weekend Intensive see: Austin Circle of Theatres