During two weeks in October, the theatre classes and Apprentice Players, exclusively, will be treated to workshops by masters in the twenty-first century theatre arts arena.

The first set of sessions takes place on October 17 and 18 on both campuses. Tannis Kowalchuk and Jess Beveridge, Artistic Director and Company Manager of Farm Arts Collective, respectively, will work with students and actors during their workshop entitled Creating Devised Theatre.

The schedule is as follows: Monday, October 17 from 1 to 2:15pm and 2:30 to 3:45pm and 7 to 10pm. All Monday sessions will take place onstage of the William & Helen Richards Theatre at Orange Hall with the evening program being more in-depth. On Tuesday, October 18 from 2 to 3:15pm, Kowalchuk
and Beveridge will present the workshop in the OBTC Great Room 101, Kaplan Hall.

Each session will begin with a brief time devoted to theatre history for perspective. Then, Kowalchuk and Beveridge will delve into their creative methodology and set the stage for this interactive and immersive workshop. Their goal is to inspire creativity in the form of words, movement, imagination, and collaboration. Physical and vocal skills will be explored to help students and actors articulate energy for their imagination in the creative process. Programs of this high degree of expertise are fashioned to focus students and actors on the depth of creativity and its broadening experience in theatre arts.

Tannis Kowalchuk is a highly experienced actor/playwright in the Hudson- Delaware Valley region and beyond who is presently based at Willow Wisp Farm of Damascus, PA, a Certified Organic by NOFA-NY Certified Organic, LLC, where she started Farm Arts Collective, a cultural organization which is committed to community building through theatre, art, farming/food, and ecology. Previously, she was as an originator of NACL theatre/cultural center of Highland Lake, NY. Kowalchuk holds a BA in Theatre Arts from the
University of Winnipeg. She has been a guest artist/teacher at Rutgers University, Humber College in Toronto, and SUNY Orange. In the 1990s, she was a core member of Primus Theatre, a prominent experimental theatre troupe of Manitoba, Canada. In 2019, she was honored with a Women and the Arts and Media Collaboration Award.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Tannis Kowalchuk

Jess is an alumna of SUNY Orange and the Studio Program at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, NYC, a private conservatory for the performing arts. She is an actor who has trained and performed with 29th Street Playwrights Collective, The Pearl Conservatory, Co-Op Theatre East, GoJo Clan Productions, Cornerstone Theatre Arts (of Goshen), and Forestburgh Playhouse.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Jess Beveridge

These presentations are offered by Cultural Affairs to which questions may be directed: cultural@sunyorange.edu.