PROGRAMS AND OFFERINGS

Areas of Study • Art Adventure Weekends

2D/3D Fine Arts Portfolio Development
2D Portfolio Development
Digital Filmmaking
Digital Photography
Fashion Design + Merchandising
Graphic Design
Sequential Imagery, Comics, Storyboarding and Drawing From Observation
Theatre

Theatre
* Mastering Musical Theatre
* Stage Combat
* Acting for the Camera
* Make up Design

Afternoons:
“Musical Theatre”
Patti D’Beck - Instructor pdbeck@vcu.edu

* Please bring sheet music from Broadway musicals for a ballad, an up tempo piece and a song of your choice to work on in class.
* Bring a tape recorder and a tape, or some type of a recording device.
* Bring a water bottle and dress to move.
* Wear either tennis shoes or dance shoes.

“Physical Movement/Stage Combat”
Kevin Inouye- Instructor inouyek@mymail.vcu.edu

* Please dress to move.
* Close fitting gloves and tennis shoes are necessary.
* Do not wear jewelry.
* Bring water bottle.

Four Evenings:
“Make Up Design”
Maura Cravey– Instructor mlcravey@vcu.edu

* This course will explore basic character make up for the stage. Students will learn about color, texture, and line as it pertains to changing the look of the face, i.e. old-age make up or twin likenesses.
* Students are expected to come to class with little or no "street" make up.

Instructor Bios:

David S. Leong is chairman of the Theatre Department at Virginia Commonwealth University. He currently holds the title of Certified Fight Master, a distinction held by only ten other people in the United States. Feature films include Titus starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange, and Alien Resurrection starring Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder. David’s fight direction and movement coaching has been seen on Broadway in Carousel, The Rainmaker, The Civil War, King Henley II, Company, Picnic, Hamlet, Macbeth, Solitary Confinement, Sex and Longing, A Delicate Balance, The Homecoming, and In the Summer House. David has also choreographed or directed fights and/or movement for Val Kilmer, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Spacey, Mary McDonnell, Tom Berenger, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Joan Cusack, Tom Hulce, Stacy Keach, Christopher Plummer, and Harry Hamlin among others.

Patti D’Beck is a veteran of 13 Broadway shows including, Annie Get Your Gun, Bells are Ringing, Grease!, The Will Rogers Follies, My One and Only, Evita, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, A Chorus Line Pippin, Seesaw, Applause, and pre-Broadway original musicals Busker Alley and Easter Parade. Patti also choreographed the opening number for the 1997 Tony Awards for Rosie O’Donnell. Patti has worked with many Broadway directors and choreographers including Tommy Tune, Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, Jeff Calhoun, and Graciela Daniele. She has personally coached Brooke Shields, Reba McEntire, Jon Secada, Bernadette Peters, Tommy Tune, Sandy Duncan, Susan Lucci, Keith Carradine, Marla Maples, Lucy Arnaz, Rosie O’Donnell , Lucy Lawless (Xena the Warrior Princess), Liza Minelli,, and Marilu Henner, to name a few.

Barry Bell has been a member of the Screen Actors Guild for the past twenty-seven years. He has worked in Feature and Independent Film, Television Series and Film, Commercials and Industrial Film. His resume includes; guest-starring roles on Matlock, Walker Texas Ranger, I-40 Paradise, Dawson’s Creek, Legacy, American Gothic, HBO’s From Earth to the Moon, John Adams, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and the British Television show The Professionals. On film he has appeared in Maximum Overdrive, Morning, Bruno, Reuben-Reuben, Doomsday Man, Radioland Murders, Trick or Treat, One of Her Own, The Perfect Daughter and three dozen other TV and Feature Films. Barry is currently an Assistant Professor in the VCU Theatre department where he teaches Acting for Stage and Film, and Directing for the Stage. Mr. Bell is also a member of Actor’s Equity.

Maura L. Cravey teaches Costume Design, Theatrical Makeup and Wig Design in VCU’s Theatre Department.   She is a graduate of VCU Theatre Department with an MFA in Costume Design and Technology.  Her teaching experience in costume design and makeup includes Virginia Commonwealth University, Murray State University, University of Virginia, and Fashion Design at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.  In addition to designing all of Swift Creek Mill Theatre productions, her designs have been seen at the Nevada Ballet, Las Vegas, NV, Dogwood Dell, Firehouse Theatre Project, African American Repertory Theatre, Ft Lee Playhouse, Yellow House Productions (film), Sibiu Theatre Festival in Romania, Theatre IV, Barksdale Theatre, Virginia Union University, SPARC, Richmond Shakespeare Festival, Blue Ridge Theatre Festival, and the Richmond Community Theater Guild.   She has received a Phoebe Award for Best Costume Design from the Richmond Times Dispatch Newspapers and the award for Best Costume Design in a Musical for the United States Army’s World Theatre Festival.  Her designs for Urinetown were nominated for Best Costume Design by Richmond Theatre Critics Circle.  Maura is an active member of SETC and USITT.

Kevin Inouye runs Fight Designer, LLC,  coordinating, equipping, and teaching safe but dynamic physical conflict for both the stage and screen. Recently relocated to Richmond to pursue his MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from VCU, he brings over a dozen years of training and experience working with all levels and ages of actors. His work has been seen locally in the fights of every mainstage Theatre VCU production since his arrival last Fall. Email address: inouyek@mymail.vcu.edu