Announcing 2025 Theater Lab Acting Classes

What is Theater Lab?

Theater Lab is a VIVA program designed to train older adults in the arts of acting, and give those actors the chance to perform on stage in front of an audience.

VIVA’s Theater Lab will be held in two parts. The first part – intermediate acting classes – will begin on June 3rd and run a total of six weeks. The second part – performance – involves rehearsing and performing a one-act play during the month of September.

These classes are for those with some experience in acting. We will hold Beginning Acting class in the fall.

Why Theater Lab?

At VIVA we currently produce two main-stage productions a year at the Dairy. Yet even in a show with a large cast, there are still a limited number of speaking roles available and those roles tend to go to those actors with more experience.

So how do new actors get experience? First, through high-quality training, and then with stage time.

Classes will be taught by Anne Sandoe and others (see below) in a supportive and comfortable environment meant to encourage judgment-free exploration of one’s creative self. Lessons will include exercises in observation, imagination, and basic stagecraft. Vocal techniques will be taught by Margaret Jansen. Movement will be taught by Carolyn James-Arras.

What: each module is six classes of two hours each, held in the evenings. We will have two class groups, limited to 10 students each.
When: One class begins June 3rd at 5:30 pm,  and the other on June 5th at 6 pm.
Where: Westview Church, 6710 Arapahoe in Boulder
Cost: $120 for the six sessions

What’s Required?

Important: Participants will be chosen by Anne after reviewing the applications. You must be able to memorize. You will be required to present a one-minute monologue at the first class so that Anne can assign you a scene. We will take a deep dive into character and script analysis, and apply that in monologues and scene work.

Because you’ll be working and interacting  with other people, you must be able to commit to all classes (barring any emergencies of course).

To apply, please fill out the form below:

Anne Sandoe: Anne is an actor, director, and teacher who has performed with the Colorado, Oregon, Alabama, Virginia, and Antioch Shakespeare Festivals. She has taught acting and voice for more than thirty years, including at UNC, San Francisco State University, and Wright State University in Ohio.

Locally, Anne has performed with BETC, the Arvada Canter, Coal Creek Theater, the Catamounts, Longmont Theater Company, and has acted with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival since she was 16. She last performed in Boulder  in Local Theater’s production of You Enjoy Myself at the Dairy.

Margaret Jansen: Margaret’s teaching style is best described as so much fun. Her lineage of ‘the natural voice’ comes directly from the amazing Kristen Linklater, the foremost voice teacher of the last century.

Carolyn James-Arras: Carolyn toured the world with the London Festival Ballet and has performed with artistic legends Rudolf Nureyev and José Carreras. She was ballet coach for US champion figure skaters in Colorado Springs, and is currently a member of 3rd Law Dance Theater’s Dance for Parkinson’s team.