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Saturday, February 22, 2020
10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Hattox Hall
Karen and Donald Cohn Education Center
The Old Globe
Play! class is an opportunity for the actor to work out their imagination. Through exercises and games, we learn to trust each other and the world around us to start communicating with every part of our bodies. We have to revert to playing like children in order to get back to the core values of fun. The uninhibited child spirit must be set free. The imagination must be ignited, and then the artist can start having fun. Within this process, an ensemble is built because we are doing it together: breathing and sweating together, organizing ourselves, looking up to play together. We tell stories through choreography, create rock bands, and create whole plays from a single sentence and image. A class full of abandon and risk where happy failure awaits at every moment. A learning experience by getting it wrong. A safe and brave space where we can hug each other at the end and say, “Thank you for going there with me.”
This will be a physically rewarding class geared for performers, teaching artists, and theatre makers of all skill levels interested in building ensemble through play.
Jesse Perez is an actor, choreographer, movement consultant, director, and educator from the New York City area. He studied at The Juilliard School and taught there for 12 years. In 2019 he was made Director of Professional Training for The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. In San Diego he has played Richard III in La Jolla Playhouse’s production of Seize the King by Will Power, directed by Jaime Castañeda. He was also the movement consultant for La Jolla Playhouse’s production of The Luckiest by Melissa Ross, directed by Jaime Castañeda. For The Old Globe he played Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet, directed by Barry Edelstein, and then directed Twelfth Night for the 2019 fall Shakespeare production in the Globe’s arena theatre with all the students currently in the M.F.A. program. Next up, he will direct 57 Chevy by Cris Franco at San Diego Repertory Theatre.
