Local theatre professionals using their skills to keep arts alive during COVID-19 pandemic
Center Theatre Group professionals help you tap into your imagination and teach tricks of the trade with 'Theatre Skills At Home' .
LOS ANGELES -- L.A.'s Center Theatre Group is doing something to spotlight the arts during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is enlisting pros of the stage world to let you in on their world, and learn from it. The project is called Theatre Skills At Home, and the only thing you really need is a little imagination.
Theater directors, designers, artists, crew people and staff members are the teachers of these tutorials for you to try at home.
"We want to inspire people to embrace their own creativity at home," said Lindsay Allbaugh, CTG associate artistic director.
"So we thought, what if we reached out and said, hey, what do you have around your house that you could use to create some theater magic and inspire audiences to maybe create their own response videos?"
Costume designer Ann Closs-Farley is one of the professionals helping with the program.
"For us, as a family, it is creating a lot of laughter," said Closs-Farley. "I think we laughed more than we did anything else while creating a mess. And I think that's 100% the reason to do it."
Closs- Farley, who was the costume designer behind CTG's production of "Zoot Suit', showed how she helped transform her son into "Puck"... the sprite from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
"Instead of just focusing on, like, 'well, that came out terribly' or 'That didn't come out at all like I was planning,' it's more like, 'Oh, I just had a great time with my mom and my sister doing something silly and ridiculous and really fun," said Ann's son Vice Farley.
"And I wanted to make sure everything was fully recyclable," said Closs-Farley. "I actually made all these skirts in the video; I actually made masks for people and sent them off to New York."
Another video features fight director Edgar Landa showing you how to safely throw the perfect punch.
"Theatre Skills at Home" is the newest addition to CTG's "Art Goes On" project, a fun way to enjoy what theater is all about.
"It's about opening up our doors-our virtual doors-and letting anyone in who wants to participate," said Allbaugh.
