Sketch comedy is a brief scene or skit lasting one to ten
minutes. Sketch comedy began in the days of vaudeville and today
is widely used on Sesame Street, or more provocative shows like
Saturday Night Live. It can also be a combination of live
reactions such as Man on The Street pioneered by Steve Allen and
most notably seen on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Often
sketches are first improvised by the actors and written down
based on the outcome of these improv sessions. Sketch comedians
often differentiate their art from that of the skit, maintaining
that skits tend to be a (single) dramatized joke, while a sketch
is a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation.
Our Sketch Comedy Workshop will bring out the inner comedian and
help students learn how to develop a comedic scene. Students may
work individually or in groups or as one large group developing
one or more comedy sketches. The day will spent on improv,
theatre games, character development and writing down and
revising the sketches. The very best Sketches are selected for
The Best of The Best program. This is a one week
program offered throughout the year and the students registered
for that program will perform the sketches. Often the students
who register are also the authors and original actors of the
sketch. It makes for great fun and a reunion type atmosphere.
The Best of The Best is typically 8-12 sketches and is
open to the public. This program is offered often so we can
include a great majority of the sketches that are written the
previous year ( ie each program will have 8-10 different
sketches so most can be included)
WHAT OTHER COURSES
ARE OFFERED?
FUN WITH
COMEDY- one day or two night improv
EXPLORING
SHAKESPEARE:
Students will learn what it was like to be an Elizabethan actor
and have the opportunity to perform in a short rendition of one
of William Shakespeare's plays. Students will also learn how to
properly breakdown a Shakespearean script and learn the
Elizabethan acting style and techniques.
MY TALE- An
Original Story
Students learn how to create stories by playing various acting
games, exploring fairy tales and using their imaginations
culminating in an Original Story
WHO ARE THE TEACHERS?
ANTHONY DEPOTO
Anthony De Poto is originally from Danbury, CT and resides in
Milford, CT with his wife Katie and daughter Cora. Anthony
received his B.A. in Theatre Arts from Western Connecticut
State University and his M.F.A. from Minnesota State University,
Mankato. In 2009 Anthony directed the first of many Encore
Players productions, a high school based improv group founded by
Westchester Hebrew High School Alum Matthew Newman. Anthony was
no stranger to the Putnam Children’s Discovery Center, directing
several Discovery Center Players productions. Some of his acting
credits include three Off-Broadway plays, an appearance at the
2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the cast of
Romeo and Juliet
and in Mary Zimmerman’s
Odyssey
presented at the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington D.C.
He also has various film and voice over credits too. Currently
Anthony works at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT where he is
a Teaching Artist. Anthony has directed two plays at
Westchester Hebrew High School; Neil Simon’s
Brighton Beach Memoirs
in
spring of 2009 and To Be Honest a play written by the 2013 WHHS
Drama Society with writing coach Janice Newman..
ELYSE JASENSKY
Elyse combines her two true loves:
teaching and theatre. Having been an elementary educator at a
Jewish day school for 21 years Elyse also finds time to write
fairy tales for Fairy Tale Theatre in Richter ( Danbury CT). In
her theatrical life, Elyse has been on stage in one form or
another since age 4. (Yes, that's a lot of years, but it's not
necessary to say how many...) As the founder of Fairy Tale
Theatre, a children's theatre troupe entering its 15th season,
Elyse serves as director, producer, writer, and Mother Goose.
Her most recent, and most gratifying, acting experience was as
Betty in
The Great American Trailer Park Musical.
Other favorite roles include Mama Rose (Gypsy),
Penelope Pennywise (Urinetown),
Joanne (Company),
Miss Hannigan (Annie),
and many varied roles in a long string of Sondheim musicals.
Elyse won the Friedrich Schorr Medmorial Performance Prize in
Voice, an international competition, and is a two-time winner of
the "Best Actress in a Musical" award, given yearly in Fairfield
County. However, Elyse's most rewarding role has been that of
wife and mother (Whaaa? No award for that?), and she forgives
her husband and three children for all defecting to the "dark
side". (Yea Tech!)
MATTHEW NEWMAN
Matthew
Newman was nominated for an Evvy Award for OUTSTANDING TV
PERSONALITY for his anchor position on Breaking News News a
satire on current events, a show that airs in Boston. Matthew
has been writing comedy for over 8 years. As a high school
freshman he founded the Encore Players the first Sketch
Comedy group of the Discovery Center. Matthew has performed at
numerous comedy clubs in NYC. He has written several full
length plays and currently is majoring in Screen Writing for
Film and Television. Many of you may remember him as the
talented improv guy at our dinner shows during his high school
years. He is back this summer to teach a variety of comedic
courses. You can see Matthew on You Tube: Matthew Newman Live @
Gotham or search Jimmy Traveling All Stars to see him in
several sketches.
REBECCA RABINOWITZ
Rebecca Rabinowitz
attended the Hartman Theater Conservatory
studying acting and directing. She continued with theater
studies at SUNY Purchase and HB Studios. Rebecca has appeared on
Law & Order, The Chappelle Show, Third Watch, recently in a
pilot called the ³U², and an upcoming short, ³Melville². Rebecca
started teaching and directing children when her own kids got
into the act. She has directed and taught for Brewster Theater
Company, Putnam Children’s Discovery Center, and coaches acting
privately. Rebecca has enjoyed working as director with the
amazingly creative and hard working students at Westchester
Hebrew HS.
KATIE DE POTO
Katie De Poto is originally
from Naugatuck, CT and now resides with her husband Anthony and
daughter Cora in Milford, CT. She graduated with her BA in
Theatre Design from Western Connecticut State University in
2007. She has been the set designer of Heidi Chronicles
and Blue Window Off-Broadway and Puppet Designer and
Technician in Iphigenia which was also Off-Broadway.
Katie has also appeared in Romeo and Juliet in the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007 as Katie Capulet. She has
worked with PCDC as an assistant director on numerous shows as
well as a costume and make up designer.
