As of Feb. 16, spaces remain in sections 2 and 3! Drop in through Moodle to learn more and enroll!
The Bi-Co Theater Program is offering three sections of Fundamentals of Acting during the Spring 2021 semester, a unique and rare opportunity created by the need for safe learning spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each section is capped at 12 students to allow for social distancing in the Common Room in Goodhart Hall, the Program’s main acting classroom. In-person studio coursework includes exercises in embodied learning and performative practice. The three sections will be taught by Assistant Professor in Theater Catharine Slusar, Lecturer in Theater Bi Jean Ngo, and Lecturer in Theater Molly Ward. Slusar notes, "In this time of the virtual and remote, this basic acting course is an opportunity to be physically engaged and present. You will connect with other students in a way that is difficult in other classes—because these connections are the fabric of the work itself."
Lecturer in Theater Bi Jean Ngo is an actor, director, and educator who works primarily in the Philadelphia area, having appeared on stage at InterAct Theatre Company, Azuka Theatre, Arden Theatre, Walnut Street Theatre, Theatre Horizon, Delaware Shakespeare, Shakespeare in Clark Park, and more. A 2016 recipient of the The F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist, Ngo has an M.F.A. from The Actors Studio Drama School at The New School University and a B.A. in film and television from Boston University. She is a founding member of Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists, has studied abroad in Japan and Italy, and trained at Dell'Arte International, The Suzuki Company of Toga, Shakespeare and Company, and The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski. Ngo is an Associate Artist at Delaware Shakespeare and at 1812 Productions and the recipient of the Fox Foundation Fellowship Award administered through Theatre Communications Group. Ngo is set to premier in the Theatre Exile’s world premiere of Sin Eaters, a digital production about the mental trauma of the little-known job of social media content moderation, set to open Feb. 11, 2021. Ngo is also a cast member in Manic Monologues, a digital performance presented by the McCarter Theatre in collaboration with Princeton University based on real-life recounts of experiences with mental illness, opening Feb. 18, 2021. This spring, she will be co-creating and appearing in an original digital production with 1812 Productions, unofficially titled The Way We Walk. Ngo joins Bryn Mawr College for the first time this semester.
Lecturer in Theater Molly Ward’s work spans two decades of world premiere productions and experimental interpretations of classical material in New York, across the country and in festivals overseas. Memorable work includes Sam Gold’s Kin and The Big Meal at Playwrights Horizons; Bess Wohl’s Make Believe at Hartford Stage; Daniel Fish and Theresa Rebeck’s Our House at the Denver Center; Dominique Serrand’s Imaginary Invalid at Playmaker’s Rep; Krystian Lupa’s Three Sisters at American Repertory Theater and Edinburgh International Festival for which she received an Elliot Norton Nomination for Masha; Gadi Roll’s Romeo and Juliet and Janos Szasz’ Seagull at American Repertory Theater; and Richard Foreman’s Paradise Hotel in NY, Paris, Copenhagen, Salzburg, and Berlin. She has participated in new play development with more than 50 organizations and institutions nationwide, runs a Shakespeare reading group in West Philadelphia, and performed her first solo piece, Brand New Pieta, in last year’s Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Molly is a short film and video creator of The Art of Wooing; The Martha Videos; and Lucas & Molly Productions. Molly has a B.A. in drama from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in acting from American Repertory Theater's Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University and Moscow Art Theater School. She is currently writing about a 21st-century approach to Stanislavsky, and her second full length play about the life and work of Elizabethan poet Mary Sidney. Ward returns to Bryn Mawr College after her Theater Program directorial debut—Spring 2020’s Emperor of the Moon—was shuttered due to last year’s sudden shift to remote learning. She is excited to rejoin the campus community with her Fundamentals class, noting students “will begin to build actor processes around the principles of presence and action, using games, exercises and scene work to engage imagination, embody language, and activate a scene.”
All students in the Bi-Co are encouraged to learn more and consider enrolling. For more information, contact Catharine Slusar.