DTC Hosts 5th Annual Skokos Learning Lab Showcase Today

Dallas Theater Center will host the fifth annual Skokos Learning Lab Showcase, the culmination of the Ted and Shannon Skokos Learning Lab collaboration between DTC and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (BTW), on Friday, May 23 in the Potter Rose Performance Hall at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. The performance is free and open to the general public. No tickets are required.

DTC and BTW formed the collaborative partnership when DTC moved into the Wyly Theatre in 2009 and the students participating in this year's showcase were freshman when the program began. Twenty seniors from the theater cluster at BTW will perform alongside nine professional adult actors, all members of DTC's Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company. The one-hour performance features the student and professional actors performing scenes from contemporary and classical plays. The showcase is the final project for the year-long Advanced Acting Class at the high school; a college level master acting class team-taught by BTW teacher Charlton Gavitt, DTC resident actor and master teacher Christie Vela and additional members of the acting company.

"Working with the Booker T. Washington students is, for me, easily the best part about being a Brierley Resident Acting Company member," says Vela. "It is a privilege to interact with and affect the lives of some of the best young artists our city is sending out into the world"

The Skokos Learning Lab is comprised of a year-long Advanced Acting class for seniors, internships for non-acting theater students, and a variety of observation and theater-going experiences. Internships are offered to seniors in the areas of stage management, costumes, stage operations and directing. Over the course of a semester, students are matched with professional mentors at DTC who provide them with hands-on experience through working on rehearsals and set construction, and assisting in playwriting, directing, and stage operations. The theater-going component provides free tickets and workshops for all senior theater students at BTW to attend performances of each DTC production during the school year.

Students participating in the 2014 Skokos Learning Lab Showcase are Edwin Aguilar, Malena Aranda, Rosa Armendariz, Natalie Bates, Alicia Crowder, Jordan Ford, Kyra Michell Jacobs, Kayland Jordan, Ally Karpel, Christian Lopez, Isabelle Lueckemeyer, Natalie Marshall, Nicholas Mayfield, Rachael McNamara, Austin Nguyen, Samantha Potrykus, Ayade Rice, Cyrus Stowe, Ian Wallace and Ruby Westfall. Students will work with actors Daniel Duque-Estrada, Tiffany Hobbs, Alex Organ, Brandon Potter and Sally Nystuen Vahle.

Admission for the Skokos Learning Lab Showcase is free. The Skokos Learning Lab Showcase will take place on Friday, May 23 at 5:15 p.m. in the Potter Rose Performance Hall at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in the AT&T Performing Arts Center.