Fall Schedule Of Classes and Workshops Announced at Bay Street Theater

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts has announced its fall schedule of classes and workshops are now open for registration. Classes will be held online via Zoom or in-person in outdoor and social-distanced settings, and vary from on-camera acting workshops, to musical theater reading clubs, to performances of Shakespeare. For additional information, contact Director of Education Allen O'Reilly at allen@baystreet.org.

Starting September 26, Shakescene! Let's Put On A Play will meet Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. through October on the grounds of the Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum. This outdoor and social-distanced workshop, led by Allen O'Reilly and theater instructor Teresa DeBerry, will guide participants ages 7 to 12 through the rehearsal and performance of an abbreviated Shakespeare play. In addition to learning about Shakespeare's works, and the Elizabethan era in which he wrote, students will be exposed to a variety of fun activities that will further their understanding of the Bard and his world, including stage combat, singing and dance, and the Shakespearean insult game! Possible titles that students will perform are Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest. The fee is $500 for six sessions.

Starting September 26, Musical Theater For Kids: Willy Wonka will meet Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. on the grounds of the Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum. This outdoor and social-distanced workshop, led by teaching artist Bethany Dellapolla, will guide participants ages 7 to 13 through a selection of scenes and musical numbers from the Broadway hit Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka. Students will spend six weeks working on acting, singing, and dancing, when at the conclusion of the camp a special presentation for family and friends will be held. The fee is $500 for six sessions.

Acting For The Camera With Don Stephenson will be held online via Zoom Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 5:30 p.m. starting October 6. This 12-part course will provide adults and kids ages 13 and up an introduction to acting for the camera, where they will gain knowledge in techniques specific to television and film. Using a variety of scripts from productions currently or formerly cast and shot in New York and Los Angeles, Stephenson will provide a practical method of acting for the camera through intensive scene work; students will have online access to this material, and will be assigned multiple scenes (dialogues) over the course of the class. The fee is $500 for 12 sessions.

Musical Theater Club: Reading Ragtime! will be held online via Zoom Wednesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. starting October 7. The five-part reading club and musical theater workshop, led by Broadway director Marcia Milgrom Dodge, will be available to adults only. Inspired by Oprah's Book Club, this interactive musical reading club is for theater lovers everywhere. Over the course of five sessions, participants will read through and dissect the script of the Broadway musical Ragtime! to get a behind the scenes look at how a director first approaches a script and what secrets can be found in the text. All participants will have the option of playing a part in the reading of the script as well as asking Mrs. Dodge questions about the theater industry. The fee is $100 for five sessions.

Teresa DeBerry has been a theater educator and professional actor, director, and choreographer for 40 years. She taught for the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was part of the team that created and implemented their most successful summer theater performance program for young actors. Teresa has taught, directed, and choreographed for Georgia Shakespeare, Theater in the Square, Georgia Tech, and Emory University, where she co-taught a Shakespeare in Performance class with world famous author, Salman Rushdie. As an actor, Teresa has performed with The Alliance Theater, Cleveland Play House, Georgia Shakespeare, Cleveland Public Theater, and many others.

Allen O'Reilly has worked as an educator and professional actor for over thirty years, and has served as Artistic Director at Young Audiences of Atlanta, Education Director at Georgia Shakespeare and, most recently, Education Programs Manager at Cleveland Play House. While at Georgia Shakespeare, he directed touring productions of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. His television and film credits include Sleepy Hollow, TURN: Washington's Spies, Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, The Assassin's Code and The Enormity of Life.

Bethany Dellapolla is an actress, teacher, director, and choreographer based in New York and Long Island. She received her degree in Theatre Performance from SUNY New Paltz, where she was named one of the Outstanding Graduates of her class. She graduated with honors from LIU with a Masters in Childhood Education, and holds teaching certifications in Childhood Education, Early Childhood Education, Special Education, and Theatre Education. Teaching and coaching credits include: Broadway Dance Center, Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, and Gateway Playhouse.
Favorite regional credits include Love, Loss, and What I Wore (BroadwayWorld.com nomination for Best Actress in a Play), The Graduate (Elaine), Cabaret (Frenchie), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Olive), Ruthless! The Musical (Lita Encore), Company (Jenny), and The Tempest (Iris).

Don Stephenson directed Titanic at Lincoln Center, Broadway Classics at Carnegie Hall, Of Mice And Manhattan for The Millennium Stage at The Kennedy Center, Noises Off at Asolo Rep, The Other Place at The Alley Theatre, A Comedy Of Tenors (Broadway World Nominee Best Director Of A Play), The Producers, and many more. As an actor, Don starred as Leo Bloom in the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of The Producers and played The D'ysquith Family in the Tony Award-winning A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Murder. He created roles in the original Broadway casts of Titanic, Parade, Dracula, and By Jeeves. Other Broadway credits include Rock Of Ages, the Tony Award-winning revival of Private Lives, and Wonderful Town at Lincoln Center.

Marcia Milgrom Dodge (MMD) is a Tony Award- and Drama Desk Award-nominated director and choreographer. Her 2009-10 Broadway revival and Kennedy Center production of Ragtime, for which she received both nominations, was the culmination of a 30-year career in regional and Off-Broadway, which included directing Bay Street's productions of Fit To Print, Hair, Once On This Island, and others. She appears as herself in Disney+ Encore! as the Theatre Director in the episodes Annie and Ragtime!, streaming now. National tours include TWUSA's Curious George and Seussical, the South Korean musical Cookin', and Ragtime!. In 2020, she produced the Bay Street online talk show series, Backstage With MMD: Random Notes & Anecdotes From Productions Directed By Marcia Milgrom Dodge.

Bay Street Theater is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center, which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. It serves as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists.