The Art Of Making Choices

Bay Street Theater will present a six-week acting methodology workshop with screen and television star Noëlle Parker starting Tuesday, March 29. Classes will be held Tuesdays from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. through May 3, and will be held live and in-person at the theater in Sag Harbor. Masks and proof of vaccination are required for entry. Registration is $250 for six sessions, with a drop-in rate of $50 per class, and is open to adults and kids age 14 and up. For more information, contact director of education and community outreach Allen O’Reilly by calling 631-725-0818 or by email at allen@baystreet.org.

The Art of Making Choices is designed to give everyone from the beginner to the most experienced actors a firm foundation to approach any character. Part process and part performance, the workshop will create an open and creative space for the actor’s growth and character exploration.

What is a choice? It is finding the specifics the actor uses to ground their performance, such as: entering scene, imbuing a physical prop with meaning or memory, or allowing a touch, sound or smell to inform onstage behavior. With a focus on mindful awareness, actors can make choices to engage with inner thoughts, feelings, needs, etc. and outer circumstances, such as cast members, environment and place. When an actor allows their scene partner to affect them it creates a charge and importance to the work that is magnetic and commands the audience’s attention.

Each class will begin with a 30-minute focus on the relaxation and warm-up of body and voice. Students will learn the how-to and importance of engaging all five senses in their work. Using scene and monologue work participants will then learn to make choices related to breaking down a script to find the overall objective, asking and answering the right, specific questions to reveal the action and motivation of each moment, finding physical gestures and movements to support the revelation of subtext or deeper layers of the character, and personalizing the character using experiences to create a dynamic and unique performance.

The class will culminate with invited friends and family to showcase work.

Noëlle Parker began her professional career on stage at The Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York. As one of the youngest actresses to become a member of EST, she went on to appear in their annual Marathon of One Acts for the next five years. She attended the original High School of Performing Arts on 46th street (now known as LaGuardia) where she was formally trained in the methods of Stanislavski, Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagan. Privately, she studied extensively with Susan Batson and Sandra Seacat in New York, and with Dominic DeFazio in Los Angeles.

Parker has worked with Sean Penn, Blythe Danner, Brian Dennehy, Sam Waterston, Sarah Jessica Parker and Dermott Mulroney, among others. She has appeared in numerous films and television shows. Most notably in the title role of NBC’s “The Amy Fisher Story,” the film “At Close Range” and as a regular on the series “Sisters” playing the defiant wayward daughter of Swoosie Kurtz. She was awarded a daytime Emmy for her work in “Different Worlds — An Interracial Love Story.”

Most recently, Parker can be seen in the 2020 film “They Only Know So Much” where she is also an associate producer. She has been living and working in the Sag Harbor community for the last 10 years while continuing her acting career and working as a private coach locally and in New York City.