Musical Theatre for Teens

A short course split over 3 Sundays for teen actors to work one on one with Musical Theatre professionals to learn new skills as actor singers.

The students will work on 1 song that will be selected by their tutors. This song will be chosen with the hope that it challenges the student vocally and dramatically.

This course aims to:

• widen the field of possibilities for a young actor
• to give them the skills to investigate characters within the context of musicals
• develop a sense of presence and depth of musical intelligence.
• At the end of the course their work will be filmed for their use as a potential audition reel for future work.

The course will work on a mixture of group work and one on one sessions, always alongside their class mates. Every student will have different areas to work on and seeing their peers work will be invaluable for their learning. There is a max of 12 students only.

Please email jackie@ratastudios.co.nz and introduce  yourself and what you hope would benefit from this course and send a 2 min video of you singing something you love to sing. Can be anything. Choose something that shows off the best part of your voice and brings you joy.

About Nino Raphael

Nino Raphael is a freelance director, composer, teacher, and choir leader in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. He has worked for over a decade in theatre companies, festivals, and opera. Nino works part-time as a performance and voice coach at Toi Whakaari National Drama School, Rātā Studios, and the New Zealand School of Music.

About Lara Strong

Lara Strong is a professional actor, singer and dancer who is passionate about story-telling in the performing arts. Lara has been studying and working in New York City where she received a scholarship to study Musical Theatre at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). After graduating, Lara immersed herself in the hustle and bustle of the New York City theatre scene where she was seen performing Off-Broadway in the world premiere of ‘Audrey: The New Musical’ (as the Audrey Hepburn understudy and alternate for Young Audrey), performed at Lincoln Center for Broadway’s Future Songbook Series, produced and performed her own one woman cabaret series and represented New Zealand by singing at a NZ government event in NYC. At the same time, Lara continued her training at other institutions including screen acting at the renowned Stella Adler Studio of Acting and Improvisation at The People’s Improv Theatre (The PIT NYC).

Before moving to New York, Lara had extensive training in multiple disciplines of performance since the age of 4 here in New Zealand. She was also heavily involved in the Wellington arts scene, such as being a member of the Long Cloud Youth Theatre Company, performing with Witch Music Theatre, doing improvisation at Rata Studios, starring in the short film ‘Maunga’, performing in many works across Wellington with Tarrant Dance Studios, and dance teaching at ‘Standouts’ children’s performing arts program.

Lara has recently returned to Wellington, and is excited to bring her New York performance experience and training back to Rātā Studios.

Timetable and Enrolment

Timing	Sundays (4 hours each week) 19th and 26th  November and 3rd Dec (3 Sundays) Sundays:  10am–2pm
Location	Scots College Drama Rooms
Tutor	Nino Raphael and Lara Strong
Target Market	Teens
Price/Student (incl GST)	$400 (for 3 small group sessions)