A most unusual summer will cap Tony Piazza’s teaching career at Allen Community College.
With the 2019-20 school year officially in the books, Piazza has one piece of unfinished business — the 21st annual Allen Summer Youth Theatre performance.
Because of health concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, Piazza will rely on the wonders of modern technology to provide the instruction and performances.
The workshop is open to any youths ages 13-21 to take part in 12 virtual lessons, starting Monday.
The lessons will be delivered via a private Facebook video group, Piazza explained. Each video will be released at 11 a.m. Monday through Thursday, for the next three weeks.
Piazza and assistants Jordan Garcia and Adrienne Fleming will follow the same structure as a traditional theatrical workshop.
Sessions will include warmups, improv exercises and instructions on creating characters, monologues, scenes, poems, stories and songs.
All material will be created by the session leaders and the youngsters themselves; there will be no scripted material to learn.
Students can work solo or as part of a duet if they have a partner nearby or can create a Zoom scene with someone, Piazza said.
The technology affords some flexibility as well, because the videos can be watched at any time of day. In fact, youngsters can sign up any time in the first week to allow time to catch up with the lessons, he noted.
At the end of the three weeks, Piazza, et al, will compile a group video to publicly share via the ACC Facebook and YouTube pages. (The workshop sessions will remain private.)
To sign up, youths simply can request to join the “Allen Summer Youth Theatre” Facebook page. From there, Piazza will send a message with the formal application form.
There is no cost to participate. The project is being funded by the Helen Gates Whitehead Trust.
For more information, contact Piazza at piazza@allencc.edu or 620-228-9852.
The summer theater program has been a staple of the ACC drama season since Piazza’s arrival in 1999.
It began first as a Shakespeare in the Park production, followed by a series of musicals and melodramas. The last few years, the summer productions have been held at the ACC Theatre.
