Adult Acting Classes
Unstaged: An organic approach to the art and craft of acting
Unstaged is an adult acting class designed to unlock your potential as an actor, a storyteller, or simply as a person, through an organic approach to the art and craft of acting, and the experience of being. Taught by Rusty Wilson, one of the city’s most well-respected artists and teachers, students move through a sequential series of stage tasks and exercises designed to help students achieve true presence on stage and off. Unstaged will help you rediscover yourself, whether on the page, on the stage, or in other complex and creative pursuits. The class is open to adult students of all acting experience levels, or none at all. Life on stage starts with life Unstaged. We hope you’ll join us.
Questions? Please contact Laine Satterfield, Director of Education, Cadence Theatre at lainesatterfield7@gmail.com.
Unstaged Spring 2024 Details
Cost: $400
Ages 18 and up
Classes held weekly, 7–9PM at RPAA at Dominion Energy Center, parking code provided. We are offering two sessions—Mondays and Wednesdays.Schedule
Monday Session 7–9PM: 2/12, 2/19, 2/26, 3/4, (no class 3/11), 3/18, 3/25, (no class 4/1), 4/8, 4/15
Wednesday Session 7–9PM: 3/20, 3/27, (no class 4/3), 4/10, 4/17, 4/24, 5/1, 5/8, 5/15
Rusty Wilson
Rusty Wilson (he/him) is a freelance theatre artist based in Richmond, VA. Since moving to Richmond in 2005 he has directed a number of critically acclaimed productions including Cadence Theatre’s John, (RTCC Best Director, 2017), Sight Unseen, and In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play). Other Richmond directing credits include Firehouse Theatre’s Death of a Salesman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (RTCC Best Director, 2011), Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice (RTCC Best Director, 2009), and Noah Haidle’s Mr. Marmalade. Rusty also directed Virginia Rep’s To Kill A Mockingbird, and Richmond Triangle Players’ Cloud 9. Prior to moving to Richmond, Rusty spent ten years serving as the Founding Artistic Director for Company of Fools, an award winning theatre company located in Sun Valley, Idaho. Favorite directing credits there include Uncle Vanya, James Joyce’s The Dead, Waiting for Godot, How I Learned to Drive, The Tempest, Death and the Maiden, Buried Child, and Other Desert Cities. Rusty has been a guest director and teacher at various colleges and universities around the country, received a fellowship in directing in 2003, and was featured in the March 2002 issue of American Theatre Magazine. From 2005 to 2022, Rusty served as the Arts Department Chair and Ampersand Director for St. Christopher’s School. He currently serves as an Associate Artist for Cadence.
NEW COURSE: Practical Acting
Practical Acting is a simple and effective approach to acting that Morrie Piersol has developed over the years that uses as its foundation, the basic, but crucial, skill of listening and responding truthfully on the stage as championed and taught by the legendary acting teacher, Sanford Meisner. Additionally, this approach incorporates the major tenets of Practical Aesthetics, a technique developed by The Atlantic Theatre Company and its co-founder, David Mamet, where the actor learns to identify and implement the character’s actions and intentions as derived from the text (linear actions). These two skills, along with other techniques, including improvisation, give the actor the tools needed to simply and effectively do their job: to communicate the piece to the audience honestly, clearly, and as intended by the playwright. As of January 10, our Spring 2024 Practical Acting class is full.
Spring 2024 Details
Cost: $400
Ages 18 and up
Classes held weekly on Thursdays, 7–9PM at RPAA at Dominion Energy Center, parking code provided.
Schedule: 2/15, 2/22, 2/29, 3/7, (no class 3/14), 3/21, 3/28, (no class 4/4), 4/11, 4/18
Morrie Piersol
Morrie Piersol (he/him) is the Acting Artistic Director of 5th Wall Theatre who has acted and directed in Richmond for twenty-five years. Morrie is retired from the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School where he served as Theatre Arts Instructor and main stage director. Prior to moving to Richmond, Morrie was active in theatre in New York where his acting credits included work at Playwright’s Horizons, The Actor’s Studio, and a role in the long-running Broadway production of The Runner Stumbles. He was also co-founder, producing director, and company member of Force 13 Theatre, an award winning Off-Off Broadway Theatre Company.