2019 CTAM Fall Conference

2019 CTAM Fall Conference
October 11 – 13, 2019
Hosted at Beautiful Treetops Resort in Gaylord!

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This year we have lined up some fabulous presenters for our workshops at the Fall Conference to match the amazing accommodations and surroundings of our host facility, Treetops Resort in Gaylord, MI. Our organizers have also arranged for a reduced cost for registration ($119) and room rates ($89/night) that even covers Thursday night lodging, which many of you may want to utilize to get in an extra day of golf or hiking.

The conference attendees will need to call the group reservation line directly at 855-261-8764, by Friday, September 13th to secure their conference room reservation. They will need to mention the “CTAM Fall Conference” to get the group rate. Aside from 5 award-winning golf courses (including one of the best Par 3 courses in the nation) and top notch conference facilities, Treetops also offers the following activities:

Full service spa
Indoor/outdoor pools and hot tubs
Fat tire bicycle rental for a scenic ride around the Resort
Hiking and biking trails throughout the Resort
Otsego County Historical Museum (free admission) located downtown Gaylord
Live Elk viewing area at the Gaylord’s Elk viewing park located minutes from downtown Gaylord

WHY COME TO FALL CONFERENCE?

We have extremely experienced and knowledgable presenters offering some unique and important classes ranging from makeup tutorials, stage combat, playwriting and more!
We moved to one of the best resort facilities in the state that offers world class amenities!
Connect with other theatre organizations throughout the state and share in their knowledge and make new friends.
Reduced registration cost – 32% less than last year’s conference!

Complete Workshop Offerings

David MacGregor
Keynote Speaker and Playwriting Workshop Leader

David is a playwright and screenwriter. He is a resident artist at Jeff Daniels’ Purple Rose Theatre, where six of his plays have been produced. His play, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear, recently enjoyed a sold-out run, and its sequel, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Fallen Soufflé, will open the Purple Rose’s 2019-2020 season. His plays have been performed from New York to Tasmania, and his work has been published by Dramatic Publishing, Playscripts, Smith & Kraus, Applause, and Heuer Publishing.

He wrote the screenplay for the dark comedy, Vino Veritas (2013), which stars Carrie Preston (Emmy-winner for The Good Wife), and his screenplay In the Land of Fire and Ice was a 2016 Athena List Winner (best screenplays featuring female protagonists). His street-soccer series, Shadowplayers, is currently in post-production and will air on the Zeus Network. He teaches writing at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Writing Your Play And Getting It Produced

This is a workshop on not only how to write a play, but how to get it produced. In the first half of the workshop, we will cover ideas, one-act plays, full-length plays, formatting, scriptwriting programs, and the various resources that will give you leads on where to send your plays for production and/or publication. In the second half of the workshop, we will workshop/discuss story ideas provided by the participants, and there will also be a Q&A session. No, you don’t need an MFA or an agent to get your play produced…but you do need a play, and this workshop will provide you with everything you need to help make that happen.

Carrie Butler
Two Dynamic Make-up Workshops

Carrie is a trained makeup artist in Bay City, MI. Her love for art, drawing and painting started at a very early age, and in 2005 her passion blossomed while participating in an independent zombie film. She took her talent for drawing and painting and brought her artwork to life through makeup.

Carrie describes makeup artistry as “painting on live canvas, since every canvas (face of a client) is different. No face is exactly like another. That is what makes it so beautiful and exciting.”

After attending college at Saginaw Valley State University, Carrie worked in live entertainment within the Amusement Park industry. However, her true love resided in makeup. From there, she moved back to the Great Lakes Bay Region and began working with the Bay City Players Community Theatre. Carrie spent the next ten plus years refining her skills and broadening her makeup experiences through community events, haunted houses, independent sessions, youth programs and independent films.

Carrie has worked with many talented photographers, other extraordinary makeup artists within the community and several independent filmmakers. Today Carrie is the resident makeup artist at Bay City Players Community Theatre and enjoys teaching makeup techniques/styles to the up and coming youth through Stages of Discovery.

NOTE: To get the most out of these makeup classes, please bring a Ben Nye Old Age Makeup Kit (Approximately $20), a Ben Nye Zombie Wheel (approximately $28); and/or a Ben Nye 3D Effects kit (approximately $26.)

Special FX Makeup: The Horror, The Trauma, ZOMBIES!

Get the “DERANGEMENT” & “UNDEAD” looks! In this special FX makeup course, you will be guided through every step of the special FX makeup application process. You will learn a variety of cutting-edge techniques and 3D effects, from the basics of applying blood to creating raised skin & scars.

Special FX Makeup: The Beauty of Growing OLD!

Old age is the number one special effect makeup you will do and it’s a great process. In this course, you will be guided visually step by step through everything you need to know about creating old age makeup, from the subtle to the extreme. Learn techniques of Old Age stippling (subtle aging) to body breakdown (extreme aging).

Emily Anderson
Marketing Workshop Leader

Emily has been involved in community theatre for 20 years, having acted in over 40 productions as well as working backstage, and serving in a governance capacity. She currently serves on the programming committee for Midland Center for the Arts as well as on the national board of the American Association of Community Theatre. She had the pleasure of working at Center Stage Theatre for six years, where she honed her skills in non-profit communication strategy, programming, marketing, and volunteer relations. She now works as an Admissions Recruiter at Delta College where she also hosts Beyond Broadway, a local radio broadcast about the arts scene in her area. She is a mom to two wonderfully theatrical boys, Liam and Kellan.

Butts-in-Seats: Growing Your Audience Through Dynamic Programming and Marketing

Is your home theatre ready to shake things up? Do you want to draw a new and vibrant audience? Not sure where to start? Join self-proclaimed “big idea person” Emily Anderson as she breaks down her approach to programming and marketing for community theatres of all sizes.

Steven Schwall
Stage Combat Workshop Leader

Steven Schwall has been staging fights professionally since 2006. He is a Certified Teacher of Stage Combat with the Society of American Fight Directors. In addition, he is a Level 2 professor of the Margolis Method of Dynamic Movement. He is also a practitioner of Historic European Martial Arts (HEMA), and Ko-Ryu Kabudo (Okinawan weapons). He has recently added Intimacy Direction to his repertoire. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Fine Art and did his graduate work in Theater/Performance Studies at Eastern Michigan University. He has been an instructor at several SAFD regional workshops and has presented workshops for the Community Theatre Association of Michigan (CTAM), the SouthEast Theater Conference (SETC) thrice, the American Association of Community Theaters (AACT), and the Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival Conference twice.

The Fundamental Basics of Unarmed Stage Combat

Basic techniques in unarmed stage combat, stressing safety and good partnering.Included techniques are the back fall, push/pull, slap, punch, kick, hair/ear pull, and front and rear choke. Format is demonstration/drill, with a short choreographic phrase at the end. Open to beginners.

Nitasha Rajoo
Shakespeare Workshop Leader

Nitasha Rajoo is currently the Interim Director of Education at the Stratford Festival. Nitasha has over 20 years of experience in the performing arts as an actor, director and as an educator. Her love for the creative arts, education, travel and adventure has allowed her to work all over the globe leading workshops, adjudicating, teaching, directing and programming- including countries such as South Africa, India, Jamaica, the UK ( where she lived for over 10 years!) and now back home in Canada. Nitasha holds a Master of Arts in the Advanced Teachings of Shakespeare (Warwick, UK) and most recently delivered workshops at the Teaching Shakespeare Program at the Stratford Festival, at the ABCDE Conference entitled “Whoosh into Shakespeare” and at The Good Will Shakespeare Festival. She was the program leader for the Creative Teens Program at the Arts Club Theatre Company. She has taught a series of drama workshops on Beauty and the Beast to new immigrants and refugees, and has been invited to consult on drama reform in schools in the Northwest Territories and has been an adjudicator for Speech Arts Festivals across Canada.

Hamlet: To Be…or Not!

An opportunity for participants to look at the text of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and explore language, breath, and context. Participants will focus on the voice and spoken word in numerous practical activities such as hot seating to understand the character, thought tracking to discover turmoil and language details to recognize motive. No prior experience of Hamlet is necessary – just a willingness of energy, effort and enthusiasm is needed!

Dexter Brigham
Two Workshops on Programming/Promoting Your Theatre

Dexter Brigham serves as the Director of Theatre Programs at Midland Center for the Arts. In addition to producing the community theatre season, he programs the center’s monthly comedy series, film series and summer Matrix Festival. Prior to coming to Michigan, Dexter founded and served as the artistic director for the first 12 seasons of Festival 56, Illinois’ largest summer theatre festival. The highlights of his performing career include Fred/Petruchio in the 2003-4 Broadway national tour of Kiss Me, Kate, Dewhurst/Percy cover in the 2002 tour of The Scarlet Pimpernel and the title role in the Off-Broadway revival of The Robber Bridegroom. He serves on the board of the directors for the Michigan Presenters Network.

Filling in the Blanks – Programming Your Season

A theatre’s stage is it greatest asset. The vast majority of a theatre’s income is derived from selling tickets to the events happening up there. And yet almost every theatre has long stretches when there isn’t a show onstage. But those utility bills and insurance payments keep coming whether the stage is filled or not. So what tools do theatres have to increase the number of curtains in their season without overburdening the staff and volunteers? Dexter will provide an overview to the world of presented programming, exploring how theatre’s can use touring music acts, comedians, magicians and other performers to provide a wide spectrum of programming for any budget.

Making Art in a Different Way

Over the past year, Midland Center for the Arts, Pit and Balcony Theatre and Bay City Players, along with the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance, came together to produce a regional mega-production of Mamma Mia! that impacted over 9,000 patrons and 100 community artists across the nine county region. This presentation will provide a look at how and why this project was undertaken, the challenges and surprises along the journey, and the benefits of making art collaboratively.

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Don’t forget our annual raffle to raise funds for education will be happening again this year. We are looking for raffle prizes for adults and kids, $35 or more in value! Tickets are sold all weekend long and the drawing is held after brunch on Sunday morning. We raised more than $1,200 last year. This money is available through CTAM Scholarship to help attendees with registration fees for events like Fall Conference, Master Class and Regional Workshops.

It will be a fun filled weekend! We hope you all can make it. Invite your friends, share with your membership and don’t forget many of our workshops are suitable for attendees of almost any age. Please join us for a great educational weekend of theatre!