RPA high school students will participate in three workshops with actors from Ashland’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Redmond Proficiency Academy theatre department will welcome OSF actors Melissa Stewart and Thomas Varga on Tuesday, October 31st for a series of performances and workshops in RPA’s McClay Center for Performing Arts.
Izzy King, a sophomore RPA thespian, said, “I can’t wait to see them perform on a stage that I perform on. It will be interesting to see what it will look like.”
The actors will be giving an hourlong performance in the morning followed by two workshops. During these workshops, Stewart and Varga, who attended last Thursday’s opening night of RPA’s production of Eurydice, will work with RPA theatre and literature students on stagecraft and the power of Shakespeare’s language. “It’s an honor performing for professional actors. Having people who value the arts so much in the audience is really exciting,” said sophomore Riley Newton.
Former OSF intern and current RPA theatre director Kate Torcom orchestrated the actors’ visit. “People often underestimate the brilliant theatrical and educational workhorse that is the Oregon Shakespeare Festival,” said Torcom. “We are incredibly lucky as a school to have the festival within driving distance, let alone to have OSF come to the RPA campus. This is such a gift.”
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, based in Ashland, is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1935. The company’s mission statement, according to its website, emphasizes a commitment to inclusion: “Inspired by Shakespeare’s work and the cultural richness of the United States, we reveal our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, deepened by the kaleidoscope of rotating repertory.”
About Redmond Proficiency Academy
The Redmond Proficiency Academy (RPA) is a public charter school operating in the Redmond School District. In its ninth year of operation, RPA serves nearly 900 students in grades 6-12. Students come to RPA from throughout Central Oregon. Using a proficiency-based instructional model in a personalized school environment, RPA strives to prepare all students for success in college and life.