Hi y'all,
THis is a press release I just put out and I wanted to share.
Acting Teacher's Students Blazing Creative Trails
Andrew Utter, founder of the Mother of Invention Acting School in Los Angeles and San Francisco, finds that his students are seeking out and finding fresh and exciting opportunities to practice their art.
Mother of Invention Acting School
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – May 06, 2009 – Andrew Utter, founder of the Mother of Invention Acting School in Los Angeles and San Francisco, started his acting school five years ago, and is constantly amazed at the variety and richness of the work that his students are doing. From booking a small speaking part in Gus van Sant's 'Milk' to creating a touring one-woman show by a Palestinian-American entitled 'I Heart Hamas and Other Things I Am Afraid to Tell You', Utter' finds that his students carry on the idealism, the passion and the love of the art of acting that he espouses in his classes.
"One of the best things about this gig, aside from the classroom experience, and seeing people make strides in their skill as an actor, is hearing back from students about the things they are up to. I'll get a Facebook message that someone just got a role in an independent film, or I'll hear that someone got into a graduate program they applied for, and I will feel like a proud papa for a whole week!" Utter muses.
Utter's student Dawn Scott was admitted to the National Theater Conservatory in Colorado, which included a full scholarship and a stipend for three years and the opportunity to study trapeze as part of the training! Another student, Tim Rossi, just got a role in an independent film shooting this June in San Francisco called 'Sedona's Rule', about a man who agrees to let his girlfirend cheat on him, and is subsequently drawn into dangerous sexual intrigue. Miklos Philips, a filmmaker who studied with Utter, has made films which have been shown in several festivals and on NBC's Universal's Digital Television Channel 4.4 Independent Producer Showcase. Holly Shaw, an actor and choreographer, recently produced an evening of wolrd dance at Fort Mason's Cowell Theater, entitled 'Eyes of Eve', which included pieces that Shaw choreographed and appeared in, but also included many other pieces that allowed Bay Area dancers and choreographers to show their work.. Jeremy Mascia has becone a regular with the offbeat and surprising PianoFIght Productions, a theater/improv/comedy troupe operating in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
"I am very lucky to attract students who want to learn to do great work as actors and have a creative vision all their own. A lot of actors don't feel a lot of ownership of their own creative destinies, but you can't say that about my students. They have the pluck and determination to search out or create the contexts that will allow them to be the creative artists that they want to be" says Utter.
Utter started teaching in San Francisco five years ago, and began offering classes in Los Angeles in October. He founded the School to create a forum to pass on the tremendous acting training he received at the Yale Schoold Drama from master teachers like Earle Gister and Evan Yionoulis. He lives in San Francisco but travels weekly to Los Angeles to teach there. "I love teaching in both cities. They have very different things going for them, but there are passionate, creative people in both. I plan to keep a foot in both cities in the future."
The courses Utter teaches at Mother of Invention run in ten week cycles. The next cycles begin the week of June 30. More information is available at the School's website, http://www.utteracting.com/
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About Mother of Invention Acting School. The Mother of Invention Acting School was founded in 2004 by director Andrew Utter, MFA, Yale School of Drama. Utter founded the School to create a forum to transmit the approach to acting that he encountered from master teachers like Evan Yionoulis and Earle Gister at Yale to serious, motivated students.