Quotes About Workshops

I didn't have a lot of great jobs. I was a third-shift legal proofreader. I did office work for people where a friend might say, 'Hey, we need someone,' in his office, and then I will have a month or two weeks or whatever somewhere. I was - I taught fiction workshops.

I love directing actors. In the last few years, I have started expanding my directing into workshops for actors who truly want to grow and learn. My mom was a high school drama teacher, and teaching makes me very happy. My workshops are nurturing.

I never attended any acting school, though I've done theatre workshops a couple of times, and it has been an extremely enriching experience. But beyond that, I don't want to acquire the skills of acting and use them on camera. I'd rather learn on the job.

The reason I do workshops is so I can learn, and I am fortunate that I've probably gained more from the whole experience of teaching than any one participant has. It is all about asking.

I wouldn't just come home from school and watch TV everyday, they had me involved in lots of local theatre. I was a very dramatic, talkative child. And that was part of my mother's creative solution - to put me in workshops and classes and children's theatre programmes.

The craft of writing is all the stuff that you can learn through school; go to workshops and read books. Learn characterization, plot and dialogue and pacing and word choice and point of view. Then there's also the art of it which is sort of the unknown, the inspiration, the stuff that is noncerebral.

There are so many people that say they are actors and they don't spend for 5 minutes a day working on their craft. You need to train and need to take classes to keep your tools sharp. I'm always in class, whether it's theater or drama workshops.

I think the problem I have with films is that, because there's so much hype around them, they become bigger than they should be, really. There are things that people do every day in their little workshops that they'll take to heaven with them. You've got to realise that it's not everything, making films.

I read my books to writing workshops and friends, and I'm often focussed just on keeping them entertained. I never think about marketing at all.

I think what I like best is that when people give talks or workshops, it doesn't really matter what level you are as a writer - whether you are a beginner, or you've been around the block a bit; there's something that you can take away from every session.

Around 2005, the Canadian army tapped me to do a dramatization for a series of foresight workshops they'd done. They had stacks of papers and needed it boiled down to something simple enough for a 4-star general to understand. We decided to do it as a story. That's how I created 'Crisis in Zefra.'

I'm so convinced that hiking helps my writing that I recently decided to offer a series of hiking-writing workshops to see if others had the same experience.

I have been doing so much. Speaking engagements... producing... developing a half-hour sitcom... working on a movie... leading acting workshops all over the world... and hosting 'My Black Is Beautiful,' an empowerment TV show I'm doing on BET for women.

Back in the Stone Age, before there were workshops, it was a very difficult idea to get into musical theatre. Normally, you would be a chorus girl or boy and write something. People would get their start as rehearsal pianists or dance assistants.

I'm always going back to New York for Broadway workshops or reading. So I always keep my foot in the door: I'm always on the lookout for the next Broadway show.

They're the best critics. Workshops are good, and drama teachers are fine, but the best is the audience. And even better if they're paying!

At writing workshops, they taught us to show, not tell - well, showing takes time.

I've been in so many writing workshops where someone hands in a story, and when the other writers in the workshop are giving feedback, they say, 'This is unbelievable.' And the writer says, 'Well, actually, the events are based in real life. This actually happened.'

When you are signing a film, you should not miss the beginning process which involves workshops and discussions; otherwise, it is difficult to understand the character.

I teach fiction in my workshops, and some of the readings could be classified as horror. For example, 'House Taken Over,' a short story by Julio Cortazar, is a work I regularly teach.

I do atypical work for a white person, which is that I lead primarily white audiences in discussions on race every day, in workshops all over the country. That has allowed me to observe very predictable patterns. And one of those patterns is this inability to tolerate any kind of challenge to our racial reality.

You know, I really feel a responsibility to the music, and I teach workshops in music sometimes. And folks do come to me and they go, 'How do I make this blues song my own? How do I feel like I'm not an impostor doing this?' And I'm like, 'That's an excellent question.' That's where you should start, where you go, 'How does this speak to me?'

No, I haven't taken training as such but I used to attend all those 7 day workshops before the play. Those workshops aren't so professional but it's enough to give you a good idea what acting is all about.

In Hollywood, one doesn't bag a project over phone calls. You have to work hard, find a manager, give screen tests, attend workshops and take up voice training.