Trained in the models of The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts "Artists as Educators:  Planning Effective Workshops" for Arts in Education, and The Lincoln Center Institute's International Educator Workshop, Serena Ebhardt and David zum Brunnen both have extensive experience working with students, teachers and business professionals in on-site residencies and workshops.  

Serena Ebhardt privately coaches business professionals to use acting tools in everyday communication. She also is known for her work as the director of the Provincial Drama Academy in Canada; and as a visiting professor with Peace and St. Mary's Colleges in Raleigh, NC.   Her work with students includes directing at Sanderson High School and serving as a guest artist on two extended occasions with Raleigh's Charter High School.  Serena successfully designed tailored residencies for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County schools in North Carolina, as part of an outreach program for Opera Carolina.  Her work focuses on the basic tools of an actor: body, eyes, face, voice, for effective everyday communication.

David zum Brunnen is well known for his performance work in the schools.  He has toured both in-state and out-of-state schools extensively with The Night Before Christmas Carol, The Tender Nights of F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Wrights of Passage, and with Serena in Nicholas Nickleby in One Hour with Two People.  David has worked with students at schools where he has performed, coaching them on the realities of becoming an actor, and "Theatre as a Small Business", so that students may understand the importance of a well rounded education and business classes to the work of an artist.

Serena and David prefer to do a needs assessment with the school or businesses in advance of the residency in order to tailor design the workshops.  However all residencies usually take the form of making participants aware of all their means of understanding and communicating a subject effectively through the use of actor tools: research, imagination, sense memory, manifestation, breath, body, eyes, face, and voice.

The Goal is to help participants learn to internalize subjects and then communicate those subjects effectively and confidently using all personal communication tools.

Title: Acting Across The Curriculum
Especially useful for Arts Education, Information Skills, English, Guidance, Social Studies, Character Education, Physical Education, Science & Language Arts.  This residency easily adapts across the curriculum.

Benefit:  Using simple actor's tools - research, imagination, sense memory, abstracting, body, eyes, face, voice, students will be able to actively synthesize lessons, therefore increasing comprehension, application, analysis, and evaluation.  Linguistic, logistic, spatial intelligence, kinesthetic, inter- and intra- personal skills are all incorporated into this easy and fun residency.  By staging your lessons, you may also find that the total involvement of students' minds and bodies reduces behavioral problems.

Approach: The residency leader will provide an overview of an actor's tools and how they might be useful in learning and communicating.  The leader will conduct several activities that put actor's tools to use and help teachers and students adapt activities in their own classrooms.  The leader will close the residency with curriculum related performances and reviews.

Results:  By the end of the residency, students and teachers will

Description: Actors utilize a few basic tools when preparing for a performance.  Breath, Body, Eyes, Face, Voice and Gesture.  These tools are used to create connections,  relationships, memorization, sequencing, and collaboration; which are essential to the stage player.  This residency offers simple acting tools for use in the classroom to enhance the learning experience.  Serena Ebhardt, professional actor, producer, and director, brainstorms with you for dramatic effect in your classroom.