October 30 – November 13, 2023
Back by popular demand, Wilma Theater Co-Artistic Director Yury Urnov will be teaching another exciting directing class this fall. This class will meet for 3 sessions and is open to both returning and new students. The focus of this course is on the concept of “action” in directing. Students will explore the concept of action by reading, analyzing, and performing various scenes.
Students will first learn how to interpret the psychological motivations of characters as “action.” Then they will incorporate analysis of physical action into their directing toolbox, breaking “action” down into its core elements of reaction, consideration, decision, and action. Students will explore these skills through developing short single-character scenes, creating chains of actions between two characters, and finally directing a larger scene using the tools they learned throughout the class.
All levels of experience and students who did not attend the first course are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Dates: 10/30, 11/5, 11/13
Time: 11/5, 11/13 6-8pm + 10/30 7:30-9:30pm
Location: Wilma Studio (265 S. Broad Street)
Price: $300 for all three classes
Born in Moscow, Russia, Yury graduated from the Russian Academy of Theater Art (GITIS) in 2000 with an MFA and since then has directed over 40 productions in his home country, Europe, and Africa. His recent professional directing credits in the US include Hedda Gabler and Ubu Roi at Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco, the award-winning Thr3e Zisters at Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin, The Pillowman at Forum Theater in DC, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia, Putin on Ice and One Hour Eighteen Minutes with ACME Corporation Theater of Baltimore, and also KISS, Marie Antoinette, and You for Me for You at Woolly Mammoth Theater in DC, where Yury has been a proud company member since 2014. In 2009-2011, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Towson University, MD where he still teaches. Yury serves as an Associate Director of the Center for International Theater Development, Baltimore. During his 20-year long partnership with the CITD Yury participated in and co-produced multiple US-East European cultural exchange projects. He also translated plays of Martin McDonagh, Sarah Ruhl, and Edward Albee into Russian, and several contemporary Russian plays into English.
