Guest Artist, Playwriting Workshop

Guest Artist, Playwriting Workshop2022-02-24T11:17:48-07:00

Welcome Erika Phoebus our Virtual Guest Artist!

Erika Phoebus

Erika Phoebus is a NYC based playwright/performer/producer. Her plays have been developed or produced throughout New York City, including: Tony nominated Matthew Corozine Studio, New Ohio Theatre, Fresh Ground Pepper, Primary Stages ESPA, The Flamboyán Theater, So-Fi Festival co-produced with Torn Page, Theatre 4the People, Actors Theatre of NY, and with Tessa Faye Talent LLC. Her play RUSALKA won 5 Planet Connections Awards at the 2018 Planet Connections Theatre Festival in New York City, including Best Production and Best Script, and her play KISS IT, MAKE IT BETTER has caught the attention of Rattlestick and The Public Theater (who developed and premiered the Tony Award Winning musical Hamilton). She has taught playwriting across the nation, including at Bowie High School (Austin, TX), Westerly High School (Westerly, RI), and offers private playwriting workshops and script consultations online and in NYC. Her students have gone on to receive awards and scholarships from the Texas Education Theatre Association and Zach Scott Theater (Austin,TX), have since written alongside Oscar-winning screenwriters, and have received development opportunities and productions across the nation. B.F.A Creative Writing, Brooklyn College. William Esper Meisner Conservatory alumni. Member of the Dramatists Guild. IG: @ephoebs

Erika's Website

Phoebus is a thrilling writer with an incredible talent for helping other writers. Her notes felt like a gift from above; our sessions were joyous, revelatory, and deeply inspiring.

Student Testimonial

My first note to other writers is: “Take your script to Erika Phoebus!”

Student Testimonial

Never prescriptive, Erika helped me find the questions I hadn’t answered yet that were holding me back. She gave me clarity, renewed enthusiasm, and a clear path to the next level. She’s a real playwriting doula.

Student Testimonial

Erika hooks right into your work, right into you, what you’re trying to do and she’ll pull it right out of you. She’s incredible.

Student Testimonial

I wrote my first play in Erika’s class, three months later I got asked to be the writing partner of an Oscar-winning screenwriter. I am telling you, there is nothing short of magic about a class that gives you the tools to be the most precise and alive *you* on the page. Do yourself a favor and take Erika’s class, it’ll change you.

Student Testimonial

Playwriting Workshop

Playwriting Workshop

Day 1: Friday, March 11th 6:00pm-9:00pm MST
Day 2: Saturday, March 12th 1:00pm-6:00pm MST

General Students: $125 | Enrolled (AZAA) Students: $100

In this crash course on playwriting, you’ll be taken through the fundamentals of writing for the stage, including structure, character, dialogue and theatricality, while exploring tools and writing exercises to get you out of your head and unlock your individual truth, freedom, creativity and sense of play on the page — your voice is your calling card after all! Between the two workshop days, you’ll expand upon a scene or exercise worked on in class, and will have the opportunity on day two to receive feedback on your work, as would happen in a professional playwriting lab or writers group. Whether you are an actor boldly crossing the line from one discipline to another, a novelist, poet or journalist hungry for a new form, or a budding playwright eager to get down to the basics, by the end of this workshop, you’ll have a firm grasp on what it means to write for the theatre, and will hold the start to a play of your very own.
Articles, Reviews and Notable Mentions
Articles, Reviews and Notable Mentions
Articles, Reviews and Notable Mentions

Featuring Erika Phoebus & Witch Play on March 4th, 2022!

Friday Night Readings, Featuring Playwright Aubrey Clyburn

The Sandra Seacat Virtual Theatre & AZAA Theater Upstairs presents, Friday Night Readings Friday, May 3rd, 2024 7:30pm Reading 7:00pm Conversation & Community Featuring Axioms a new play by Aubrey Clyburn Synopsis: Eliza, a lonely, hyper-logical mathematician, has had a fight with her best (and only) friend. So she retreats to her mind palace to find a solution using the only tools she has: memory, axiomatic set theory, and stuffed animals. She keeps trying to apply mathematical principles to situations from her life, but the math keeps getting more complex until she finally has to ask whether there's a solution to be found there at all. All times are Mountain Standard Time - Currently equal to Pacific Daylight Time [...]

Register Now

AS|2022 Registration Virtual Guest Artists
All of our communications are through email, please give us your best contact.
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Are you new to Arizona Actors Academy? *
Return Students who have not been enrolled at AZAA since June 2019 should register as a new student.

Class Waiver & Policies For Current & Return Students

PAYMENT Your total tuition fee will be presented before submitting and charged upon completed registration using the information provided.
REFUNDS  Tuition  for this class is non-refundable. If you have to cancel your class please reach out to us to see how we can support you.
INSTRUCTOR EMERGENCY In the event of emergency, we will send email notifications if classes are cancelled. Any cancelled classes will be offered a make-up class with ample time to adjust your schedule.

ZOOM POLOCIES: 

  • Links are sent out manually via email within 24 hours before your class begins. You are responsible for checking your email for your link.
  • When using an interactive platform, like Zoom, the video and audio from all participants is shared and may be captured if a class is being recorded. You are responsible for muting your own microphone and camera.
  • DO NOT SHARE links to live virtual classes OR recorded videos with anyone outside your immediate household
  • For your own privacy, YOU can always mute and turn off your video feed at any time throughout the class
  • BY PARTICIPATING IN A VIRTUAL CLASS AT ARIZONA ACTORS ACADEMY, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE the live and captured (if recorded) video and audio during the class may include you or your child’s voice, face, and background which may be shared with other registered participants in this class
  • ARIZONA ACTORS ACADEMY reserves the right to download and store the original file and may use for promotional use.

Class Etiquette
We strive every day to create the safest creative environment for artistic development. This requires a working space of the highest integrity for personal risk taking and artistic exploration, both on and off the stage. Please review our student expectations.

Class Waiver & Policies For New Students

Terms of Enrollment
PAYMENT Your total tuition fee will be presented before submitting and charged upon completed registration using the information provided.
REFUNDS Tuition for this class is non-refundable. Please contact us if you have to cancel so we can discuss ways to support you.
INSTRUCTOR EMERGENCY In the event of emergency, we will send email notifications if classes are cancelled. Any cancelled classes will be offered a make-up class with ample time to adjust your schedule.

ZOOM POLOCIES: 

  • Links are sent out manually via email within 24 hours before your class begins. You are responsible for checking your email for your link.
  • When using an interactive platform, like Zoom, the video and audio from all participants is shared and may be captured if a class is being recorded. You are responsible for muting your own microphone and camera.
  • DO NOT SHARE links to live virtual classes OR recorded videos with anyone outside your immediate household
  • For your own privacy, YOU can always mute and turn off your video feed at any time throughout the class
  • BY PARTICIPATING IN A VIRTUAL CLASS AT ARIZONA ACTORS ACADEMY, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE the live and captured (if recorded) video and audio during the class may include you or your child’s voice, face, and background which may be shared with other registered participants in this class
  • ARIZONA ACTORS ACADEMY reserves the right to download and store the original file and may use for promotional use.

Class Etiquette
We strive every day to create the safest creative environment for artistic development. This requires a working space of the highest integrity for personal risk taking and artistic exploration, both on and off the stage. Please review our student expectations.

Waiver of Liability:
As a participant in any program or class at Arizona Actors Academy/Theatre Upstairs (Hotchner Studios LLC), understand and agree that in participating in any acting/voice/movement class, workshop, rehearsal or performance, there is a possibility of physical injury or death. I recognize and acknowledge there are certain risks of physical injury, and I agree to assume the full risk of injuries, including death, damages or loss that I or my minor child may sustain as a result of participating in any activities connected with or associated with such program or class. I agree to waive and relinquish all claims I or my minor child may have as a result of participating in any program or class against Arizona Actors Academy/Theatre Upstairs. (Hotchner Studios LLC) and its officers, agents, servants, employees and independent contractors. I further agree to indemnify and hold harmless and defend Arizona Actors Academy/Theatre Upstairs (Hotchner Studios LLC) and it's officers, agents, servants, employees an independent contractors from my claims resulting from injuries including death, damages and losses sustained by me or my minor child that arise out of, in connection with, or in any way associated with the activities of this program.
Optional Waiver:
Please check this waiver if you will permit use of you or your child's image as described below. If you do not check this waiver, we will not use you or your child's image. I understand that Arizona Actors Academy/Theatre Upstairs (Hotchner Sudios LLC) is a non-profit organization that promotes acting as an art form not only to it's students, but also to the community at large. As such, articles, brochures, videos and websites may be used either promotionally or educationally and may include images of Arizona Actors Academy/Theatre Upstairs (Hotchner Studios LLC) students or other participants in our programs. I hereby permit the use of my, or my daughter/son's image to be photographed, videotaped or otherwise recorded for the use in Arizona Actors Academy/Theatre Upstairs (Hotchner Studios LLC) publicity or educational materials. These materials include, but are not limited to, photographs of classes and performances, newsletters, various other school publications, Arizona Actors Academy/Theatre Upstairs (Hotchner Studios LLC) internet webpage and video of class/performances.

Covid-19

Covid-19 protocols:
• It will be up to you whether to wear a mask or not while attending classes and events.
• The choice to wear a mask or not until our country reaches herd immunity is up to each individual.
• No commenting on, shaming, deriding or judging of another’s choice to wear or not wear a mask will be tolerated.
• Please help us hold in place, with integrity, this space for creative expression and personal risk taking by fostering acceptance and understanding of your peers personal choice in this matter.
• We are still limiting class sizes.
• By taking part in our classes you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19.
• Do not participate in any classes if you are feeling sick.
• We have amazing Make-Up options for missed classes.
• Regardless of the above tenets, we highly recommend students get vaccinated and ask that those who are not wear a mask to protect vulnerable populations from COVID.

Payment Information

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