How to Put On Your Own One Person Show
Writing workshops for actors in Los Angeles with Teacher, Writer and Performer Andrea Kittelson
Andrea's Theatrical Experience...In Andrea's Own Words:
I co-founded and ran Hyde and Turk Performance Works in San Francisco,
a downtown theater company dedicated to original works: 1995-2000. In
2000, during the dot.com boom, our space was bought by nuns who then evicted us. They have since used the space, ironically, to tend to the Tenderloin homeless.
(I'm not at all irked. They do awe-inspiring work). Upon eviction, we moved to the East Bay, where we continued to write and
perform.
I wrote, produced, directed and performed several solo shows and ensemble pieces, two of which were award-winning: 1993-2006.
I earned an MFA in Theater Performance from San Francisco State University:
1993. This unique three-year conservatory program integrated acting,
writing and directing. There were six students admitted to my class. The six of us
spent three years in collaboration, creating and performing hundreds of
original pieces, many of them nonsensical Postmodern gibberish that no
one in their right mind would pay to see, but all of them a hoot. Especially
the ones involving popcorn, ladders, various human fluids and clay.
My MFA internship was directing hand-puppet shows for the Mayan theater troupe Sna Jtzi'bajom in Chiapas, Mexico.
I hold a BA in Theater and Political Science from the University of Minnesota: 1988. My senior projects were an original play and an internship as a lobbyist
in the Minnesota Legislature.
I was an exchange student at Lancaster University in Lancaster, England
during the academic year: 1986-1987. While in England, I performed in
several stage productions, did some runway modeling, despite the fact that
I was 5'4" and rotund, and spent a month living at Greenham Common
Women's Peace Camp, where I was privy to some exceptional fire-side storytelling
by some exceptional (and sometimes completely sauced) women from all over
the world.
I was also a Kibbutz Volunteer on Kibbutz Mevo Hamma in the Golan Heights:
Spring 1987. It was there, during one particular sunny afternoon, after
a six-hour day of folding red pencil boxes in the Kibbutz-owned plastics
factory...I was sitting in occupied territory on a grassy hill just above
a minefield overlooking the Sea of Galilee singing Dylan songs along with
white and black South Africans and M16-toting Isreali soldiers...when the
meaning of words such as "paradox" and "irony' really dawned on me.
I am a public school teacher. I have taught for thirteen years, students
of all ages, from Kinder to adult. Currently, I teach English Language
Arts for the Glendale Unified School District.