Adult Classes & Workshops
Adult classes are back
Classes offer adults the opportunity to work alongside professional theater artists to explore and develop their skills as artists and creative thinkers. Offerings will include our most popular classes plus training pathways for theater artists looking to pursue a career onstage. We encourage you to check this space often for exciting opportunities.
If you have questions or feedback, drop us a line at classes@guthrietheater.org.

March classes
SLAY with Brian Bose
Feel sexy, fierce and powerful while learning fun choreography, grooving to music and dancing your way to empowerment. This class creates an open environment to get your cardio up, move your body and challenge yourself. Strip away fears and perfectionism while learning how to get out of your own way so you have no choice but to slay.
No dance experience necessary.
Mondays and Wednesdays: March 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22, 27, 29 | 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Guthrie Theater, Classroom 1 & 2
Register
Brian Bose (SLAY) is an actor-singer-dancer, performing artist, choreographer/director, and international teaching artist who is considered one of the “Faces to Watch in Arts” by UT San Diego. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he revels as a multidimensional storyteller. He received a Double B.A. in Theatre & Dance from UC San Diego in 2015. Brian has taught for the UMN/Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program, Movement for Actors & Musical Theater at the La Jolla Playhouse’s Young Performer’s Workshop, instructed as a Resident Guest Teacher/Choreographer at the Francis Parker School, and teaches Modern & Jazz dance in Germany for the Patricia Rincon Dance Collective Europe Teaching Tour every summer since 2014. He practices the art of cultivating the creative mind, unleashing the pure potentiality of human expression,creating, and recognizing abundance, speaking truth, and being an agent of change.
STAGE COMBAT with Aaron Preusse
In this course, you’ll learn what goes into creating moments of violence on stage and film. From slaps and punches to pushing and choking, you will build foundational knowledge of how to perform basic techniques with safety and believability. We will also explore what the audience perceives versus what the character's intentions and the actor’s reality. This is a movement course open to all experience levels.
No experience necessary; all levels are welcome.
Thursdays: March 9, 16, 23, 30 | 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Guthrie Theater, Classroom 1 & 2
Aaron Preusse
GUTHRIE Vietgone, Sweat, Emma, Twelfth Night, Noura, Floyd’s, Guys and Dolls, Metamorphoses, As You Like It, Noises Off, Frankenstein – Playing with Fire, Indecent, Watch on the Rhine, Native Gardens, Refugia, The Bluest Eye, The Royal Family, The Parchman Hour. THEATER Ordway: Jesus Christ Superstar, The Pirates of Penzance; Minnesota Opera: Carmen; Park Square Theatre: Hamlet; Commonweal Theatre Company: The Three Musketeers; St. Paul Ballet: Carmen; Red Bird Theatre: A Bright Room Called Day, Buried Child, Time To Burn; Gremlin Theatre: Dial M for Murder; Theatre Pro Rata: The Illusion, Henry V; Lyric Arts: Superior Donuts, Leading Ladies; Theatre in the Round: The Three Musketeers; Old Log Theatre: The Play That Goes Wrong. TRAINING Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre; London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art; Society of American Fight Directors. www.fakefighting.com
ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE with Eli Sibley
The Alexander Technique is the “glue” that integrates acting, voice, speech and movement training. At the technique's heart is the conviction that we are perfectly designed to express an impulse with honesty. As a psychophysical tool for body, breath, and imagination, it teaches actors how to release habitual tension and instead bring ease, presence, and choice to performance. In this class, you’ll learn the principles of the technique and the art of self-direction, using warm-up, monologues and partnering work. This class is experiential, asks for curiosity and invites exploration. Beginners are welcome.
This is a hands-on technique class, and students are encouraged to dress for movement (no sleeveless shirts, shorts or jeans), wear layers and bring a yoga mat/towel for floor work.
No experience necessary; all levels are welcome.
Wednesdays: March 8, 15, 22 and 29 | 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Guthrie Theater, Classroom 3
Eli Sibley has been an actor and theater professional for over 20 years, and their credits include work in production, playwrighting and movement direction. She has worked nationally from coast to coast and internationally from Central Europe to China. She has been a singer, a dancer, a puppeteer, an extra, and a Blue Dinosaur. Her one-woman movement, storytelling piece, Born of a Fairytale was produced both in Washington, D.C. and New York to great applause. And the inaugural production of the company she founded with her husband, Vacant Lot Theatre Co, was privileged to work closely with renowned playwright, Erik Ehn, bringing Child's Drawing of a Monster to its world premiere in New York and then moving it to Boston. Along with her MFA and AmSat Alexander Technique certification, she is also a certified Laban Movement Analyst. She continues to work across the country and globe but also with local Twin Cities theater companies and acting studios. Eli loves combining the craft of acting and life, and supporting them through movement and the Alexander Technique, not only with acting students but also her general teaching population. When she is not doing that, she tries her hand at being a mom and mostly succeeds. Just ask her kids!
VOICE & SPEECH with Mira Kehoe (ONLINE)
Develop the skills and confidence to authentically express yourself through personal communication, public speaking opportunities or performance. In this four-week class, students will explore the basic principles of voice and speech, including breath, resonance, range, articulation, projection, phrasing and expression, and release of excessive tension. You’ll engage in assigned readings, experiential exercises and thoughtful discussions, and apply your newly developed skills to material of your choice.
No experience necessary; all levels are welcome.
Tuesdays: March 7, 14, 21, 28 | 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Mira Kehoe
GUTHRIE Refugia, The Parchman Hour and more than 80 productions since the 1990–1991 Season. THEATER Voice, Text and Dialect Coach: Next Wave Festival (BAM); Theatre de la Jeune Lune; Jungle Theater; Theater Mu; Children’s Theatre Company; Minnesota Opera; North Star Opera; Numerous productions at area colleges; Multimedia theater pieces: Co-Director, Composer and Performer: Labyrinth (Space-Space); Circling (Guthrie Lab). FILM/TELEVISION Dialect Consultant: Sugar & Spice, The Naked Man, The Parent Trap, The Mighty Ducks. OTHER Several recordings, numerous concerts and workshops throughout the U.S. and Brazil; Co-Director, Arts on Lafond. TEACHING University of Minnesota; Hamline University; The University of Utah; Guthrie Theater; Private studio teaching for voice, dialects, text and acting
ACTING THE SONG with Stephen DiMenna
Ready to enhance your audition and performance skills so you can land a role in a musical? In this class, you’ll be guided through the process integrating text, music and story, and how to build an emotional arc for your character. This course is designed to support early career actors and singers in bringing a well-rounded performance to a musical theater song — strengthening both vocal and physical delivery. After four weeks, you will have at least one audition-ready piece in your songbook!
Foundational musical theater experience recommended
Tuesdays: March 7, 14, 21, 28 | 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Guthrie Theater, Classroom 1 & 2
Stephen DiMenna is an Off-Broadway and Regional Theatre director and educator. In New York he directed at Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, MCC Theater, Rattlestick Theatre, The Mint Theatre, Encores at City Center, The Lab Theatre, The Daryl Roth Theatre, HB Playwrights Theatre and the Young Playwright’s Festival. In Minneapolis he is a company member at Pillsbury House Theatre where he has directed 6 productions and was associate artistic director of History Theatre from 1991-1995. He has also directed at The Westport Playhouse, The Guthrie, and Eye of the Storm Theatre. He taught directing, musical theatre and acting at NYU for fifteen years and will be teaching acting for musical theatre in the UMN/Guthrie BFA Actor Training program this year. He is the artistic director of the International Theatre Project.
ACTING with Nathan Keepers
This series approaches acting through physicality and imagination to move beyond thought patterns and unlock infinite possibilities. By releasing expectations of what we “should" do as actors, we access our instincts and innate freedom to play and express. We’ll explore character, presence and story through movement, text and scene work. No previous acting experience necessary. Come ready to play and have fun!
No experience necessary; all levels are welcome.
Mondays: March 6, 13, 20, 27 | 6:30–8:30 p.m.
Guthrie Theater, Classroom 3
Nathan Keepers
GUTHRIE Noises Off, Refugia, King Lear, The Comedy of Errors. THEATER The Moving Company (Producing Artistic Director, selected): Anamnesis; What If; Speechless; Liberty Falls, 54321; Love’s Labour’s Lost; Out of the Pan Into the Fire; Werther and Lotte; Come Hell and High Water; Theatre de la Jeune Lune (selected): Fishtank, The Miser, The Little Prince, Tartuffe; Actors Theatre of Louisville: The Santaland Diaries, The 39 Steps (Director), Peter and the Starcatcher, Noises Off, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Berkeley Rep: Tartuffe, The Miser; Shakespeare Theatre Company: Tartuffe; Folger Theatre: The Comedy of Errors; Jungle Theater: Waiting for Godot, The Swan, Fully Committed; Ten Thousand Things: Il Campiello. TRAINING Burlesk Center (with Pierre Byland); École Philippe Gaulier; Théâtre du Soleil
April classes
SLAY with Brian Bose
Feel sexy, fierce and powerful while learning fun choreography, grooving to music and dancing your way to empowerment. This class creates an open environment to get your cardio up, move your body and challenge yourself. Strip away fears and perfectionism while learning how to get out of your own way so you have no choice but to slay.
No dance experience necessary.
Mondays and Wednesdays: April 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26, May 1, 3 | 6:30-8:30pm
Guthrie Theater, Classroom 1&2
Brian Bose (SLAY) is an actor-singer-dancer, performing artist, choreographer/director, and international teaching artist who is considered one of the “Faces to Watch in Arts” by UT San Diego. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he revels as a multidimensional storyteller. He received a Double B.A. in Theatre & Dance from UC San Diego in 2015. Brian has taught for the UMN/Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program, Movement for Actors & Musical Theater at the La Jolla Playhouse’s Young Performer’s Workshop, instructed as a Resident Guest Teacher/Choreographer at the Francis Parker School, and teaches Modern & Jazz dance in Germany for the Patricia Rincon Dance Collective Europe Teaching Tour every summer since 2014. He practices the art of cultivating the creative mind, unleashing the pure potentiality of human expression, creating, and recognizing abundance, speaking truth, and being an agent of change.
CABARET with Martha Eies
Cabaret connects an artist to their own delight and provides a forum for personal expression, playful comedy or social commentary. Over the course of 4 classes, you will develop a persona through song and learn to engage and activate a live audience. Improvisation and listening are at the heart of the workshop, as you learn to trust your impulses in concert with feedback. Expect to be on your feet, taking risks and making discoveries! The final class will culminate with an informal sharing for an invited audience.
No experience necessary.
Tuesdays: April 11, 18, 25, May 2 | 6:30-8:30pm
Guthrie Theater, Classroom 1&2
Martha Eies (née Martha Stuckey) is a virtuosic vocalist/pianist/songwriter who recently relocated back to her home state, Minnesota, from Philadelphia. With a background in theater, Eies is a shape-shifter, yet whichever shape she takes she brings an unstoppable stage presence. Martha’s work showcases influences like Peggy Lee, Roberta Flack, Joni Mitchell, and The Chicks.
In Philadelphia, Eies was named a "young professional creating the new Philadelphia sound." Her music has been featured on NPR's Sound Opinions and on WXPN's The Key.
In 2019 Eies produced and performed in a show series that featured women artists in an effort to fight for gender parity in the music industry. She also released the two singles CAUGHT and COLD KITCHEN COUNTER. In 2018 Eies produced and performed the world premiere of the original work, DUE TO THE SENSITIVE NATURE, commissioned by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
Eies’ cabaret character, Red 40, was in residency with her band at FringeArts from 2014-16. In 2015, Ars Nova Theater selected Red 40 to perform at Showgasm and ANTFest. In 2016, Red 40 released the album SHE'S KEEN TO FEED. Red 40's musical, THE BEST SONGS YOU EVER HEARD SHOW, has been developed at FringeArts and produced by the University of the Arts in 2017. Red 40 has played at Frankly Bradley's, the Trocadero, Johnny Brenda’s, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a sold-out Union Transfer, and many more Philadelphia stages.
CULTIVATING ARTISTRY with Lester Mayers
Lester Mayers leads a revolutionary masterclass that empowers you with the tools to activate your artistry and the opportunity to reclaim your story. Through breath and embodiment practice we will explore a range of possibilities for artistic creation.
In this series we will explore:
Mindfulness - How to approach a story through fear
Movement - How to find dance in the story
Speech - How to walk deeper into the words
Meditation - How to get in and out of character
All levels of artistic experience are welcome; meeting you where you are on your journey.
Wednesdays: April 12, 19, 26, May 3 | 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Guthrie Theater, Classroom 3
Lester Eugene Mayers is a storyteller from Brooklyn, New York, a Department of Theatre Arts at SUNY New Paltz, and an MFA graduate of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Gay-Black-Feminine Mayers tackles aspects of life that the public has historically ignored. Defined as "a storyteller who goes where the story is," he has been published by NYU Press, Arsenal Pulp Press, Chronogram, Sojourner Truth Library, Colorado's Boulder Weekly, and I Am from Driftwood LGBTQ archive. A dramaturg, director, choreographer, and educator, Mayers has taught at several institutions includingSoMadNYC, Muhlenberg College, The Guthrie Theater, YellowTree Theater, History Theater, MCAD, Ambience Theater, and Pace University. Mayers has written seven plays, including the one act Eye To Eye; Soul to Soul, which premiered on PBS in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
VOICE & SPEECH with Mira Kehoe (Hybrid)
This four-week course continues the work explored in Voice and Speech Level One including extensive work with breath, resonance, range, articulation, projection, phrasing and expression, and body-mind exercises. There will be assigned readings, experiential exercises, class discussions, and practical application of skills to material of the student's choice. Students will be expected to set goals for themselves and will be supported in developing a daily practice to improve their skills and expressiveness. A component of this class will be an opportunity to perform or present material of the student’s choice.
Recommended prerequisite: VOICE & SPEECH Level One
Tuesdays: April 11, 18, 25, May 2 | 6:30-8:30pm
Guthrie Theater, Livingston Conference Room or Zoom
Mira Kehoe
GUTHRIE Refugia, The Parchman Hour and more than 80 productions since the 1990–1991 Season. THEATER Voice, Text and Dialect Coach: Next Wave Festival (BAM); Theatre de la Jeune Lune; Jungle Theater; Theater Mu; Children’s Theatre Company; Minnesota Opera; North Star Opera; Numerous productions at area colleges; Multimedia theater pieces: Co-Director, Composer and Performer: Labyrinth (Space-Space); Circling (Guthrie Lab). FILM/TELEVISION Dialect Consultant: Sugar & Spice, The Naked Man, The Parent Trap, The Mighty Ducks. OTHER Several recordings, numerous concerts and workshops throughout the U.S. and Brazil; Co-Director, Arts on Lafond. TEACHING University of Minnesota; Hamline University; The University of Utah; Guthrie Theater; Private studio teaching for voice, dialects, text and acting.
REAL STORIES FOR THE STAGE with Ron Peluso
Discover the joys and challenges of developing a play, using real stories or historical events. Over the course of 4 weeks, you will write a 5-10-minute play based on an event taken from the news, a book, film or historical narrative; you may draw from your own life experience or the story of a family member or friend. We’ll meet weekly to discuss and workshop each story, reading aloud samples of your work in progress. In our final week, you will reflect on the process and receive feedback from a professional guest playwright.
No experience necessary.
Tuesdays: April 11, 18, 25, May 2 | 6:30-8:30pm
Guthrie Theater, Classroom 4
Ron Peluso’s longstanding commitment to the History Theatre as Artistic Director from 1995 – 2022 resulted in 90 World Premiere plays and musicals centering cultural icons of Minnesota including labor activists Mary Pat Laffey (Stewardess!, 2019), Nellie Stone Johnson (Nellie, 2012), and peace activists the McDonald sisters (Sisters of Peace, 2019), politicians such as Hubert Humphrey (Favorite Son, 1995) and Paul Wellstone (Wellstone!, 2007), pioneers such as Susan Kimberly (Superman Becomes Lois Lane, 2020), and artists such as Gordon Parks (PARKS, 2022), Bobby Vee (Teen Idol: The Bobby Vee Story, 2016) and Tyrone Guthrie (Tyrone & Ralph, 2008). Ron commissioned work that captures and shares personal and unique stories of Minnesotans, such as the first Chinese woman to immigrate to Minnesota (100 Men’s Wife, 2006), a young Somali man’s journey to find himself in America (A Crack in the Sky, 2017), or that of a young woman’s life negotiating between her Indian Muslim heritage and her American Christian surroundings (American as Curry Pie, 2011). He produced stories of events that changed the course of a community, such as the destruction of Rondo by the construction of I-94 (The Highwaymen, 2017), a legacy of redlining (Not for Sale, 2022) and the raging fire of 1894 that devastated the town of Hinckley (FireBall, 2005), and from the historic Faribault State Hospital (Let Heaven and Nature Sing, the 1996 collaboration with Interact Theatre). The musical hit GLENSHEEN - the Murders at the Mansion in Duluth and BUDDY; The Buddy Holly Story - and CHRISTMAS OF SWING - Stories from WW 2, and WATERMELON HILL - the Catholic Infant Home story, Dirty Business and Sweet Land among original musicals. Ron holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Minnesota.
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