A liberal arts theater program is coming back to life at Jackson College. The person spearheading it? Actor and instructor Sara Anne Tomczak.
“I want to keep it fun,” she said.
The Fenton native went to Michigan State University for pre-med but switched her major to acting. During a theater meeting in the basement of the auditorium she talked to one of her professors and it was there she felt like she could act and provide an education.
“I knew I wanted to go into education so I could do both performance and education. I knew that I wanted to follow this career path,” she said.
Now Tomczak is offering a new acting class. It’s a one credit class open to everyone.
It’s part of a larger rebirth of Jackson College’s theater program. Tomczak says she wants to build it from the ground up by hitting the ground running.
“We’re going to dive deeper into the Stanislavski technique as well as the Chekhovian technique,” she said. “Those are both very different styles of acting. It’ll be really great for all types of students. Those who like to explore a little bit more intellectually in script analysis as well as those students who like to jump on their feet and explore a little bit more organically and try things out physically.”
She is teaching an introduction to theater class right now.
Actor and theater instructor Sara Anne Tomczak
“We’ll be diving into a lot of different techniques from all over the world,” she said. “I plan on in these next couple of years just introducing as many classes that are focused on stage as well as behind the scenes because I think it’s really important for students as well as anyone, really, we have to be able to create our own work and our own opportunities. I’m going to have a lot of classes that are focused on creating their own projects as well as students run, produce and write shows that we’ll have in our theaters as well as I’ll be producing full stage shows.”
There is no need for any previous acting experience to take this class.
“It’s a great class to take if you want to work on public speaking or even job interviews,” she said. “This class uses acting tools to help with all careers.”
Tomczak is no stranger to acting. She recently appeared on an episode of NBC’s “Chicago Fire” and has also worked on “The Carbonaro Effect” which airs on TruTV. She says she loves sketch comedy and improvisation.
“I turned out at Second City in Chicago and performed there as well as touring with Bear Skin Rug and wrote and produced with them as well,” she said.
The deadline to apply for the acting class is Friday, March 10.