Welcome to Dark Night Studio Boston
Every week at Dark Night Studio Boston is an opportunity to grow, learn, and elevate your craft. Step into the spotlight and shine alongside fellow actors who share your love for performance. Prepare to be inspired, challenged, and empowered in a space designed for artistic expression.
What do we do at Dark Night Studio?
Actors will arrive with a process already available. In each gathering of Dark Night Studio, signed up scenes or monologues will be ready to be presented. This work might be memorized. It might be book in hand. It might be in preparation for an audition. In all cases, it would be an opportunity for the artists to present work in progress to a discerning group of colleagues and peers, to activate and expand their craft. Presentation of scenes or work would be strongly encouraged but not necessary to attend the class, as shared knowledge via observation and feedback is a crucial part of this collective!
Moderated Feedback
“What are you working on?” would be the first question asked of the artist. Any number of issues or obstacles might be raised by the actor/s. The moderator (see bio below) would then structure the interaction between those present, based on non-evaluative observations, and a mutual sharing of technique. At all times, the artists’ process would be of paramount importance. Neither the moderator’s opinion nor the audience assessment would be the final objective. In this way, the actor retains their autonomy, as they take away actionable feedback to consider, experiment with, and implement.
Goals
This should be considered a creative gym. A place to work out, try new things or maintain earned technique. This should not be considered a place to learn the fundamentals of how to act, but rather a place to maintain and strengthen your discipline, and to immerse yourself in your craft with consistency.
Dark Night Studio also aims to strengthen community. It should create and build artistic relationships. Participation in the class could be an encouraging bridge between jobs, a segue into the professional world from the academic/conservatory, and an entry point for newcomers to the Boston theatre world.
Bio for Paul Michael Valley, Inaugural Dark Night Studio moderator:
Paul is a teaching artist currently living in eastern Massachusetts. As an actor, Paul has worked on and off Broadway including Hurrah At Last, Arms and the Man, Silence! (The Musical), Any Given Monday as well as the Tony nominated Broadway revival of 1776. Regionally, Paul has appeared at the Shakespeare Theatre of Washington DC, The Old Globe of San Diego, The Goodspeed Opera House, The Denver Center and Wellesley Rep Theatre. He has appeared extensively on television including Blue Bloods, Elementary, Third Watch, Ed, Guiding Light and One Life to Live - and was beloved in his 500+ episodes on Another World as Ryan Harrison.
As a teacher and vocal coach, Paul has taught at the Juilliard School, Queens College, Wellesley College, American University, Louisiana State University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Internationally, Paul has taught at the New York Film Academy in Shanghai, Florence, Beijing and New York. Paul received his MFA in Vocal Pedagogy from VCU, his BFA from American University, and trained as an actor at The Juilliard School where he subsequently maintained a professional teaching observership in Voice and Speech.
