The Ensemble Theatre Hosts Winter Acting Classes

HOUSTON, Jan. 9, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ensemble Theatre kicks off the New Year with winter acting classes January 23 – March 12, 2012.

This year's instructor is Actress Rachel Hemphill Dickson. She currently teaches theatre as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston-Downtown, and serves as the Artistic Director of Driven Theatre Company that focuses on issue based works.

Classes will offer advanced instruction focusing on scene work, monologues, and cold readings.

Dickson is scheduled to perform in the upcoming production The Ballad of Emmett Till, by Ifa Bayeza. She was most recently seen on The Ensemble Theatre stage in the Giorgee award winning productions of Cinderella (Best Supporting Actress); and American Menu (Best Ensemble). Her Ensemble production repertoire includes The Waiting Room, Seven Guitars, The Man Who Saved New Orleans, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Waitin' to End Hell, Ashes to Africa, The Story, From the Mississippi Delta, Harlem After Hours, Checkmates, The Drums of Sweetwater, Tap Dance Kid, The Trial of One Short Sighted Black Woman versus Mammy Louise and Safreeta Mae. Some of her other stage credits include: The Toys Take Over Christmas, Harriet Tubman's Freedom Train, Medea, An American Daughter, Two Gentleman of Verona, Tartuffe, The Courage of Many Kate Brown, Sin, Debutante Ball, Roll of Thunder-Hear My Cry, The Art of Dining, Salome, Flyin' West, Light in the Village, Twelfth Night, and Coriolanus.

The Ensemble Theatre was founded in 1976 by the late George Hawkins to preserve African American artistic expression and enlighten, entertain and enrich a diverse community. This theatre is known as the only professional theatre in its region dedicated to the production of works portraying the African-American experience. In addition to being the oldest and largest professional African-American theatre in the Southwest, it also holds the distinction of being one of the nation's largest African-American theatres that owns and operates its facility with an in-house production team. Board President Emeritus Audrey Lawson led the capital campaign for The Ensemble's $4.5 million building renovations that concluded in 1997.

The Ensemble Theatre produces a main stage season of contemporary and classic works devoted to the portrayal of the African American experience by local and national playwrights and artists. The theatre's Performing Arts Education program provides educational workshops, Artist-in-Residence experiences and live performances for students both off-site and at the theatre; and the Young Performers Program offers intensive summer training for youth ages six to 17 encompassing instruction in all disciplines of the theatre arts. Through its varied programs, The Ensemble Theatre benefits an audience and artistic constituency of approximately 65,000 people annually.