The 20th annual Donna Reed Performing Arts Festival and workshops are underway this week in Denison. One of the featured workshop instructors this year is Gigi Perreau whose classroom sessions focus on how beginning actors can develop their characters. She says they like to encourage and nurture young people and open them up to all possibilities, not just acting, but directing and producing and writing. She says there are so many areas that’re fascinating and creative. Perreau has over 50 years of acting experience – 20 as a director. She has performed in more than 40 films including “Green Dolphin Street” with Donna Reed, along with hundreds of TV shows such as “Perry Mason”, “Alfred Hitchcock presents”, the “Brady Bunch” and “Gunsmoke.” Another Hollywood celebrity that’ll be working with the actors is Kim O’Roarke. O’Roarke says her sessions are geared toward the intermediate actor. She says she doesn’t spend a lot of time talking about acting, “we get up on our feet and do it.” She says she gives them as much a chance to act as they can and then works with them to improve, something she calls “an active acting class.” O’Roarke has been teaching acting for 30-years in high school, community colleges and universities in California. The Donna Reed Performing Arts Festival and workshops run through Saturday.
