Today we’d like to introduce you to Dulcie Willis and Heather Ostberg Johnson.
Dulcie Willis comes to La-De-Da with over 25 years in educational theatre and production experience. She holds a Master of Arts in Arts Administration from Goucher College along with BA degrees in Theatre Arts Education from the University of Northern Colorado and Musical Theatre from Mesa State College. Dulcie has taught drama, speech, film, dance, and English in Taiwan, South Korea, Arizona, and Colorado. Dulcie has directed, choreographed, and produced over 40 productions for high school and community theatre, with award-winning work featured at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. She is the 2017 recipient of the Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Award for Outstanding Director. Dulcie lead the theatre program at Poudre High School from 2002-2009, She is former Executive Director at Bas Bleu Theatre Company, Education Outreach Coordinator for the Fort Collins Lincoln Center and Adjunct Faculty/Graduate Coordinator for the CSU LEAP Institute for the Arts. Dulcie has been Volunteer Coordinator for the City of Greeley, Project Manager for Beaver Creek Children’s Theatre and Operations Manager for the Grand Junction Family Theatre Company/DooZoo Children’s Museum. She currently serves as President of The Lincoln Center Support League and served on the Curriculum Committee for the Arts Incubator of the Rockies, and on the Dance Standards Curriculum Subcommittee for the State of Colorado. Together with Heather Johnson, she owns and operates La-De-Da Performing Arts, a local theatre school for children and adults, and produces the annual Fort Collins Fringe Festival. Heather & Dulcie enjoy a symbiotic collaborative relationship which enables them to co-direct and co-create in extraordinary ways.
Heather Ostberg Johnson brings 14 years of diverse performance, production, and teaching experience to La-De-Da. Her recent focus is on developing new work and teaching actors to devise plays from scratch that are meaningful to them and their community. She shares a passion and background with La-De-Da’s commitment to original, skill-based, age appropriate work. Heather holds a Performance Arts degree from Westmont College and studied clowning and physical theatre in San Francisco with Moshe Cohen, the founder of Clowns Without Borders, as well as Leonard Pitt and James Donlan of the Flying Actors Studio. She has taught movement, improvisation, and theatre skills through workshops and after-school programs at Zach Elementary School, Boltz Middle School, and Poudre High School as well as Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, Fort Collins Montessori School, and Poudre Academy of Performing Arts. Heather has a strong commitment to lifelong learning and seeks out training in movement and physical theatre across the country to share with her students. She also continues to tour original pieces of theatre each summer, most recently taking her co-written two-woman show Mad and a Goat to New York, Austin, Santa Barbara, and Denver, with Portland and Berkley. Heather can be found onstage and behind the scenes locally with Bas Bleu, Open Stage Theatre, and the Fort Collins Fringe Festival. She is also a founding member of the Comedy Brewers with whom she performs short-form comedy improv every month. Heather and Dulcie have thoroughly enjoyed partnering together the past eight years establishing and producing the Fort Collins Fringe Festival.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Trying to make a living as a theatre artist is challenging at best, even in the most ideal situation. Our biggest challenge has always been finding the sweet spot between creating the work we feel passionate about and finding the audience who wants it. Because it’s not a tangible product like a photograph, painting or piece of clothing, we have to approach the work as selling “experiences.” This can be so tricky in finding the best marketing approach; convincing people that what we have to offer is live-enriching, perhaps even life-changing. Most of the time, our clientele has to experience a small part of that before they are convinced to dive deeper. They have to see for themselves before they make the larger investment. The challenge is getting them through the door. We don’t produce big, flashy Broadway shows – we are more interested in building good, kind, caring, aware people who will utilize theatre training in their everyday lives. Our ongoing challenge is communicating the idea that progress is more impacting than the product. But we continue to stand by this ideal as that is our mission. We believe if we can stay stalwart in this approach, we will continue to build the business on this vision.
Our passion for developing and supporting new, original and thoughtful theatre work carries us through the mundane, difficult and tedious. Our students inspire us every day and we are constantly creating new ways to serve our community. I believe Heather and I have a special collaborative bond. Our business relationship and friendship elevate us to reach for new challenges while helping us get through the disappointments. Heather and I have a symbiosis that supports one another – when one is feeling down, the other feels strong and can carry us both.
We recently had to give up our store-front location due to COVID-19. This was a very difficult decision as having a physical space gives such legitimacy to a theatre school. Heather immediately began to brainstorm creative ways we could offer content in alternative ways. We are still offering classes and workshops online and have transformed our spring stage production into a movie. We are finding ways to be resilient and support our local families with creative activities and inclusive experiences.
We find our passion for collaborative work offers awesome rewards that most of the time override the challenges.
Please tell us about your work.
La-De-Da Performing Arts is a theatrical training school for the young and young at heart. We have students ages 7-77. We offer classes and camps year round for pre-schoolers to adults; teaching everything from improv to musical theatre. Our teachers love what they do – act, sing, write, create, laugh, play, compose, build and listen, and we believe the life lessons gained through the performing arts our ones we take with us on journey to being empowered, passionate, collaborative, and empathetic students of life.
We believe in skill-building. We do exercises and scene work designed to introduce and improve skills and technique. Our end-of-session performances focus on the work of the actor. Our minimalist approach helps students learn to depend on their own instrument in theatrical storytelling.
We believe in age-appropriate work. Our scripts and songs are original and written specifically for kids. For the adult student, we choose challenging, award-winning, quality scripts from published authors.
We believe in providing opportunities for all ages K-12, college and adults all year-round. Our school-year classes are five to nine week sessions addressing fundamentals of singing and acting for each age group. Our summer intensives offer shorter sessions with more intense, specific learning – summer camps with a final play performance for kids; topic-focused summer workshops for adults.
We believe in teachers who do. Our instructors all have degrees in the field and are all working professionals who regularly perform in local and national productions. We also bring in guest specialists to augment learning and provide professional development for practicing performers.
Pricing:
- Improv for Adults $75
- Improv for Teens $100
- Let’s Shoot a Short Film for Adults $275
- Let’s Shoot a Short Film for Teens $275
- The Business of Acting Workshop $175
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ladedacolorado.org
- Phone: 970-829-8696
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: ladedacolorado
- Facebook: @ladedacolorado
- Twitter: @ladedacolorado
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/la-de-da-fort-collins-4
Image Credit:
Silver Paw Studio
Finnestead Photography
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