Acting class offered for teens, adults

Known for her participation at Gallery Theater, Beth Sobo Turk of McMinnville will offer a local acting class this summer.

Sobo urk also is a professional actor who teaches acting during the academic year at Bridgetown Conservatory of Musical Theater in Portland. She provides private coaching, as well.

Her summer acting program, Novella, uses musical theater as a vehicle for learning to tell a story and connect to an audience, she said.

The course for teens and adults will run Saturdays for six weeks in July and August. It will end with a showcase performance for friends and families.

The 90-minute classes will be held in the Earth & Elevate studio, a vintage church at 106 N.E. Davis St., the corner of Davis and First streets downtown.

Students older than 10 can register by July 1 for $270 for the six-week course. Separate sections for teens and for adults will be offered, with a limit of about 10 students each, Sobo Turk said.

No experience is needed, Soto Turk said, although students need a desire to perform and willing to be vulnerable in front of others.

“For some people, it feels like therapy,” she said.

On the first day, she said, she plans to have class members participate in ice-breaker exercises. Then each student will pick a song, likely something from a Broadway musical, in which a character tells a story.

Working with an accompanist, they will perfect the song over the next five classes. Sobo Turk will critique their work and help them improve as they learn to communicate.

“That’s the magic of acting,” she said.

Sobo Turk, who moved to McMinnville in 2016, grew up in New York state. She started singing in church as a child, and her pastor encouraged her to develop her skills.

She auditioned for and was accepted into a performing arts high school in Buffalo, where, she said, she was “surrounded by artistic peers.” She was cast as the lead in “High School Musical” and other shows.

During college in Virginia, she earned degrees in musical theater, psychology and Spanish. After graduating, she joined the performing cast on a cruise ship, which led to travels around the world.

Back on land, she performed on stage and in several commercials, including one for MODA that is often played during Trail Blazers broadcasts, she said.

For more information and registration, call 716-912-5806.