The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at SUNY Brockport is pleased to invite faculty and staff from other SUNY institutions to the following seminar, free of charge. All attendees must register in advance. The registration deadline is 04/09/04. To register, send an email containing the following information to [log in to unmask]: 1) name of participant 2) participant's institution 3) participant's email address 4) specify which session participant wishes to attend (am or pm) ------------- "The Art of Presentation: Theatre Techniques for Successful Public Speaking" Monday, 04/19/04 10:00 am - 12:00 pm; repeated 1:30-3:30 pm New York Room Refreshments Provided Presenter: Nancy Houfek, Harvard University Abstract: As public speakers, we often focus on the content of our subject matter and leave the quality of our speaking to chance. After a presentation we wonder, "Did they get it? Am I doing something wrong? Did I do everything I could to get this across:" The Art of Presentation will give you specific tools to dispel those doubts. Nowadays, written information is easily available on any topic. But when the written word is brought to life by a successful speaker, how it is received changes. Subject matter flows through us, transformed by personality, approach, and creativity. Public speaking is a physical act; the human form is the presenting medium. Actors, those on stage whose extraordinary performance deeply affect us, know how to make the printed word come alive. They rely on physical awareness to increase their capacity for observation, communication and inspiration. They use their craft to help the audience empathetically feel the action on stage. When a play ends, the audience is often transformed by the experience. Actors and public speakers use their voices. Actors and presenters need to move well, comfortably and freely, in the theatre space. Actors and speakers feel a tangible connection to and immediate feedback from the audience. Actors and speakers can and do improvise. Both actors and speakers experience stage fright. And just as a theatre artist experiences her or his creative work as a calling, so do we in our presentations. Your authority will not be diminished by using theatre techniques in your presentations, nor will performance skills lessen your professionalism. The opposite will happen. You will become more relaxed, dynamic, and spontaneous. You will enjoy the physical experience of communication. You will speak with imagery and poetry. Your topic will come alive. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Biography: Nancy Houfek has served as a consultant to actors, television journalists, talk show personalities, teachers and other professional voice users throughout the United States since 1978. She has presented workshops for Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Radcliffe Seminars, and The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard, as well as for clients in the private sector. A film of her work with Harvard faculty, The Act of Teaching, has been produced by the Bok Center for national distribution to faculty development centers. With a B.A. from Stanford University, she received her M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theatre where she subsequently remained as an actor, director and coach for nearly a decade. In addition to being an accomplished professional actress, Houfek has held faculty or guest positions at the University of Washington, the Drama Studio of London, Southern Methodist University and the University of Minnesota, where she headed the professional actor training program. She is also a Master Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework. Houfek currently teaches voice, speech, dialects, and text to the graduate level actors at the American Repertory Theatre/Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. As Head of Voice & Speech, she also coaches the actors of the professional theatre company, administers the voice internship program, and has created a new M.F.A. in voice training pedagogy. -------------- Please direct any questions to [log in to unmask] or 585-395-5025. Mr. James B. Greenberg Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center Milne Library SUNY College at Oneonta Oneonta, New York 13820 email: [log in to unmask] phone: 607-436-2701 "Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"