Ridgefield Playhouse Fall Workshops: TV Writing & Public Speaking

TV Writing Workshop with Katie Torpey and New Date for Speaking Fearlessly with Ira Joe Fisher at The Ridgefield Playhouse

The Ridgefield Playhouse is offering fall workshops - TV Writing with Katie Torpey and  Public Speaking with Ira Joe Fisher as part of the HamletHub Whole New You Series and partially underwritten by Adam Broderick Salon & Spa & Reliance Merchant Services. Do you have a great idea for a TV series? Is your life a TV series? Studios and Networks are always looking for the next Game of Thrones, This is Us, or Modern Family. And with all the online content providers creating original programming nowadays, there are so many ways to get your story made. Katie Torpey is offering an 6-week “Write Your TV Show” Class that focuses on how to create, develop and write an original show for TV, cable or online.

The class takes place on Thursday evenings, September 28 through November 16 from 7:30 – 9:30pm.  You will spend 6 weeks learning how to flush out your TV show idea, create a series bible as well as write the pilot (1st) episode of the series. During the course, you will focus on how to develop a solid plot, structure the series so it has longevity, capture the theme of the show and create complex characters that audience’s will love and be compelled to follow.            

Katie Torpey is an award-winning Screenwriter / Filmmaker with an MFA from UCLA School of Film and Television. She has sold several screenplays, written for television, and worked for numerous studios and networks. Her original screenplay The Perfect Man was released in theaters in June 2005 starring Hilary Duff, Heather Locklear and Chris Noth.  The following year, her romantic comedy, “On the Other Side,” hit theaters in Bollywood and was a big hit.  She wrote and directed the independent film Truth About Kerry shot in Ireland starring Stana Katic (Castle), which was released in April 2012.  She also co-created Mother Up! an animated TV series about motherhood starring Eva Longoria. It was one of Hulu’s first original tv shows and premiered in 2013-14 and ran for 13 episodes on Hulu and City TV in Canada. Her latest screenplay Spaghetti Park is in pre-production. Katie is currently developing several TV shows, a digital writing product for students, and adapting her memoir into a screenplay to direct. Katie lives in CT on a lake and loves giving back to the community. For more information on Katie’s career and life or to contact her directly, visit her website www.katietorpey.com

Public speaking is a skill that most professionals need.  If you want to be an executive with a company, an author, a salesperson, a trainer or any other public-facing professional, you need to need to get comfortable with public speaking. And yet public speaking anxiety is still the top phobia list.   This fall The Ridgefield Playhouse can help you conquer your fear of public speaking or brush up on your public speaking skills.  Whether for business or preparing for a college interview, or if you have a big event coming up – Bar Mitzvah, wedding or reunion, Speaking Fearlessly with Ira Joe Fisher will have you ready to speak confidently in front of a crowd! 

The workshop, which is part of the HamletHub Whole New You Series and partially underwritten by Adam Broderick Salon & Spa & Reliance Merchant Services, with new dates on Wednesday evenings from 7:30 – 9:00 pm, October 25 – December 6 (no class onNovember 15 and November 22).  The ability to speak in public is a valuable life skill that can advance a career and fulfill leadership aspirations. Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, and emcee Ira Joe Fisher offers a life-changing program, Speaking Fearlessly, his workshop featuring career-affirmed strategies – not tricks – for effective speech, public speaking presentations and high-stakes conversations.   “My approach to communicating,” Fisher says, “is the same for any large – or small – audience.  My strategy is to invite each member of the audience to feel ‘singled out’ for what I have to say.  That’s the philosophy of history’s great communicators – Lincoln, Roosevelt (Eleanor and Franklin), Martin Luther King.”

Ira Joe Fisher’s career includes radio and high-profile TV stints including the dual role of weatherman and features reporter for WABC Television in New York City where he divided his day between the Morning Show with Regis Philbin and Kathy Lee Gifford and Channel-7 Eyewitness News. Ira Joe performed the same roles on WNBC a few years later. An essayist and weather reporter, Ira Joe presented video essays on a number of topics and racked up two regional television Emmy awards along the way. Such work landed him the position of co-host on P.M. Magazine.  Ira Joe Fisher is also the host of The Ridgefield Playhouse Film Society screenings.

To enroll in the workshop ($240 Speaking Fearlessly, $300 Write Your TV Show), call the box office at The Ridgefield Playhouse, (203) 438-5795. The Bruce Becker Scholarship fund has been established to subsidize classes that foster participation in the performing arts. To apply for a scholarship, emailallison@ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not-for-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT;ridgefieldplayhouse.org.