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From Acorn-Online.com - FEATURES

From Broadway to Conservatory: Jodi Stevens Finds Balance in Life
Written by Lois Alcosser
Friday, 11 November 2011 10:30

Jodi Stevens of Weston has joined the faculty at the Performing Arts Conservatory of New Canaan. —Photo by Jeffry Fasano

Actor, singer, music teacher Jodi Stevens has joined the professional faculty of the Performing Arts Conservatory of New Canaan, where the slogan, “Performance Skills for Life” is shorthand for an amazing range of voice, piano, dance, acting, musical theater classes that can start in kindergarten and go right through to adult instruction. Ms. Stevens, the conservatory’s newest addition, will be teaching voice, acting and musical theater.

Her achievements are truly dazzling:  off-Broadway and Broadway leading roles; national theater tours of A Chorus Line and Lend Me A Tenor; singing and acting at the Goodspeed Opera House, The New York Musical Festival, the Music Theater of Connecticut and more.  TV work includes Sex and the City; Law & Order; and there’s a film to be released next year. And those are just some of her credits.

She lives in Weston with her actor/producer husband Scott Bryce and their five-year-old son, Jackson. She is thrilled to be at the conservatory, she said, because she finds that teaching young children to get to know themselves through the performing arts is personally tremendously fulfilling.

When she says “young children,” she really means it. She has been teaching babies from three weeks to five years old through an international music program, Music Together. “Babies are naturally musical and the youngest of them can learn how to keep a beat and carry a tune,” she explained. “They acquire musical competence at a very young age.”

Ms. Stevens is a third-generation entertainer. Her grandfather was a New York City band leader, her mother is a singer. Her husband,  Scott  Bryce, comes from a four-generation theatrical  family. His parents, Dorothy and Ed Bryce, were well known performers for years.

Dorothy Bryce helped found the Theatre Artists Workshop in Norwalk, where Ms. Stevens enjoys what she calls  “a gymnasium for actors who can work on monologues, rehearse scenes, practice for auditions.” Ms. Stevens actually heard about the New Canaan Conservatory from two friends at the Theatre Artists Workshop who teach at the conservatory.

“This is a wonderful situation for me,” she says. “It gives me balance between my family and career. I’ve begun to say ‘no’ to audition calls more than ever before, because I feel that these years of my son’s childhood are most important and I want to be there. I know some people who can handle two-working-parent homes successfully, but since my husband travels a great deal for his work, I need to be home more. So I work while my son Jackson’s at school, but I also bring him to the conservatory. He loves it and everyone there loves him.

Describing  her private lessons at the conservatory, Ms. Stevens says “Singing and acting one- on-one is really beneficial for children, still finding their voice. It’s a delicate dance, building identity as a youngster. Being able to sing and project through music and acting is very helpful.”

Ms. Stevens wasn’t bitten by the theater bug until high school. “A show came up, which had parts for parents, so my mother and I both auditioned and we both got parts. That did it. I knew the theater was for me. But my parents didn’t encourage me. They wanted to put me in as opposite a direction as possible. But I was following my bliss and when you do that, work never feels like work.

“Doing commercials was part of my daily structure, but the industry has changed a great deal.  You’re seen for about 30 seconds. When I was auditioning every week, they might put three people on hold, to save the date.  Now they put 33 on hold! Reality shows have reduced the need for actors, as well as using guest stars for TV shows.”

Melody Libonati, founding director and instructor at  the conservatory, is herself an actor and singer. She  has created a place that’s instantly recognizable as an authentic, professional environment: attractive, spacious, superbly equipped. She’s also artistic director of the Summer Theatre of New Canaan.

Ms. Libonati is proud of her students, who’ve gone on to success in college theater programs and beyond. Two years in a row, the Connecticut High School Best Leading Acress Awards went to conservatory students: Grace Hardin of Ridgefield High School, now at the Boston Conservatory; and Katie Oxman, New Canaan High School, now at Point Park University. Both are majoring in musical theater.

The conservatory offers College Audition Prep Classes, to help students prepare for college acting or musical theater auditions, taught by the conservatory’s staff of professional instructors and stage veterans, including, of course, Ms. Stevens Stevens.  For information about Ms. Stevens’s classes, visit the conservatory at 237 Elm Street, New Canaan, call 203-966-6177 or go to www.PerformingArtsConservatory.com.

From StamfordPlus.com - EDUCATION
Christine Occhino joins faculty at the Performing Arts
Conservatory of New Canaan

- Christine Occhino of Stamford, CT, has joined the Performing Arts Conservatory of New Canaan as a vocal coach and Executive Assistant to the founding director, Melody Meitrott Libonati. Christine is teaching group and private voice classes in pop, R&B, rock, and country music that focus on proper technique to help children and teenagers expand their vocal talents and prepare for college or vocal performance auditions. She previously worked in the Digital Marketing and A&R departments for the Big Red Program at Columbia Records/Sony Music Entertainment in Manhattan. Christine has in-depth knowledge of contemporary vocal performance techniques and the latest developments in the music industry. A professional member of ASCAP Songwriting & Publishing and The Recording Academy (NY Chapter), Christine graduated in 2011 with honors from the Berklee College of Music where she was awarded a vocal scholarship and received a Bachelor's Degree in Music Business and Vocal Performance.  She has received extensive classical, technique, and performance training from renowned professional vocalists and professors at Berklee College and throughout the New York metro area. While in Boston, she worked as an Artist Associate for "Ask Darcie" Music Business Consulting, headlined as a singer in local venues, and worked in promotional and marketing positions. She is currently recording and co-writing pop, hip-hop and R&B originals with producers and songwriters as well as working as a session vocalist and performing with live bands. A singer, actor, model and dancer, Christine has appeared on TV, videos, print ads, performed at fundraisers, nightclubs, concerts, and acted in theatre and film. Details about her experience can be found on ChristineOcchino.com. For information about Christine’s classes, visit the Conservatory at 237 Elm Street in New Canaan, call 203-966-6177, or go online at performingartsconservatory.com.

Theater Grows From a Love of Acting NY Times

BEFORE motherhood, Melody Libonati was an actress, with a part on the soap opera “One Life to Live” (she was Samantha Vernon), stints on Broadway (Sandy in the traveling company of “Grease”) and big commercials: Dawn detergent, Comet cleanser, Campbell’s soup, and a memorable advertisement for AT&T.
For that last one, she said, “I was standing on my head in a lotus position talking on the phone… (Read More)
 

Summer Theatre of New Canaan Audition for ‘Pinocchio’ at Performing Arts Conservatory

 Chicago’s Filament Theatre Ensemble is returning for another summer in residence at the Summer Theatre of New Canaan.  Back after the 2008 success “Six Impossible Things,” Filament is casting for the production of “Pinocchio”-- an original folk musical—composed and adapted by Tyler Beattie.  The play is a classic presentation described as at times funny, at times scary… (Read More)
 

Summer Theatre of New Canaan assembles Broadway-level season

As an actor, Christian Libonati admits taking direction from his older sister --and his Mom—is “not always easy.” “But I’ve been able to work around that,” he says, “because in the final analysis I trust the theatrical judgment of both of them.”
At 29 sis is Allegra Libonati, five years older than her kid brother and the director of Summer Theatre of New Canaan’s upcoming production of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” in Waveny ... (Read More)