Workshops
   If you can’t travel to a conference  (or even if you can, but you want to provide additional or customized training for your praise, worship and drama teams), bring the conference to you!
   Masterworks has a team of experts who can travel to your church and provide an intensive one- day session with instruction that meets your specific needs.
   Choose from any of the workshop  packages below. The workshop fee includes all costs, including travel and hotel for the presenter. The sessions run from 9:00am-4:00pm on a Saturday with participants bringing a bag lunch to enjoy together. You may include as many people
from your church in the sessions as you wish, unless otherwise indicated below.
   To book a workshop, email us at masterworkproductions@yahoo.com or call 860-653-7733.
Workshops
Workshop Presenters

Jay Austin (Workshop H) is executive pastor at Church at Viera in Viera, FL. He has years of experience in youth ministry and youth evangelism and has been a leader and speaker at numerous conferences along side Rebecca St. James, Newsong, Truth and others. He has written for  Bible Studies for Word Entertainment and wrote, produced and co-directed an Easter musical “Ransomed.”

Melissa Austin (Workshop C) began singing publicly in Nashville at the age of 7. She played the role of Cosette in Les Miserables in the Broadway company. She toured with Amy Grant’s Christmas show and sang with Amy, Michael W. Smith, CeCe Winans, Faith Hill and others.  She studied music at Belmont University and performed at Opryland USA, has acted in music videos, TV pilots and commercials and numerous theatrical productions.She also has served as worship leader for her church. She and her husband have two little boys and she’s passionate about using the arts for worship and outreach.

Kathy Conry (Workshop J) has more than 20 years experience in secular and Christian theater. She performed on Broadway in the productions of George M! and No No Nanette and the Broadway tours of George M!, Roar of the Greasepaint and Steel Magnolias. She has performed, directed and choreographed numerous regional plays, revues and musicals. Her Christian theater credits include productions of  “His Last Days” and “The Sermon on the Mount.” She is active in ministry in many different areas at Metro Baptist Church in Manhattan.

Bill Cooper (Workshop K) Worship Leader Bill Cooper’s years of experience in secular bands and church music and theater settings give him a unique perspective which can help your church artists reach a new level of excellence in ability and worship. He is available to conduct workshops and help lead worship at your church. A talented composer, (his most recentproject is writing original usic for Masterwrk Productions dinner theater "Getaway to Chipaway," Bill’s worship songs are available on MP3 and sheet music for worship teams to use in services.

Judith Dann (Workshop E) graduated from Roger Williams University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York with degrees in Applied Theater. She directed seven seasons of musicals and plays for The Christian Heritage High School of Trumbull, CT and is currently the director of the Trinity Players Dinner Theater, a ministry of Trinity Baptist Church of Fairfield, CT.

Torry Martin, (Workshop D) was a standup comic and actor in Los Angeles before he became a Christian. After finding the Lord, Martin moved to Alaska and lived in a remote cabin with a friend who was studying for ministry. Torry began writing comedy sketches which he entered into the national competition sponsored by the Gospel Music Association called Christian Artists, now called Seminar in the Rockies. He won the grand prize two years in a row and now returns annually as an instructor. Torry is a writer for  “Adventures in Odyssey,” a children’s radio series produced by Focus on the Family, and has had a number of books of his comedy sketches published including “Under the Circumstances, “What a Character,” “The Gospel According to US,” with Martha Bolton. He's a two-year wnner of the Best Actor award for the Nashville 48-hour Film Fesitval and currently is working on several filmrojects and screenlays. “I like using comedy in my writing because we need to be able to make fun of ourselves,” Torry says. “We take ourselves too seriously, but we don’t take God seriously enough and that needs some fixing.”

Jerry Starks (Workshop A)  has been involved in church programs and community theater for the past 20 years. He has been a performer as well as director,  choreographer, and music director. He inherited from his Dad a knack for making things work, which has been extremely helpful in dealing with theater tech.

Marilyn J. VanGraber (Workshop B) has been involved in all aspects of production and performance since her high school drama club —  including college, community and professional theatre.  In the past twenty years her focus has been on building and performing with church drama teams, both children and adults, in Alabama, Indiana and, most recently, Vermont.

Lauren Yarger (Workhops F & G) is Executive Director/Producer with Masterwork Productions, Inc. She has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists.
Yarger trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run. Last summer she was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT.  A member of The Outer Critics Circle, she writes reviews of Broadway and theater with a Christian perspective for Masterwork Productions
(http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com) and writes secular reviews of New York and Connecticut theater for the national web site American Theater Web (http://www.americantheaterweb.com). She also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.
Yarger writes news and inspiration for Christian artists at http://christianpeformers.blogspot.com and teaches theater workshops at conferences around the country. She is a freelance writer and member of the Society of Professional Journalists, The Drama Desk, Christians in Theatre Arts, the Episcopal Actors Guild, Christian Writers Fellowship International and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger lives with her husband and two grown children in West Granby, CT.

Workshop Package A
• Puppet Ministry
• Choreography for the Non Dancer
• Tech 101
• Directing 101

Workshop Package B
• Puppet Ministry
• How to Start and Build a Drama    
Team
• Working with Youth in Drama
• Directing 101

Workshop Package C
• Leading Children in Worship
• Acting Techniques
• Vocal Sessions (participants limited)

Workshop Package D (Select four of the following:)
• Sketch Writing Part 1
• Sketch Writing Part 2
• Finding Your Calling/Discovering
Your gifts
• The Art of Collaborative Wriitng
The Secrets to Free Publicity
• Story Telling/Monologues
• Comedy as Outreach


Workshop Package E
• How to Do a Dinner Theater
• Acting Techniques
• Directing 101
• How to Start and Build a Drama
Team


Workshop Package F (select four of the following:)
• Producing -- Someone Has to Do It!
• Copyright and Royalty Issues
• Performing Contracts/Booking Events
• Stage Management
• How to Do a Dinner Theater or Outreach Event
• Spiritual Aspects for Performing Arts Leaders
• Front of House Management-- Seeing events and            services from your visitors’ point of view
• Directing 101
• How to Best Structure Your Arts Ministry
• Mentoring Artists in Your Church
• Collaboration: Art Leaders and Pastors: Working            Together to Create Sunday Services

Workshop Package G
• Writing Sketches for your Church
• Writing a Dinner Theater
• Writing a Holiday Play
• Writing Reviews for Publication

Workshop Package H
• The ABC’s of the Worship Experience
• Developing a Worship Flow
• Communicating With Confidence


Workshop Package J
• Thinking Big for Directors: Catching   
  the Vision and Making it Happen
• Acting: Bridging the Gap Between Professional and Christian Theater
• Using Sign Language in Liturgical      Dance

Workshop Package K
• Songwriting for Worship
• How to lead the band in worship
Combine workshops with having Bill lead worship at your church