Public invited to Bondurant class showcase

For the most part, acting students take their classes and perform their “scenework” in front of their instructor and classmates – learning and improving along the way, of course, but also forming a tight communal bond.

Eugenie Bondurant, who’s been teaching acting at Green Light Cinema for two years (after a lengthy stint with another, now-closed school) holds three seasonal sessions, and each always ends with a performance showcase. Sometimes friends and family come along, to add to the celebratory atmosphere.

Bondurant has added a twist to Saturday’s showcase, which will cap the winter session: She’s inviting the public.

“It’s a group of actors doing scenes from different shows – plays, TV or films,” she explains. “Things in which they can be cast. And things that they’ve worked on and are still working on.”

Bondurant, the St. Pete resident with the impressive film resume (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Fear of Rain, Werewolf By Night) explains that showcases – nerves and all – are essential parts of actor training.

For a professional actor, she says, “The expectation is to come in, full and ready, for rehearsal. So I’m working with my actors to be able to do that. To be used to that – they’ve got to be able to do this on their own.”

Saturday’s event will start with improv at 12:30 p.m. “You go inside, in an air-conditioned, fun place, you see a show – and it’s free, so why not? Everybody has a good time.”

Things will run around two hours, including an intermission.

So … good for the audience – and a great catharsis, out of the cloistered classroom and into the great wide open, for students.

“It gets them motivated. It gives them an end goal. If I said ‘We’re not going to do a showcase,’ if I was in the class would I ever memorize the script? Well, no. They’ve got to get their stuff together to get it up in front of people. And they do!

“And it just makes me smile, and cry, and laugh. I get so excited. I feel like they’re doing a personal show for me.”

Bondurant will next be seen in 115 Grains, Florida writer-director Andrew Kiaroscuro’s drama about a police officer (Evan Gamble) suffering from chronic PTSD. The film debuts March 25 at the Gaspailla Film Festival, and will be shown April 28 at the Sunscreen Film Festival.