WILTON – As part of its fall learning-through-the arts-series, the Foothills Arts Center is offering several theater classes for various age groups. “Theater Scenes,” for adults and students grades four and up for six Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8 p.m., will start Oct. 14. Monologue class for high school students will be held on four Mondays from 6:30 to 8 p.m., starting Oct. 20.

“Creating Characters,” for grades one through three, will be held on six Tuesdays from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., starting Oct. 28. Children will learn beginning acting techniques that provide life-long learning skills such as self-confidence, oral presentation and teamwork.

They will explore characters through movement, voice and costume, and play with a setting where all the characters will meet. The final open class will be a sharing of their created characters.

Ayla Kapiloff of Farmington will teach “Creating Characters.” She is a recent graduate of Bennington College in Vermont where she studied theater and elementary education. This summer she combined those interests in Italy while teaching English as a second language through theater activities.

Robin Lisherness of Strong will be the scenes and monologue classes teacher. Lisherness just retired from 35 years of teaching English and performing arts at Skowhegan Area High School. His extracurricular programs have won top honors at Maine and New England film festivals.

The scenes class will focus on character development, interaction with other actors, blocking and motivation. Working in pairs, students will create and rehearse a scene from a play or movie script and improve it with feedback from Lisherness and the other teams.

In the monologue class, students will work on acting skills, the memorization process and character development. They will select, memorize, block, motivate and create real characters.

Upcoming offerings at the Foothills Arts Center also include clay classes for adults and children grades three and up with Jeanne Bruce, and pre-school art classes with Kim Jacques. In addition, Jacques will teach a charcoal drawing class, “Working with Shadow,” for adults and high school students.

All of the classes will take place at the Foothills Arts Center, located in the historic Bass-Wilson Building.

To receive a class brochure and registration form, contact the Foothills Arts Center at 645-7117 or [email protected].