For the past 10 weeks a group of local teens have met each week to hone their acting skills at a young actors workshop.

Culminating in a staged reading performance on Monday night, the teens have worked on skills ranging from doing readings and improvisation and playing roles to learning monologues under the guidance of Brack Llewellyn, a local actor, director and playwright.

The youth spent time each week doing activities to help them become more comfortable on the stage. They played theater games and used improv to get more comfortable with each other. One activity involved Brack giving the actors an emotion, place or age to portray on the spot to help them become comfortable with a variety of characters.

“We worked to develop their skills with being confident and used to being up in front of people as well as with sharing their emotions with each other,” said Angela Llewellyn.

The readings were designed to highlight the variety of young adult literature available at the library as well as showcase the young actors’ talents. They took on roles from everything from “The Hobbit” to “New Moon” to “Forever Blue,” the fourth book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series.

Perhaps one of the most interesting readings came from “The Book Thief” in which the two readers were both portraying the same character. Katlyn Shaw played the good side of Death while Will Bryant portrayed the bad side of Death.

“Stay in the scene. Don’t get distracted,” said Angela Llewellyn as a caution to the actors beforehand.

The actors were assigned to the books, but they were able to pick which of the characters from the books they would portray. Some of the actors were more excited about their assignments than others, but they all took their parts seriously whether they portrayed a main character or a narrator.

“I’m in love with Edward so it was OK,” said Savannah Mumford who read the part of Alice Cullen during the scene from “New Moon.”

Bryant and Brianna Rodgers, who played Gollum and Bilbo Baggins, respectively, were forced to speak in riddles during their entire scene.

For the participants the workshop provided valuable experience as they were all interested in acting to begin with. However, they agreed that even people not interested in acting would benefit from a similar workshop.

“I thought it was really great. It’s really hard to find a free acting workshop,” said Mumford.

“We did a lot of free expression. You get to show off everything you learn,” said Emily Lowe. “It helps you get out of the box.”

“You get to hang out with friends you don’t normally see all the time and you get to make new friends,” said Caitlin Bell. “You get to be different. You can be odd if you want to.”

One of the things the youth found immensely beneficial was the work they did on monologues during the process. Monologues are long speeches prepared by actors for the audition process and are meant to show the actor’s range.

“I learned so much about monologues,” said Mumford. “That’s what you have to have for auditions.”

“We learned how you should go into an audition,” said Lowe.

“We learned that you cannot be afraid of a scene,” said Shaw.

At the end of the workshop the actors were able to put their talents to the test in front of family and friends. A couple of them even performed their monologues at the end.

“I liked the end because you got to see what all you’ve learned,” said Bell.

The workshop was opened to area youth ages 13 to 18 who met once a week. The Llewellyns hope to do another similar workshop in the spring and perhaps open it up to both younger and older age groups.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.