CLASS DESCRIPTIONS
METHOD ACTING
At the core of the Strasberg curriculum are the Method Acting classes. Students are required to take two Method Acting classes per 10- or 12-week term, each with a different teacher. These classes are designed to train the actor in Lee Strasberg’s systematic approach to acting, known throughout the world as The Method. The technique develops the actor’s ability to respond with real behavior to imaginary stimuli and trains the actor to use their personal experience to fire their imagination.
Each four-hour Method Acting class is divided into two parts: work on one’s self and work on the character.
The work on one’s self employs Lee Strasberg’s relaxation and sensory exercises to train the actor’s concentration and eliminate the actor’s individual habits of mental and physical tension, which limit their ability to express.
Relaxation is repeated in every class, building over the course of study a keen awareness of one’s body and the ability to relax at will. Sensory exercises are also practiced each class, but become more complicated throughout the course of study. Sensory work begins with recreating ordinary objects and sensations using the five senses and slowly progresses towards more complex, emotional stimuli. This part of class focuses on training an actor’s talent.
The second part of class focuses on applying the exercises to scene work and learning how the sensory can help fulfill the demands placed upon the actor by a particular script. Students use the exercises to create organic behavior, make truthful choices, and learn the way in which improvisation can be used to explore a character’s motivation and deepen one’s understanding of the character and scene.
ELECTIVE CLASSES
The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute strives to provide a diverse selection of course offerings to support the development of a well rounded actor. Courses are added in a variety of areas to support the evolving demands of the industry and the needs of actors. The benefit of the Strasberg acting curriculum is that it allows students to choose courses and create a schedule that reflect their individual needs and goals. Below is a sample of offered classes. Electives vary each term and in addition to those described below, other classes may be offered. The schedule for each term is announced 6 weeks prior to each session start date.
ACTING ELECTIVES
BUILDING A CHARACTER
Students will develop a solid base and technique from which to build a character by utilizing Method exercises including the Painting Exercise, Animal Exercise, Need Exercise, Emotional Memory Exercise, Private Moment for the Character and Improvisation.
Students will learn how to make informed and creative choices that serve the play by stimulating the imagination in the continual search for the subtext and the character’s logical behavior. Students will gain the tools to better engage their impulses and imaginations to analyze text thoroughly and accurately, resulting in the ability to create rich and believable characters.
CHARACTER WORK
This course is designed to guide and empower actors in the craft of building truthful, compelling characters for the stage and screen by means of structured exercises, improvisation, and reflection. Classes will focus on a myriad of rehearsal and performance techniques including memory, voice work, relaxation, observation, body awareness, freedom from self-consciousness, investigation of the source material, and more. Students will engage in specific Method Acting exercises and assignments that will provide them with a unique perspective and a reliable, practical way to build and inhabit a character.
COMEDY
If you can make someone laugh, you have them in the palm of your hand. The quickest path between two people is laughter. Studying comedy has many benefits for your acting craft and career, in addition to your Method Acting classes. Comedy and Improv classes can help you live more truthfully in the moment as an actor, help with artistic collaboration, talking with casting directors at auditions, audition slates, improv based auditions like commercials, as well as comedic TV and film projects in general. The entire course is rooted in improvisation fundamentals with the 12-week long class broken up into several week sections of:
- Improv
- Sketch Comedy / Characters
- Comedy in Social Media
- Stand Up Comedy
- Practical application of comedy in commercials and sitcoms (where audition breakdowns say they are looking for actors with comedy experience).
Let’s find your funny and give you techniques you can use practically to further your artistic career!
CONSERVATORY PERFORMANCE
The Conservatory Performance is for students in their final semester of study in the Two-Year Conservatory Program. In this class, students work with a director to create a showcase of scenes that display their growth as artists in the two years they have studied at the Institute.
DIRECTING FOR THE STAGE
This course engages in the art of Directing for the Stage. During the class, students will focus on the development of skills in the areas of: composition and use of theatrical space; picturization and the creation of stage imagery; music; dramaturgy and historical research; script analysis and textual interpretation; casting and the development of a scene concept; working with the actors; ensemble development; and the creation of “style.”
Each student will be working on scenes from plays or films. Each scene will include 2- 3 actors, who students will be directing. Each director will cast the scenes using their classmates or other currently enrolled LSTFI students. At the end of the term, each student will showcase their work and receive feedback from the teacher.
IMPROVISATION
Improvisation provides students with a powerful acting tool that helps explore material on a spontaneous and collaborative level. Students delve into a diverse range of unscripted scenes aimed to stimulate the imagination and engage the impulses of discovery.
LEE STRASBERG’S DIRECTING
Taught by Geoffrey Horne, this class is based on Lee Strasberg’s own Directing Workshop and is designed to provide students with a foundation in directing. Led in the way Lee Strasberg himself taught directing, the class will emphasize ‘Working with the Actor’ and ‘Creating the Event’.
METHOD IMPROVISATION
This class is designed to teach the basic tenets of Method Acting through the tools and techniques of improvisation. Improvisation provides the actor with powerful acting tools that help explore material and scenarios on a spontaneous and collaborative level. Students delve into a diverse range of unscripted scenarios aimed to stimulate the imagination, develop characters and engage the impulses of discovery.
SCENE STUDY
Scene Study is the study of scenic structure and the rhythms, language and plot that the writer uses to convey and explore that structure. What type of language is used and how does your character use it? How does the actor determine what a particular scene is asking them to do, in terms of the actions and tactics of the character and circumstances they are living in? What process must the actor go through to fulfill these requirements, in a powerful, specific, living way? Method and Sensory work, physical awareness exercises and improvisational techniques will be woven into the step-by-step process of working on and developing scenes and monologues.
SCRIPT ANALYSIS
This class focuses on learning how to prepare your script and make informed choices. Students will learn how to analyze scenes and scripts, find and notate beats, understand a character’s action and make informed choices based on the psychological, emotional, physical and environmental aspects of the character and script. A necessary tool to understanding how to approach a role.
FILM & TV ELECTIVES
ACTING FOR FILM & TV
Rick Rubin says that “No matter what tools you use to create, the true instrument is you.” All actors have a powerful instrument inside them, and this course is designed for the students to understand, hone, and master their creative instrument on camera. Over the 12 weeks, students will shoot scenes in a variety of genres – comedy, drama, thriller – giving them practical experience in front of the camera. As they bring their technique to a new medium, we will take different creative approaches to the work. The goal is to explore and uncover which process or processes work best for them – rehearsal versus no rehearsal; improvisation versus no improv; rolling takes versus cutting; being off-book versus learning lines during blocking; a taciturn director versus a long-winded one.
On film shoots, actors need to be adaptable and assertive with the environment and collaborators around them. So in addition to tuning their emotional / performative instrument on camera, this class is ALSO constructed as a lesson in self. What genres do they prefer as an actor? What direction brings out their best performances, and what stifles? The actors are encouraged to constantly express how their creative journey is going. Along the way, the class will work as one unit, musical chairs as we fill roles – holding boom, doing marks, script supervisor – giving students different perspectives. Film and TV is all about collaboration, being PLAYFUL, and growing as an artist at light speed – and that’s what this class will feel like.
ACTING ON CAMERA
This is conducted as an immersion course that gives the student practical experience in the best acting techniques required by most narrative Feature Films and Television Series that are shot like Features. These are correctly known as “Single-Camera” productions as distinct from “Multi-Camera” Studio productions.
ON-CAMERA PERFORMANCE
This course is designed to help the students understand and master the demands made on them in the film and TV mediums. The class is developed to be practical and relevant, and will guide students in utilizing their technique for an on-camera performance. Depending on class size, students may not act in front of the camera every single week. However, interested students will have the opportunity to handle the camera and film scenes themselves. Others will have the opportunity to direct under supervision of the instructor in order to better understand the dynamic between actor and director.
MOVEMENT ELECTIVES
MOVEMENT I
Movement I is designed to build awareness and understanding of the body – anatomically and intuitively – so that the actor can make creative and repeatable choices for characters they will play. The warm up is made to touch on all the muscle groups, connect to breath, release habitual tensions and find “actor neutral”. The exercises progress from basics to the more complex. We work individually, in pairs, and in groups of varying sizes. Through a series of exercises from various walks to animal work and many things in between, we explore how to find authentic connection between feeling and movement both alone and in connection with other actors / scene partners.
MOVEMENT II
Prerequisite: Any prior Movement elective or special permission from teacher.
The goal in this class is for actors to be prepared to work professionally in a variety of circumstances. This exploration should be fun and challenging.
We take skills explored in any “movement for actors” class and move towards practical application of these skills in increasingly complex scenarios. Movement “scenes” will include improv, costume, text, gesture, and props in both group and individual work. Every class begins with a gentle physical warm up. At times, the warm-up will vary depending on exercises that will follow. Eventually, actors will be encouraged to create a brief warm up of their own, based on skills acquired in class, that addresses and challenges their individual needs.
The first couple classes will be an introduction and review to create common ground. Then, the course will go through a series of progressively complex exercises, culminating in assigned scripted scenes that rely heavily on extreme physicality or activity, choreography and blocking, or any combination of these things, and include memorized text. Students will be expected to show up for scene partners and participate as fully as possible in each class.
MOVEMENT OF THE ACTOR
Utilizing various techniques, awareness exercises, physical explorations and improvisations this course gives students the tools to better understand how their bodies work and how to use themselves more efficiently and less habitually. By learning how to use relaxation to gain control over their physical expression, the actor can use themselves more effectively and creatively and thus slip more easily into the skin, the essence, the passions and needs of the character in response to the circumstances of the scene.
PHYSICAL TECHNIQUE
As actors we physically embody the character. This class uses the Feldenkrais method of body awareness to allow the actor to develop and master this ability to embody and give full, unique life to whoever they play. As physical artists the ability to be aware as we act involves sensing ourselves on multiple levels at once so the character created is perceived as multi dimensional and rich. The class connects to the sensory and relaxation work done in the Method acting classes. The class also explores themes such as creativity, challenge and being in the moment through improvisation, short scenes and studies.
STAGE COMBAT I
In Stage Combat I, students will learn and explore the components of unarmed stage combat: the choreographed illusion of violence. The course will cover safety measures and techniques as outlined by the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD), as well as a host of other topics relevant to performing stage combat safely and bravely in line with professional standards. Under the tutelage of a Certified Teacher with the SAFD, students will earn training time toward the 30 contact hours required to take the SAFD Skills Proficiency Test (usually offered at the end of Combat 2), adjudicated by an SAFD Fight Master. If the students’ work meets the SAFD’s criteria for safety and dramatic effectiveness, the students are recognized with a certification of proficiency – a benchmark well-recognized and respected in the industry across the world. In Stage Combat I, students will form the foundation of this training by acquiring, practicing, and implementing stage combat techniques, culminating in the performance of a complex piece of stage combat choreography.
STAGE COMBAT II
Students will work upon the foundational skills acquired in Stage Combat I, bringing them up to a performance level. Participation in Stage Combat II is by permission of the instructor. The focus of this class will be to learn safe and dramatically effective techniques of unarmed staged violence at an advanced level. Students will perform a scene involving a complicated fight routine. There will be a fight test at the end of the term, where students present their work to an outside judge, a recognized Fight Master from the Society of American Fight Directors. More information about the S.A.F.D. can be found at www.safd.org.
TAI CHI
Tai chi is a Chinese martial art, health and meditation practice based on the Taoist principles of balance and harmony. Tai chi has been an integral part of Lee Strasberg’s Method for training actors for over fifty years. Tai chi practice supports and complements Method Acting training, as they both share a foundation based on relaxation, awareness, and intention. Understanding how to create an effective action – an action that fulfills the intent set or given with the least amount of effort – is one of the goals of tai chi. Through the physical practice, students develop a greater understanding of how focus, intention, energy and effort affect performance.
BALLET
This is an open level class. Everyone from the new beginner to the experienced dancer is welcome and will be challenged according to their experience/physical abilities. Strong emphasis is placed on structural alignment so that dancers can work correctly without causing injury (as well as learning how to work with an injury without doing further damage). Exercises are designed with the members of each specific class in mind. While the class is based in traditional classical ballet, a strong emphasis is placed on the actor-dancer integrating their acting training.
Students will leave with a working understanding of terminology and vocabulary, gained via oral and visual cues and repeated exercises. Students will become more confident and spatially aware, and gain greater awareness of correct vs. incorrect postural alignment. Students will have a strong enough understanding of Ballet basics to be able to enter a dance studio and confidently take a beginner level Ballet class – at least!
DANCE I
Dance l is designed for those who have never studied dance before and for those who need a refresher on the basic techniques. Through a series of exercises, basic dance vocabulary and execution of technique is taught in both Ballet and Jazz disciplines. You will explore and learn total body awareness, gain confidence, and discover the joy of moving the body in space.
TAP DANCE
Tap is designed for those who have never danced or tapped before. The arc of the class begins with Basic Tap through Intermediate Tap dance. Utilizing the concept of Tap Immersion (like language immersion classes), the student will learn the discipline of Tap through repetition, trial and error, and consistent practice until overall comprehension is achieved.
In the first half of the semester, students will be introduced to single, double, most triple, quadruple and more sounds. Cramp rolls, perrididdles, riffs, shim shams, pullbacks, and exercises 1-4 will be introduced and practiced. In the second half, students will learn and practice time steps, turns, drawbacks, more pullbacks, as well as more advanced paddle and roll combinations through a process call “see, hear, do.”
THEATRE DANCE / JAZZ
This is an open level class where each student will be challenged at their own level.
Each class begins with a set warm up from the Musical Theatre & Jazz tradition, pulled predominantly from American Dance Machine, Luigi technique, and an amalgam of NYC-based Jazz classes. Grounded in correct alignment and understanding the body, both as an integrated whole and in isolated movements, to gain greater expression and command of the instrument. The warmup will include standing stretches, balance, foot work, and floor work: stretch/strength, isolations, and turning technique.
We will build our movement vocabulary, do short phrases across the floor, jumps leaps and turns, followed by original choreography from Broadway shows in which the story is set and we learn choreography with story. Students will learn two or more combinations created in the contemporary Jazz style wherein the actor-dancer learns the movements and the story emerges individually through the dancing. The focus of this class is on increasing range of motion, expression and JOY!
STRETCH
Stretch is designed to deeply explore and meditate on the potential of the body through slow and thorough stretching. The result is a greater flexibility of the body, the release of stored musculature tensions, and increased awareness on many levels including body, mind, emotion and spirit. No prior training or knowledge needed.
STRETCH & STRENGTHEN
This class is a physical conditioning class designed for the actor who wants to increase range of motion, connectivity, and flexibility, and address areas of weakness or misalignment in an actor-friendly environment. Through a series of specific exercises we will work methodically to gain greater understanding of our alignment, strength, stretch, and potential, as well as how to work safely and effectively.
Accommodations can be made for specific injury, sensitive areas, or structural limitations. Each student will begin at their unique starting point and will work according to the needs of their individual instrument. This class is meant for all levels of physicality – dancer, “gym rat,” or complete novice. All are welcome.
VOCAL ELECTIVES
DIALECTS
The purpose of Dialects is to make the student aware of their own regionalisms and speech idiosyncrasies before delving into the difficulty of doing other accents and dialects. Once a degree of neutrality in speech has been achieved, students are taught posh and working class English or – for those who speak British English (whether from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc.) – work on perfecting their neutral American or an American regional dialect. If time permits, students are free to explore other accents that interest them under the teacher’s mentoring. Non-native English speakers should first take Speech 1.
SPEECH I
Students will learn the differences between Theatre Standard American English and General American English, in addition to fundamental concepts like voice and unvoiced consonants, vowel and consonant combinations, consonant and consonant combinations, vowel and vowel combinations, American English intonation, general word stress, and phrasing.
This class is formatted around students reading and performing excerpts, corrections being given, and questions being addressed. Additionally, the students will learn the International Phonetic Alphabet to ensure that the student is speaking with proper intonation. Conversational correction is also utilized as there is an inextricable link between knowledge of grammar and idioms and the student’s ability to concentrate on accent and vocal habits.
VOCAL PRODUCTION
This course endeavors to impart a vocal technique that is open, free, flexible, lively and possessing an extensive and colorful range. Vocal production is a dynamic vocal technique specifically designed to compliment the work of the Method actor. The goal of the course is to develop an open and embodied instrument and provide the artist with an effective “neutral,” allowing for optimal exploration of human emotion and physical expression.
This class begins its training process in the recognition and release of constricting, tension-related habits that impede the full, free, flexible, and expressive use of the vocal instrument. This release and recognition is achieved through exploration and exercises in relaxation, alignment, respiration, phonation, support, registration, resonation, and articulation.
SINGING FOR THE ACTOR
Lee Strasberg placed Singing in the curriculum for the enhanced development of the actor’s voice. The purpose of this course is to introduce voice technique and establish good vocal habit through relaxation, alignment, respiration, phonation, support, registration, resonation, and articulation. Additionally, a daily warm-up routine will be developed suitable for auditions both spoken or sung.
It should be noted that, even for acting auditions, actors are often asked to sing something. For those who already have a singing practice, the course is structured to build on the individual’s current repertoire. The songbook, developed by the students in conjunction with the teacher, will continue to grow and augment over subsequent semesters so that it covers a vast range of audition needs. The aim is to create a body of work that will prepare the singing student for the demands of the musical theatre industry and the actor for the extreme dramatic demands of voice on stage.
SINGING TECHNIQUES
This intermediate level class is geared towards students with some basic singing experience who are able to easily match pitch and want a deeper understanding and standard language around technique.
Each week, we will cover a different topic each week related to singing and voice use. This course progresses weekly and aims to provide a well rounded and informed singing experience for students looking to develop basic vocabulary and vocal technique. Topics will include: Alignment, Respiration, Phonation, Registration, Resonation, Articulation, basic vocal anatomy, and information around vocal health. Students will sing a minimum of one group song and three short songs or cuts as a way to develop awareness and technique. This is not a book building class, however repertoire will be drawn from musical theatre.
MUSICAL THEATRE SCENE CLASS
Admission by audition only.
The Musical Theatre Scene Class is designed to teach the actor how to blend the three disciplines of acting, singing and dancing into a seamless act of storytelling, focusing on personifying the character through these disciplines. This class teaches the student how to work in an ensemble, learning at least three group numbers with relative ease. There is a performance at the end of the semester therefore classes will mostly be treated as rehearsals for the performance. The musical scenes selected (duets, trios and quartets) will be taken out of the context of a variety of shows and presented in a musical evening with an audience.
THEATRE HISTORY ELECTIVES
ACTING CHEKOV
A study of Anton Chekov’s plays and characters is essential for any student of the Method. His work was a major influence on both Stanislavsky and Lee Strasberg, as well as many great writers to this day. Woody Allen cites Chekov as his biggest influence, as did Neil Simon. The Seinfeld Show and all of its off-spring are totally Chekov in their lively mix of laughter and tears. Students table-read and discuss his greatest plays in class while presenting rehearsed scenes and monologues every week. This is a 2-hour History and Acting Elective.
ACTING SHAKESPEARE
Students will learn three verse speeches – early, middle and late. Shakespeare wrote clues into the verse which help us understand the psychology and emotional life of the character.
Suggested reading: Thinking Shakespeare by Barry Edelstein
FEMALE PLAYWRIGHTS
The course is designed to broaden the students’ knowledge of female playwrights and offer them a variety of material the students have not encountered before and can use for scene work in their Method acting classes. The three sections are designed to stretch the performer and give them an opportunity to work on three different styles of plays and performance. The sections are: Historical/Period Drama, Solo Performance, and Contemporary Naturalism.
This course aims expose the students to female playwrights who write in a range of styles. To identify and deepen the students’ wheelhouse and to stretch the students’ range as far as it can go in hopes of identifying new, undiscovered strengths. Each of the three sections is designed to stretch the performer, give them an opportunity to work on different styles of plays and performance.
HISTORY OF METHOD ACTING IN FILM
Students will watch great Method-oriented performances on film. The film collection will highlight Russian and American actors. After watching the films, students will analyze and discuss the performances from the point of view of the craft.
PLAYWRIGHTS AND THEIR PLAYS IN CONTEXT: A GUIDE TO BROADER ANALYSIS
This class will examine various plays in context of the biographies of their authors, as well as the social and societal contexts of the plays themselves.
Students will learn how an enhanced analysis of a play and its author can better inform the use of the Method Acting techniques an actor chooses to employ in their work. An understanding of the full context of a play affects emotional response and choice of Method Acting exercises.
The instructor will select three plays for this class: an American play pre 1960, an American Play post 1960, and a play in translation from 19th or 20th century. Each student will also select another play of their own choosing to work on analytically and will share their work with the class over the semester. The instructor will explain, define, and guide this work collaboratively with the students. Goals and assignments will be clearly given in class so that students can prepare for upcoming classes as they occur.
STANISLAVSKY TO STRASBERG
Stanislavsky to Strasberg provides a clear understanding of the development of Stanislavsky’s work in both the Russian and American theatres over the last 100 years. Instruction includes, but is not limited to, lectures, class participation, Q&As, audio/visual presentations, and acting exercises.
STRASBERG AND SCENE ANALYSIS
Several years before Stanislavsky understood the logical evolution of his discoveries and insights into how an actor and a director needs to analyze a play, what is today called active analysis, Lee Strasberg intuited Stanislavsky’s ultimate practice from his acting classes with Richard Boleslavsky and Maria Ouspenskaya at the American Laboratory Theatre in the mid-1920’s and effectively demonstrated in his legendary productions with the Group Theatre.
The organic form of a truly acting and thus theatre-based rehearsal process is built on the use of rehearsed improvisations, called etudes by Stanislavsky. These etudes “actively” analyze and explore the dramatic action of the play – i.e., the given circumstances, events, facts, objectives, psycho-physiological-action, counteraction and adaptations or adjustments, the text-based means through which an actor builds a the playwright’s character.
Before one can “actively analyze” a play one must know how to break its text into the bits of action that make up the actual play, which is “hidden” or embedded “sub textually” in the text. This is the architecture of acting and directing and the basic material of theatre. This class teaches the student the process of action analysis as the foundation of acting.
SHAKESPEARE AT THE GLOBE
The plays of William Shakespeare are the foundation for the last 400 years of theatrical history and great acting. A working knowledge of Shakespeare is essential for any serious student. In this class we will table-read, analyze and discuss four Shakespeare plays while presenting rehearsed scenes and speeches every week.
Al Pacino once said to Lee Strasberg, “I could act this stuff if only it weren’t for all these words,” and Lee responded, “that’s Shakespeare.” There is no need to fear the language. Beginners are always welcome. This is a 2-hour History and Acting Elective.
THEATRE HISTORY FOR THE ACTOR
This course is a survey of the history of the theatre from primitive origins to modern times. Through the use of historical documents, contemporary writings, and illustrations of architecture and costumes, the major periods of theatrical history are seen from an artistic and cultural point of view.
Theatre as a cultural force set in its historical context is a major theme of this study. Theatre will be explored as a reflection of the time and culture that produced it. The course will examine the pivotal theatre artists, plays and movements which shaped the history of the art form. This is a required class for the One- and Two-Year Conservatory programs.
THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
The class will cover the origins of Absurdist theatre, the movements that led up to it and the global and social events that led to an explosion of the form. The students will read at least one of the playwrights “Masterpieces” in each of the sections, as well as little known short plays by the writers. We will cover a small amount of biographical information about the writers as well.
The 12 weeks will be split among the 3 playwrights, 4 weeks devoted to each. The students will read the play for homework, come in and discuss the plays.
WORLD CINEMA
Cinema stands out as one of the art forms that is truly universal and unites us across all cultures. This class provides a survey of both American and international films that will explore the history and interrelationships between them.
Each week we will study a pair of films; one American film and one international film, starting from the dawn of the film industry. We will examine how American film impacted other countries and also how American Film was influenced by the work of international filmmakers.
WRITING ELECTIVES
CREATE YOUR OWN MATERIAL
Create Your Own Material is for the artist who is interested in developing original ideas into short and full length plays, sketches, short films or other mediums of storytelling through group improvisation work. Both comedy and drama are explored. This is a class intended to cater to the immediate needs of the individual artist and hone the skills necessary for creating original characters, stories and ideas.
Students will employ writing, acting and improvisation exercises as a group to build out their original ideas with premise, character development, structure and theme. In addition to creating their own work, there is plenty of room for students to expand their creativity in other fields they’d like to explore including directing, producing, writing, camera work, etc.
The main objective of the class is to create a safe and liberating space to create your own work. Though not mandatory, students have the opportunity to walk away from this class with a finished product. This could be a scene from a play they want to write, a short film, a digital sketch, the first episode of a web series, a fleshed out character that is performance ready or whatever work they want to create.
DRAMATIC WRITING
A class to learn the fundamentals of writing for either the stage or screen. Students can choose to work on a play (theater) or a screenplay (film & television) during the term. This hybrid writing class is structured to allow students to concentrate on one form while being exposed to the other by participating in lectures, analysis and discussion of each discipline and the work created throughout the term.
PLAYWRITING FOR THE ACTOR
In this course, actors will open up a new form of expression and character exploration. With a focus on character development derived from personal experience and sensorial writing, actors will complete the first draft of a full length play or two drafts of an original, one-act play. Actors will leave empowered to not wait for a role to come to them, but to go out and write a role for themselves.
SCREENWRITING
The goal of the class is to examine the formats and the inner workings of a three-act screenplay in the United States. In 12 weeks, each student will learn the tools to complete a screenplay like a professional. The unique structure of a movie script will be laid out so there is no guess work on what to write. Students will also learn which stories sell, and how to make their scripts more attractive to producers and actors. The class will also make the students better actors because it will expose them to what makes a great script work.
INDUSTRY CLASSES
AUDITION
This class is designed to prepare the Method Actor for auditioning in a variety of casting situations. Students will learn to refine their type in addition to learning the basics of marketing through headshots, resumes, and finding an agent.
Students will be introduced to a variety of techniques and audition materials suitable for specific types of work such as plays, movies, soap opera, commercials and more. Students will develop a thorough understanding of the casting process from answering a casting call, to taking direction at the audition, through the call back, and ultimately, the offer of a part.
BUSINESS OF ACTING
This class is designed to help bridge the gap between studio training and the professional demands of the actor. It will help students develop a strategic plan to get work and will provide students with a better understanding of industry expectations and how to translate their in-class work into a successful career and become self-sufficient artists after finishing their training.
This class encourages students toward specific career goals, creates a framework for their achievement and ensures that they are prepared for what the industry requires of them. Students leave with a greater understanding of themselves within the industry, as well as the tools to tackle auditions in various media and meet with representation.
Topics of discussion include but are not limited to: agents, managers, casting directors, breakdowns, creating a reel, managing your time efficiently, unions, websites, headshots and resumes, and more.
MONOLOGUE
This course is designed to assist the actor in finding the best monologues suited to them individually. The actors will work on several 1-minute and 2-minute audition monologues (the standard audition time) over the course of the semester. Students will explore classical and contemporary monologues, learn how to break the monologues into beats, analyze the text, and employ blocking. In addition, audition attire, headshots and resumes will be covered. The actor will leave the class prepared with audition monologues to get the job.
MONOLOGUE & THE CHARACTER
This class is focused on preparing students for audition through deep work on their chosen monologues. Students will learn and practice a series of carefully selected exercises and techniques that will enable them to discover the depth of a character in a particular role and show the range of their talent in a short monologue.
These exercises and techniques will strengthen the students’ concentration and sharpen their senses. Through this training, students build resilience and commitment. Applied to monologue work, the exercises highlight what works and what doesn’t for a particular role. This iterative process provides a path to discovering the character in a particular role, and becomes a tool for growth and improvement in one’s work as an actor.
Students will work on several 1-2 minute monologues throughout the semester. They will have a chance to choose a piece of classical and / or modern material, also period pieces (Chekhov, Shakespeare etc). Students are encouraged to take risks and make their own strong choices. We will work on the details of the plot, break the text into meaningful parts, and place emphasis on strengthening the perspective of the role.
SELF-TAPE AUDITION TECHNIQUE
Mastering Self-Tape is designed to prepare the actor for at-home video auditions. In addition to on-camera audition technique, students will learn to analyze material and self-direct their own performances; find and work with a reader; test various backgrounds and select audition attire; adjust and troubleshoot lighting and sound quality; and film, edit and submit auditions from home. Students will leave the class with the skills and practice to work independently and tackle self-tape auditions with confidence.
VOICEOVER
This class is designed as an introduction to voiceover and voice acting. Students are expected to record material on their own each week and will receive feedback on vocal performance and technical quality during class. Students will also perform voiceover copy live in class to better understand the process of working in a studio setting and making adjustments on the spot.
Topics covered will include audio equipment and creating an at-home studio; selecting material and understanding type; voiceover auditions and cold reads; voice acting for commercials, animation, narration and more; and creating a voiceover demo. The curriculum is flexible to address the needs, goals, and experience level of each individual student.