What do I mean by "LA-Style" acting classes? Basically this: my classes are focused on craft and technique for people who want to be successful actors. Every week is devoted to learning about and building your craft. Being an actor is a lot of work. It requires strength, craft, vulnerability, and creativity. And I absolutely love it. I was fortunate to work with phenomenal acting coaches during my time in Los Angeles, and one of the things I learned fast is that if you want to be a good actor, you need to work at it. Just as athletes trains for games, actors train for bookings. And you need to train how you play.

 

So while my classes are fun and exciting, they're also challenging and rewarding. These are not classes where students show up, get told blocking, and have a final performance at the end. Everyone works on their craft every class, through the last class of the session. Expectations are adjusted appropriately for younger actors, but these are not classes for actors who just want to recite lines or skip every other class. I expect my students to show up for class prepared, be good scene partners, and truly want to grow and learn as actors. Below is an overview of classes I offer.

 

CRAFT OF ACTING classes focus Stanislavski's approach to text and character. Actors are introduced to concepts such as objectives, actions, and obstacles. They are taught how to break down a script, determine given circumstances, separate beats and units, and discern emotional truth within the text. This is combined with physical and vocal choices rooted in characters' emotional lives to create authentic performances. Level I is an introduction to the craft, Level II goes into more details of these concepts, and Scene Study is an opportunity for the trained actor to put these techniques into practice for multiple characters.

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ACTING SHAKESPEARE classes focus on...Shakespeare (of course!). Actors learn techniques and tools to understand the language of these texts, decipher clues about their characters, and perform in a way that is clear and engaging for a modern audience. Time is spent teaching iambic pentameter (and variations from it), speech in verse vs. prose, identifying rhetoric and how to use it along with vivid imagery in the text. We look at using the voice to convey emotion in the script and how these classical approaches blend with modern acting approaches today. All well-rounded actors need to have classical theatre training. Level I is a basic introduction to the language and techniques used to perform it, Level II expands further on these topics to give actors even more knowledge, and Level III explores these ideas in Shakespeare's later plays which are looser with "the rules of poetry" and allow additional exploration once a solid foundation of techniques has been established. 

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ACTING FOR THE CAMERA brings craft and technique into a muuuuuuuuch smaller lens. While you still need to apply craft and script analysis to the character you're performing, acting for a lens requires different discipline from an actor, particularly from their body and voice. This class is for actors who already have an acting craft and technique, and want to explore performing in on-camera mediums. In this class, we will work on material from film, television, and commercial scripts with in-class viewing and feedback. This immediate feedback allows actors to get an idea of eye lines, spatial relation, different framing, entering/exiting for auditions, and more.