Williamson Technique: Physical training for the organic actor. Level 1 stresses physical freedom, emotional openness, and release. This work pinpoints and dissolves physical blocks in the body, which inhibit the actor’s ability to freely process their ongoing experience. The work then progresses to alignment and physical characterization, and extends the work into the realm of period physicality.

This class focuses on the basics of good speech and voice production. Students learn to free their voices into vibrant, flexible instruments. They learn the phonetic alphabet in order to aid them in their mastery of American Standard speech, and the elimination of any regional or foreign accents.

Students learn to recognize and release mental and physical habits that interfere with presence and performance. Technique is taught through language, movement and a unique, guiding touch. Students receive individual, private instruction from the teacher throughout the semester, along with weekly group class. Students become aware of their individual movement tendencies in daily life as well as performance situations.

Students learn the basic skill set of hand-to-hand stage combat, the responsibilities of partnership and the challenge of choreography all while bringing a fight to life. The basics learned in class will be applicable to both stage and screen.

Dance enhances the actor’s ability to use their body as a dramatic instrument, allowing the artist to be more physically agile and expressive during rehearsal and performance. In connecting with the rhythms and music, actors train to be “out of their heads” and living in the moment expressing strength, playfulness, exuberance and grace.

Actors ARE improvisers. Working from moment to unanticipated moment demands that we are heightened listeners and observers, acutely tuned in to our scene partners and our environment. Prepared and open and ready. Improvisation requires that we understand story and character so well that we are able to compress our choices into ‘spontaneous’ actions. Meisner-trained actors are particularly well prepared to incorporate the skills of improvisation into their work. Improvisation gets at the core of the actor’s imagination, as truthful characters and scenes and stories are created from nothing, in the moment.

This course offers ideas and practical skills for the actor who wants to be a theater artist today in hopes they create their own vision of theater-making now, informed by, and in the context of, theater history. This class explores what theater artists have done before and what we, inspired by history, might do now and do next.

Mask work gives the actor a safe place to explore deep parts of the unconscious. It is the catalyst that awakens the imagination of the actor, and can create the safety barrier that allows for deep transformation. It demands physical, vocal, emotional and imaginative boldness. It is a study of how to listen with the full body while playing with ease.

This course provides an introduction to Mime and Pantomime, and will include physical warm-up, corporeal style work, and movement improvisation. Students will learn basic illusory skills, and gain an awareness of how mime can augment their actor training.