How Do Classes Work?
Each class, regardless if it is adult, teen or kids is structured the same way.
We start off with a full vocal warm-up, followed by intention exercises and then on to the scene and monologue work. The warm up, which lasts approximately 30 minutes is loud, physical, engaging, silly and always ends with Shakespeare. The instructor always leads the warm-up as a way of demonstrating to the class that he or she is not above the process. This is to say that the instructor is willing to do everything they are asking their students to do. By the end of the warm up everybody is ready to work. If a student is new to the class they will feel very welcomed and part of the whole by the end of it.
The second part of the class are improv based intention exercises. They usually last about 5 minutes each but sometime much longer. These are designed to let the actors think and speak as the characters they are playing without the restriction of the written dialogue. They are given a super objective; the "what do you want" of a scene.
They then have to go after that objective using all of the specific tools at their disposal based on the given circumstances of the character. Each actor in the exercise essentially has to try to win. Even if the deck is stacked against you, as it so often is, you still have to try to win. Think about it like this; the villain in any James Bond film is always trying to win. In fact he or she is usually successful at winning for about 98.9 percent of the movie and then they lose. Some villains are more memorable then others. The reason for this is that even thought the author says you must lose (because James Bond always wins) the best villains make you think that this time Bond may have just met his match. The very best villains are the ones that get away and live to fight another day leaving the audience either terrified or just a little happy that they were not killed or apprehended. After all, aren't we just a little bit glad that Hannibal Lecter gets away at the end of Silence of the Lambs? He is an absolutely horrible man but we somehow knows he would never come for us. The best intention exercises are the ones where the the students or even the instructor don't know who will win. We are on the edge of our seats wondering who will come out on top.
The third and most important part of class are the scene's and monologues. This is the meat and potatoes of the sessions and take up seventy five percent of the time.
When you first present a scene in class you can do a read but it may not be a cold read. You will be expected to have gotten together with you scene partner outside of class and made some choices about your characters. When you present the material for the first time it should have the feel of actors putting material on it's feet during a traditional rehearsal period for a play. Paper in hand but not having to look down at every line. You will receive direction and notes from the instructor and then told to bring the material back for next week. When the scene returns for a second time it must be off book, blocked and have some sense of itself meaning that it should feel like a performance. Think about it like this; if you were being called back for director and producers you would want to demonstrate to the team that you are the right actor for the job. That is the standard that I expect when a scene comes back for the second go around. Scene's can come back more then two, three or even four times. The record is fourteen times until I was satisfied. My actors wanted to kill me but they still talk about how the grew form the experience.
We start off with a full vocal warm-up, followed by intention exercises and then on to the scene and monologue work. The warm up, which lasts approximately 30 minutes is loud, physical, engaging, silly and always ends with Shakespeare. The instructor always leads the warm-up as a way of demonstrating to the class that he or she is not above the process. This is to say that the instructor is willing to do everything they are asking their students to do. By the end of the warm up everybody is ready to work. If a student is new to the class they will feel very welcomed and part of the whole by the end of it.
The second part of the class are improv based intention exercises. They usually last about 5 minutes each but sometime much longer. These are designed to let the actors think and speak as the characters they are playing without the restriction of the written dialogue. They are given a super objective; the "what do you want" of a scene.
They then have to go after that objective using all of the specific tools at their disposal based on the given circumstances of the character. Each actor in the exercise essentially has to try to win. Even if the deck is stacked against you, as it so often is, you still have to try to win. Think about it like this; the villain in any James Bond film is always trying to win. In fact he or she is usually successful at winning for about 98.9 percent of the movie and then they lose. Some villains are more memorable then others. The reason for this is that even thought the author says you must lose (because James Bond always wins) the best villains make you think that this time Bond may have just met his match. The very best villains are the ones that get away and live to fight another day leaving the audience either terrified or just a little happy that they were not killed or apprehended. After all, aren't we just a little bit glad that Hannibal Lecter gets away at the end of Silence of the Lambs? He is an absolutely horrible man but we somehow knows he would never come for us. The best intention exercises are the ones where the the students or even the instructor don't know who will win. We are on the edge of our seats wondering who will come out on top.
The third and most important part of class are the scene's and monologues. This is the meat and potatoes of the sessions and take up seventy five percent of the time.
When you first present a scene in class you can do a read but it may not be a cold read. You will be expected to have gotten together with you scene partner outside of class and made some choices about your characters. When you present the material for the first time it should have the feel of actors putting material on it's feet during a traditional rehearsal period for a play. Paper in hand but not having to look down at every line. You will receive direction and notes from the instructor and then told to bring the material back for next week. When the scene returns for a second time it must be off book, blocked and have some sense of itself meaning that it should feel like a performance. Think about it like this; if you were being called back for director and producers you would want to demonstrate to the team that you are the right actor for the job. That is the standard that I expect when a scene comes back for the second go around. Scene's can come back more then two, three or even four times. The record is fourteen times until I was satisfied. My actors wanted to kill me but they still talk about how the grew form the experience.