This Level 1 acting class provides an introduction to the technique of living truthfully in front of the camera. You explore the fundamental elements of a grounded acting technique as they relate to the level of intimacy the camera demands. As you practice in front of the camera, you learn to stay open and work freely without hiding or acting for the lens. You develop the ability to listen and connect truthfully with a partner, letting that interaction guide your impulses. You discover the relevance of Uta Hagen’s exercises for on camera work – building the 4th wall, creating place, connecting with sensory aspects of the environment – and begin to understand the level of preparation, specificity, and simplicity the camera demands. You will receive video files of your on-camera footage at no extra charge, included within the cost of the class.

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• Prerequisite: Open to All.

An introduction to the process of preparing and rehearsing a scripted text. Using Uta Hagen’s six steps as a guide, you will work to find authentic inner connection to the character’s details and circumstances and to choose truthful, effective and lively actions. A commitment to rehearse with partners outside of class is required.

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• Prerequisite: Open to all.

Viewpoints is a dynamic, physical approach to actor training rooted in post-modern dance. Developed by Mary Overlie and expanded by Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, the technique breaks performance into key elements of time and space—initially Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints (Shape, Space, Time, Emotion, Movement, Story), later extended by Anne Bogart to Nine (Spatial Relationship, Kinesthetic Response, Shape, Gesture, Repetition, Architecture, Tempo, Duration, and Topography). This course uses movement improvisation, ensemble-building exercises, and composition techniques to explore Viewpoints as both a physical practice and a creative framework. Students will engage in solo and group work to build ensemble awareness, spontaneity, and theatrical invention. Through rigorous physical training and collaborative exploration, actors learn to create meaningfully in time and space, applying Viewpoints in rehearsal and devised performance. As a group, the class will create Viewpoint driven ensemble improvised events and compositions with text. Emphasis is placed on honest expression, creative risk-taking, and working as a cohesive ensemble.

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• Registration Prerequisite: Open to all.

As immigrant actors, we are not only from somewhere else. We also come to this industry with different cultural sensibilities, languages, accents, physical behavior, human experiences, blindspots, and expectations. We also often find ourselves having to deal with way more than the craft. There are artistic, legal, and financial pressures that are particular to immigrants. What do we need to build our careers in theater, film, and TV? And how can we ‘own’ who we are at every step of the way? This class is designed for aspiring and early career actors in the U.S. It covers the 1) artistic aspect of acting and audition technique for theater, film, and TV, 2) 2) the business aspect and how the acting industry works, and 3) the legal aspect of employment authorization that is a kind of difficulty exclusive to international actors. The class is deeply rooted in practice across a wide range of material from film, TV, and theater.

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• Prerequisite: Open to all

For professional performers who desire to return to, or maintain an ongoing relationship with a dynamic and fertile state of learning. The goal: to use the specifics of language, action, subtext, circumstance, and relationships in order to connect with the work at the deepest most personal level. You are encouraged to push boundaries with the aim of building ever more complex characters and situations, allowing and exploring what is powerfully, unexpectedly revealed. Expected rehearsal time outside of class: 6+ hours / week

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• Prerequisite: Open to Acting Level Studio Practice (Level 4). New to HB? Submit online for level placement.

A revolutionary approach to new play development in which four writers and fifteen actors collaborate to create full-length plays written specifically for the actors who will perform them. Under the guidance of master playwright Eduardo Machado, writers engage in a series of exercises refined over his 30+ years of teaching—soon to be published in his forthcoming book, Playwriting for Humanity. Each day’s new scenes are immediately brought to life by the actors, using a meditative, consciousness-based technique developed by Michael Domitrovich. This process deepens collaboration and artistic intuition, enhancing traditional theatrical training rather than replacing it. Actors will gain the tools to work dynamically with playwrights in the creation of new work, empowering their own point of view while learning to embody new characters swiftly and completely—skills that translate directly to auditions and professional work. Writers will complete the workshop with a finished full-length play, culminating in two public staged readings presented at the end of the program in Spring Term 2026.

• Learn more about the instructors: Eduardo Machado & Michael Domitrovich
• Prerequisite: Open to all

A revolutionary approach to new play development in which four writers and fifteen actors collaborate to create full-length plays written specifically for the actors who will perform them. Under the guidance of master playwright Eduardo Machado, writers engage in a series of exercises refined over his 30+ years of teaching—soon to be published in his forthcoming book, Playwriting for Humanity. Each day’s new scenes are immediately brought to life by the actors, using a meditative, consciousness-based technique developed by Michael Domitrovich. This process deepens collaboration and artistic intuition, enhancing traditional theatrical training rather than replacing it. Actors will gain the tools to work dynamically with playwrights in the creation of new work, empowering their own point of view while learning to embody new characters swiftly and completely—skills that translate directly to auditions and professional work. Writers will complete the workshop with a finished full-length play, culminating in two public staged readings presented at the end of the program in Spring Term 2026.

• Learn more about the instructors: Eduardo Machado & Michael Domitrovich
• Prerequisite: Open to all

Broadway actor and renowned Shakespearean actor and teacher Peter Francis James leads this special masterclass for actors, taking a contemporary look at performing and interpreting the works of Shakespeare. In this workshop for professional performers, scenes and monologues from the works of Shakespeare are explored through table work, text analysis and discussion, and then rehearsed for presentation in class for critique and development. With the text as the fundamental teacher, we employ the specifics of language, action, subtext, circumstance, and relationships, to connect with the writing at the deepest most personal level, and, while referencing history, finding the common humanity revealed in the plays, and the continuity with contemporary life.

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• Prerequisite: Application required. Apply Online. (Prior participants of this class may register without applying.)