What does your character want from the other characters? What past scars are driving that desire? When do you gain ground in the scene, when do you lose it? Scene Study with Fred Weller is a scene-structure-forward class, in which you will dive into great scenes and learn acting by doing it. Fred has worked with many great actors (Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Denzel Washington) and great directors (Joe Mantello, Anna Shapiro, George Lucas) and draws from 40 years experience as a working actor to teach you hands-on skills that will empower and liberate you as an actor right away. Freedom stems from understanding what you’re doing in the scene at any given moment. We will also examine the work of great actors and explore the common denominators that make them great. Get better now.

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• Prerequisite: Open to all

The essential forces and circumstances that underlie human behavior – and character behavior – are the same, but the way this behavior manifests itself can differ widely form medium to medium, or from one kind of material to the other. How is television and film writing different from theater writing? How are the storytelling mechanics different in live and camera performances? And how do these differences inform what we must do as actors to tell those stories? This class is dedicated to helping the working actor carry over their strengths and talents in theater into camera work. How do we maximize on our theater training when tackling television and film work? And how do we build new skills that the medium requires? And how can we help ourselves get rid of patterns that stand in the way of truthful acting in general? Taught in a hands-on environment, the class involves scene work, camera work, script analysis, and guided peer to peer discussions.

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• Registration Prerequisite: Open to all actors who have prior actor training or experience

The Alexander Technique is a gentle method through which you gradually learn to free yourself from unconscious physical habits that limit your ease, versatility, and freedom. This course will inquire into and enhance your “body map” – your conception of your body, as a whole and in specific areas. As you learn to release the downward pressure of your head to your spine, become clearer about your joints and how they work, and understand the unity of your body/mind and how it functions as a whole, you will gain access to an ever-increasing sensory awareness. Bringing conscious thought and awareness to daily life will allow you to change the habitual behavior that creates unneeded tension. Posture and self-use become conscious and volitional, not habitual and rigid. This translates to a greater possibility of fully embodying characters whose physical life is different from your own while maintaining healthy use of your body. Natural free use of the breath is addressed as a result of freeing the whole self, supporting your voice work.

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• Prerequisite: Open to All

Singing and the ability to use the voice as an expressive instrument are an essential part of your skill set as an actor. Most actors will be called upon to sing at some point, regardless of whether your interests and talents run to musical theater. The study and practice of singing enhances your sense of musical form, pitch, rhythm, and language, and brings greater freedom, range and timbre to the speaking voice. Level 1 Singing is open to all — from total beginners to those who want to reinforce basic technique or strengthen your vocal instrument. The focus is on freeing, developing and strengthening the voice. Exercises emphasize relaxation and the most effective use of breath, an even use of the voice throughout the range, and awareness of how the entire body contributes to the production of sound. Level 1 will incorporate group and individual exercises, and work on songs of different genres. (Accompanist provided.)

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• Registration Prerequisite: Open to all

The Fundamentals of an HB acting technique: Here, you develop the ability to respond truthfully, dynamically, and vividly with fellow actors and the ability to access sensory elements. You tap into the power of imagination and the reservoir of memory. You gain a working understanding of the terms: previous circumstances, destination, inner and outer objects, intentions, obstacles, and conflicts. You develop an awareness of the power, function, and dynamics of “place”, and learn to be in a state of discovery, which leads to actions. You develop tools of research and observation and you get comfortable improvising. You begin to measure yourself against professional standards and develop habits of discipline and a strong work ethic. Do understand that these practices take time to master. It takes about a year (20-30 weeks) at this level to really own the skills addressed. Further scene study or performance work will then take root in this fertile ground. 

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• Required reading: A Challenge for the Actor by Uta Hagen
• Recommended viewing: Uta Hagen's Acting Class documentary
• Prerequisite: Open to all.

Esta clase, impartida en español, es un curso de nivel combinado (Niveles 1 y 2). Está basada en la técnica de Uta Hagen y diseñada para guiar a los actores en el proceso de preparación y ensayo de textos dramáticos. A través del trabajo de escenas, monólogos y soliloquios, los estudiantes aplicarán los Seis Pasos de Hagen mientras fortalecen herramientas esenciales como objetos internos, sustituciones, transferencias, atribuciones sensoriales y el desarrollo del personajes. Los estudiantes trabajarán con escenas de obras hispanas contemporáneas y clásicas, transitando por un ciclo creativo de descubrimiento, investigación, experimentación y refinamiento. En clase, los actores presentarán su trabajo, recibirán notas y continuarán explorando el arco completo del material—incluyendo el entorno, la partitura física, la vida emocional y las motivaciones—para dar vida a cada escena con honestidad, especificidad y riesgo creativo. Se podrán incorporar ejercicios de técnica según sea necesario para abordar desafíos actorales específicos. Se espera de los estudiantes un compromiso de ensayo con sus compañeros fuera de clase, con una dedicación estimada de 2 a 3 horas semanales de preparación.

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• Libro necesario para el curso: Un Reto Para El Actor (Artes Escénicas) by Uta Hagen
• Requisito previo: El curso está abierto a actores hispanohablantes de todos los niveles, así como a aquellos para quienes el español es una segunda lengua y desean profundizar su capacidad para actuar en español

Training in voice work begins with the cultivation of deep physical awareness. Specific attention will be given to how the body—bones, muscles, breath, and nervous system – relates to healthy vocal production and vocal freedom. Examine how it feels to stand on your feet. Learn about how you live in your body, how you relate to your head and neck and shoulders. Discover how this affects your use of voice and influences healthy vocal spontaneity and expressiveness. Develop curiosity about these sensations and the circumstances and habits that affect them. Work through specific exercises to develop a Level 1 vocal and creative warm up sequence that will become your ongoing practice. Through your warm up become used to the process of checking in: recognizing and allowing the physical/emotional moment you are in and the circumstances that attend it, experiencing the moment, and working from it. Develop a relationship with the habitual patterns that influence how you engage with yourself–your skeletal and muscular structures, autonomic nervous system, your breath and your voice. Develop spontaneity, learning what it feels like to give in to a physical experience. With curiosity, explore and experience rigidity in the body through the release of tension, breathing, and spontaneous truthful sound. Learn the basic anatomy that supports breathing, sound making, and articulation in speech. Throughout Level 1 you are asked to discover your own process and be with others in theirs, so together the group develops a sense of what it means to be heard, seen and understood. This class employs the destructuring and restructuring processes of Fitzmaurice Voicework® devised by Catherine Fitzmaurice. Be advised that this Level requires time to master, and most actors will need a two- or three- term investment at Level 1 to develop awareness and become confident in these practices. All else in voice and speech work will build on this foundation.

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• Registration Prerequisite: Open to all

In Scene Study 2, you will apply the lessons of Acting 1 and 2 to the preparation, rehearsal, and presentation of scenes, focusing on contemporary realist plays (mid-20th century to present). Scenes are presented in class for critique, then reworked to explore and apply feedback. Technique exercises may be introduced diagnostically to address problems as they arise.

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• Prerequisite: Open to Acting Level 2 and up; English proficiency is required. New to HB? Submit online for level placement