Whether for an audition or a role that you have already landed, the ability to deliver a captivating Shakespearean monologue is essential to performing the Bard's work. In this five week workshop, through monologues and soliloquies from Shakespeare’s plays, you'll learn how to liberate the poetry and feeling in yourself by using the essentials of classic drama -- rhythm, structure, passion, and ideas. We will mine the text for the specific sensorial and emotionally charged details that can stimulate lively, immediate, and grounded acting choices. As you rehearse your monologues in front of others, we will focus on the crucial process of building and revealing character. Combining the artificed rigor of verse with an unparalleled naturalism, Shakespeare urges us and teaches us how to become the complete actor.

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• For the first day: Come prepared with a Shakespeare monologue of your choosing.
• Prerequisite: Open to all.

Step into your full presence—onstage and off. Embody the Moment is a transformative 5-week actor movement workshop designed to help you release fear, quiet inner tension, and unlock authentic expression through the body. Combining Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement, guided visualization, breath work, energy balancing, and reflective journaling, each session invites you to slow down, tune in, and rediscover the power of embodied awareness. This process-oriented journey will support you in releasing fear and anxiety stored in the body; unwinding habitual patterns of tension; rebalancing your energetic and emotional state; cultivating grounded presence and emotional availability; and accessing a more intuitive connection to character and impulse. Whether you’re preparing for the stage, screen, or simply seeking to move through the world with more ease and confidence, this workshop offers tools for sustainable growth, energetic alignment, and creative expansion. No prior Feldenkrais or energy work experience required—just a willingness to explore, breathe, and be.

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• Wardrobe: Comfortable movement clothing; layers (bring a sweater or long-sleeve top to stay warm); non-slip socks or bare feet. Optional: A light scarf or eye covering
• Materials: Yoga mat or padded mat; journal or notebook; pen or pencil; reusable water bottle; small blanket or shawl
• Optional but Recommended: A small pillow or bolster; essential oil or calming scent
• 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.

Weapons training for actors. Learn how to sword fight for stage and screen. Practice safety protocols for working with prop guns on set. Expand your special skills as an actor training with the Sordelet, Inc. team, who bring decades of experience and expertise in the field of safely creating extraordinary fight scenes with weapons.

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• Registration Prerequisite: Some stage combat experience recommended but not required.

A combined-level class for actors at level 1 and level 2. Scenes are presented in class for critique, then reworked to explore and apply feedback. Actors at Level 1: For those at the beginning of their acting training, this class will be an introduction to the process of preparing and rehearsing a scripted text. You will work to find authentic inner connection to the character’s details and circumstances and to choose truthful, effective and lively actions. Actors at Level 2: For those at the intermediate level 2, you apply the lessons of Acting 1 and 2 to the preparation, rehearsal, and presentation of scenes from contemporary realist plays (mid-20th century to present). Technique exercises may be introduced diagnostically to address problems as they arise. A commitment to rehearse with partners outside of class is required.

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• Prerequisite: Open to all. 

An intensive course of study for both the pre- professional and professional actor, meeting 2 days a week over 6 weeks. This powerful work relaxes the actor into the truth of themselves and removes impediments to an actor's effective use of their instrument. It explores improvisational exercises and scene work to improve concentration and responsiveness culminating in a scripted scene. The Meisner 6 week Intensive has launched the careers of artists such as Robert DuVall, Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Rockwell, and Anthony Hopkins.

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• Prerequisite: Open to Acting Level 2 and up. New to HB? Submit online for level placement.

Explore the powerful world of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage through scene work drawn from SWEAT and CLYDE'S. Led by actor Reza Salazar, who performed in both original productions, this class gives actors firsthand insight into Nottage’s richly textured language, complex characters, and social urgency. The work emphasizes authenticity, emotional truth, and deeply grounded contemporary performance.

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• 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.

• Learn more about the instructor.
• Prerequisite: Open to Acting Level 2 and up. New to HB? Submit online for level placement.
• Offered in two 5-week parts. Sign up for either part individually, or both for a full 10 week experience!