The extremely practical acting exercises found in Uta Hagen’s world-famous books, Respect for Acting and A Challenge for the Actor, probe the depths and heights of human behavior. They offer the actor a structure for lifelong practice exploring the dynamic interaction between sensory/emotional experience and the creative imagination. Uta Hagen’s approach to acting works. She challenges the actor to develop skills continually. She offers avenues of creativity that, with an open imagination and expanding sense of self, are unlimited. Her ongoing process of self-observation and self-discovery fortifies your ability to respond truthfully, dynamically, and vividly with fellow actors, releasing unpremeditated truthful behavior in performance. Over time, you find yourself creatively alive and present in the process. Held at HB Studio, the birthplace of the Hagen exercises.

• Learn more about the instructor.
• Required reading: A Challenge for the Actor by Uta Hagen.
• Prerequisite: Open to all. 

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.

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. 

A hands-on course that teaches performers how to create high-quality headshots, self-tapes, and promotional images using only their smartphones. In today’s industry, actors constantly need updated photos and self-tape material—for auditions, casting calls, social media presence, and personal branding. This class is designed to give you practical tools you can apply immediately, without needing professional equipment. You will learn: how to use your phone’s camera like a pro; lighting techniques for indoor and outdoor shoots; how to take strong, flattering headshots; self-tape setup, framing, background & sound; editing tips for clean, polished photos; and how to create promotional & social media content that stands out. You will experience live demos and hands-on practice with small props and lighting tools, and you'll receive a downloadable guide with key takeaways.

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• Prerequisite: Open to all.

Over the course of this five-session workshop, Voice Over Director Theresa Buchheister will run you through a gauntlet of voiceover auditions, from cartoons to audiobooks to audio dramas to video games to commercials! So, even if you cannot attend all 5 weeks, you will get a workout! This workshop is open to those with VO experience looking to sharpen their audition skills, as well as to performers who are new to VO looking for an introduction to the craft. Theresa Buchheister has directed hundreds of audiobooks, cartoons and video games, including Cartoon Network’s Pokémon XYZ, Nickelodeon’s The Winx Club, and David Byrne’s audiobook How Music Works. As a performer, they have narrated countless audiobooks and textbooks, and voiced cartoon characters on Pokémon, The Winx Club, Milly, and many more.

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• Registration Prerequisite: Open to all.

Vincent Pastore (THE SOPRANOS, CHICAGO, BULLETS OVER BROADWAY) will work with actors in this 5-week online (via Zoom) workshop to develop acting techniques and habits of preparation that will help you bring your acting skills to the demands of the business. You will learn to be organized and ready, to make strong and truthful choices, discovering the confidence and authority to stake your unique claim. When you audition or interview for a role, you may have just a few brief moments to show who you are and what you can do. You must have effective monologues prepared, be ready and able to improvise, be able to take a script apart and make it your own. It’s up to you to convince the people at the table that you will solve their casting problem. Once you have the role, you must be able to bring the character on the page to life, walking and talking. Mr. Pastore will work with you to develop your skills so that no matter the circumstances, you are able to claim your place in the room and make the role your own.

• Learn more about the instructor
• For the first day of class: Please prepare a 3-minute contemporary monologue to present
• Prerequisite: Open to all