Classes

Part of Snow Day Improv Marathon

Beauty, in its deeper sense, comes from meaning. In order to find beauty in our improv sets, we need to find meaning. Two of our greatest tools for creating meaningful art are metaphor and theme. This workshop will focus on developing meaningful dialogue through metaphor, and utilizing theme to find satisfying endings to our stories. One doesn't need to recite rhymes to deliver poetry.

Photo credit: Emily Dix

"Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances." - Sanford Meisner

Whether you’re an improviser who struggles to stay emotionally grounded and committed to the integrity of a scene, or an actor who struggles to come up with content on the spot, this course develops all aspects of the actor-improviser! 

Most acting methods aren't geared toward writing and dramaturgy as well, but as improvisers it's all on us. We'll be learning to recognize and play with the tenets of Viewpoints for organic content creation via the wisdom of both Mindfulness and the Meisner acting technique.

Registration is open to performers from both acting and improv backgrounds. You will get the most out of this course if you have an existing level of comfort onstage and are prepared to be present and focused while in class. 

Photo credit: Emily Dix

“Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” ― Sanford Meisner

Truth is subjective; it is not fact. As human beings without telepathic powers, we can only truly know ourselves. However our tiny little monkey brains love finding patterns and narratives in everything others do; we make up lies to support our need to be the "main character". There's no better place to apply this inherited irrational subjectivity than onstage.

“Acting is reacting.” ― Stella Adler

In this class we'll work on reacting honestly to external stimuli, allowing our bodies to inform our emotions, and allowing our emotions to inform our perceptions. Let's get in trouble by acting on our own honest lies.

Photo credit: Emily Dix

“On the stage do not run for the sake of running, or suffer for the sake of suffering. Don’t act “in general”, for the sake of action; always act with a purpose.”

― Konstantin Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares

A part of my acting training that always stuck with me was the Stanislavski script analysis exercise of splitting a scene into beats, writing in the character's objective for that beat, and then the actions they're taking to achieve it. If the character fails, they'll have to give up or try a different tactic; if they succeed, then the script will tell you what happens next. When there is no script, we have to flip the equation and let the desires and actions of the characters guide us through the unknown that is our unscripted play.

In this class, we'll play with objectives, super-objectives, and tactics. We'll learn healthy conflict dynamics, to recognize when a beat ends, and how to move forward with purpose. And we'll discover the benefits of both stumbling in with nothing and starting with a clear sense of direction.

Photo credit: Ashlyn Saria Taylor

Beauty, in its deeper sense, comes from meaning. In order to find beauty in our improv sets, we need to find meaning. Two of our greatest tools for creating meaningful art are metaphor and theme. This workshop will focus on developing meaningful dialogue through metaphor, and utilizing theme to find satisfying endings to our stories. One doesn't need to recite rhymes to deliver poetry.

Photo credit: Emily Dix

“An actor must know how they feel about everything.” 

― William Esper, The Actor's Art and Craft

What makes a character feel like a real person? Real people have a sense of self, an ego, an individuality that is made up of the things they hold true. Opinions and points-of-view are not only essential to a human being's identity, but some of the most fun you will ever have in an improv scene. This workshop will focus on how to discover POV efficiently, organically, and joyfully.

Photo credit: Emily Dix

Dynamize your conversation. Know to whom you're speaking, whether it's your sibling, your boss, or yourself. Real people don't speak to everyone in the same way, and they rarely speak to groups of people as one entity, politicians and activists aside. This workshop will focus on making strong, clear decisions about who you're talking to and how you feel about them. Fantastic for group scenes.

There are two parts to this workshop:

1. Specific relationships, status, and names

2. Alignment

Photo credit: Emily Dix