The Scene Study/Masters Class
February-March 2012 – Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”
Wednesdays, 7:00 to 11:00 PM, Feb 8, 15, 22, 29, March 7, 14
$290 for the six-week session
Wednesdays, 7:00 to 11:00 PM, Feb 8, 15, 22, 29, March 7, 14
$290 for the six-week session
It’s a Scene Study class – with a difference. Everyone in class works on scenes from the same author. The plays (or screenplays) are chosen for their complexity, challenge, depth, and for containing the great roles that actors dream of playing.
Another difference is that scenes are often double-cast. In my classes, the goal of watching another pair of actors in the same scene is not competition – rather it is confidence. At the root is my deeply held philosophy that each actor can bring something unique to each role. Seeing others bring the same role to life, with completely different choices, gives you confidence that you can trust your own ideas and follow your own instincts. It also helps you give up the notion of “doing it right.” There is no “right and wrong” to creativity. In addition, being able to watch each other work on difficult material that you yourself are grappling with intimately, affords invaluable inspiration.
I call it the Scene Study/Masters Class because of the confidence and freedom an actor achieves when he or she "masters one of the masters." It is both an intense script analysis class, and an entrance into each individual’s deepest struggles with the craft. Each session has brought breakthroughs to the participants' acting skills. This is partly the result of working on challenging material that takes you to the very limits of your abilities - but also the effect of the intimate exposure to the roots of our humanity, that is given to us by the great writers. What makes a writer great is the extent to which he or she taps into the most primal human emotions, mysteries and insights. When actors work honestly on these texts, they are brought into contact with their own most primal resources. Although many of the writers selected for these classes are known as “classics,” I promise that this work will strengthen and prepare you for modern movie and television scripts.
Although many of the writers selected for these sessions are known as “classics,” I don’t think of them that way. It’s just top-notch, demanding material – a challenging script analysis class. Cutting your teeth on this ambitious material will give you ease and confidence with modern movie and television scripts.
For the Feb-March 2012 Masters Class I’ve selected Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Everyone in class will work on scenes or monologues from this amazing play.
Shakespeare is a perfect target of the kind of attention given in the Masters Class. Shakespeare’s plays and characters are acting lessons in themselves. Meeting the emotional demands of his situations, relationships, themes, and — yes — language, can’t help but make you a better actor in every medium – film, television, even commercials. If you can make Shakespeare work, you can make any script work.
And “Hamlet” is the pinnacle of Shakespeare – the most challenging and the most rewarding. “Hamlet” is the play that, years ago, gave me the Shakespeare bug. Our “Hamlet” class will be gender-blind. I’ll be expecting the women as well as the men to be tackling the central role of Hamlet, as well as other roles that are of interest to you.
Even if you are nervous about doing Shakespeare, don’t be afraid of this class. It’s kind of a specialty of mine to be able to demystify Shakespeare, make his plays and characters real and accessible to American actors, find simple, human choices that make these characters breathe – and turn people on to his relevance to a modern and post-modern culture.
And even if you’ve already done lots of Shakespeare, I promise to find new layers in this constantly surprising and uplifting work. No matter how much you already connect to this play, there is more to learn.
It won’t be a workshop in the “classics” – no. To me these characters and stories are modern.
Shakespeare (and especially “Hamlet”) is the greatest resource not just for actors but for all storytellers and filmmakers – directors and writers as well. Studying Shakespeare provides endless ways to deepen your craft and intuition. Directors and writers who wish to take this class can observe without performing scenes if they wish – although I encourage directors and writers to work as actors in this class.
Everyone who takes the Class should obtain and read the play ahead of time. You can use any edition — my favorite is the Bantam edition but you can use whatever you prefer or is handy. You really need a physical copy – an individual paperback version of Hamlet – you can find them on Amazon and in any bookstore or used bookstore. You’re going to get the most out of this with a version that has footnotes with explanations of the more difficult language (not an on-line version, and not a “Complete Works”).
Please choose a monologue from the play to prepare for the first class meeting. I’ve made a little list. You don’t need to stick to this list, but these are the great Hamlet monologues, and as I mentioned, both men and women are welcome to choose any of these. If you do choose from this list, you are welcome to work on the whole monologue, or choose a section of it, since they are rather long. A speech of about one or two minutes in length is best. At the first class meeting we’ll work on the monologues, and I’ll assign two-person scenes for the following week – or you can continue to work on monologues if you wish.
Act 1, Scene 2: O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt
Act 1, Scene 4: Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Act 2, Scene 2: O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Act 3, Scene 1: To be or not to be, that is the question.
Act 3, Scene 2: Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you
Act 3, Scene 3: ‘Tis now the very witching time of night
Act 3, Scene 4: Look here upon this picture
Act 4, Scene 4: How all occasions do inform against me
The Scene Study/Masters Class is open to actors by invitation, after a personal interview. It is also open to directors who have taken Acting for Directors with me. (Directors who work as actors in the class are usually partnered with other directors, and directors may sometimes be assigned exercises instead of scenes.)
A prerequisite for the Class is to have read one of my books, Directing Actors, or The Film Director’s Intuition.
The location is Two Lights Acting Studio, 3402 Motor Avenue, between Palms and National Blvds, corner Woodbine, entrance in the back.
The Class will be limited in size, so please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to join this session.
Previous Masters Class Selections
Nov-Dec 2001............Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot)
March-April 2002.......Shakespeare (Macbeth)
Oct-Nov 2003............Sam Shepard (Suicide in B Flat)
Jan-Feb 2004............Shakespeare (Much Ado about Nothing)
April-May 2004..........Tennessee Williams (Streetcar Named Desire)
Sep-Oct 2004............Anton Chekhov (The Seagull, and Uncle Vanya)
March-April 2005.......Shakespeare (Twelfth Night)
July-August 2005.......Tennessee Williams (The Glass Menagerie)
Oct-Dec 2005............Shakespeare (Hamlet)
March-May 2006........Eugene O’Neill
Nov-Dec 2006............Harold Pinter (Betrayal and The Caretaker)
June-July 2007...........Billy Wilder, part 1
Oct-Dec 2007.............Billy Wilder, part 2
Jan-Feb 2008.............Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot)
March-April 2008........John Patrick Shanley
June-July 2008...........Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra)
July-Sept 2008...........Woody Allen
Oct-Dec 2008.............Tennessee Williams (Night of the Iguana, Orpheus Descending)
Feb-Mar 2009............Sam Shepard (Fool for Love, True West, Suicide in B Flat)
June-July 2009...........John Cassavetes (Minnie & Moskowitz, Rosemary’s Baby)
Oct-Dec 2009.............Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Beauty Queen of Leenane)
Feb-March 2010……. Ingmar Bergman
April-May 2010…….....Ingmar Bergman, part 2
June-July 2010…........Shakespeare (Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Oct-Nov 2010.............Coen Brothers
Feb-Mar 2011.............Edward Albee
June-July 2011...........Charlie Kaufman
Oct-Nov 2011.............John Patrick Shanley
Feb-March 2012.........Shakespeare (Hamlet)
Contact Judith to arrange an interview,
at 310 392-2444 or john@judithweston.com.
at 310 392-2444 or john@judithweston.com.