Classes For Actors

The Scene Study/Masters Class

June-July 2010 – Shakespeare
“Macbeth” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Wednesdays, 7:00 to 11:00 PM, June 23, 30, July 7, 14, 21, 28
$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 usually 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.

For the June-July 2010 Scene Study/Masters Class I’ve selected two of my favorite plays – “Macbeth” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” “Macbeth,” of course, contains iconic roles that every actor must experience. And “Midsummer” is a perceptive satire of our notions of romance and self-image – as recognizable today as when it was written – with rich, depthful, challenging comedic roles that are great preparation for performing modern comedy.

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.

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-trained actors, and bring them into the modern and post-modern culture.

And – this won’t be a typical “Shakespeare class” – that is, it isn’t a class to prepare you to perform Shakespeare. The purpose is to prepare and strengthen you for work in film, television, and modern theater.

Everyone who takes the Class should obtain and read the plays ahead of time. You can use any edition — my favorite is the Bantam edition but you can use whatever you prefer or is handy — and it’s even available on-line (for instance, at http://shakespeare.mit.edu/)

Please prepare a monologue from either of the plays for the first class meeting. You are welcome to string shorter speeches together to create a monologue. You are also welcome, as always, to choose a monologue of any age or gender. If a speech is very long, you should only do half of it – 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.

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 take the class work as actors. For scene work I usually partner directors with other directors, and directors may sometimes be assigned exercises instead of scenes.)

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)
Coming Soon …….…..Preston Sturges? Horton Foote? Coen Brothers? John Sayles? Arthur Miller? Charlie Kaufman? Clifford Odets? Tony Kushner? Paul Schrader? Tony Gilroy?

Contact Judith to arrange an interview,
at 310 392-2444 or info@judithweston.com.

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