Classes For Actors

The Scene Study/Masters Class

June-July 2008 – Two Shakespeare Romances
Romeo and Juliet & Antony and Cleopatra
Wednesdays, 7:00 to 11:00 pm; June 11, 18, 25, July 2, 9, 16
$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. And finally, mixing and matching ensures that each participant can work every week even if their scene partner has to miss a class.

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 2008 Scene Study/Masters Class I’ve selected two of the most beautiful and enduring love stories of all time - Romeo and Juliet & Antony and Cleopatra – with iconic roles that every actor needs to experience.

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 turn people on to his relevance to a 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://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.htm)

Please prepare a monologue from either of the plays for the first class meeting. At the first class meeting I’ll assign two- and three-person scenes.

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 next Scene Study/Masters Class will begin July 30, and will feature screenwriter Woody Allen.

Any actor or director enrolled in the Actor-Director Lab may attend a concurrent Scene Study/Masters Class at half price. Since the Monday Lab session starting July 7 overlaps with both the June-July Shakespeare class and the July-August Woody Allen class, either Masters class could be considered concurrent with the Monday Lab starting July 7 (but not both).

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............Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett
March-April 2002........Macbeth, by William Shakespeare
Oct-Nov 2003............Suicide in B Flat, by Sam Shepard
Jan-Feb 2004............Much Ado about Nothing, by William Shakespeare
April-May 2004..........Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams
Sep-Oct 2004............The Seagull, and Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov
March-April 2005.......Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare
July-August 2005.......The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams
Oct-Dec 2005............Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
March-May 2006........Long Day’s Journey into Night and Mourning Becomes
...................................Electra, by Eugene O’Neill
Nov-Dec 2006............Betrayal and The Caretaker, by Harold Pinter
June-July 2007...........Billy Wilder, part 1
Oct-Dec 2007.............Billy Wilder, part 2
Jan-Feb 2008.............Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett
March-April 2008........John Patrick Shanley
June-July 2008...........Romeo and Juliet & Antony and Cleopatra by Wm Shakespeare
July-Sept 2008...........Annie Hall & Hannah and Her Sisters by Woody Allen

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

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