Category: Acting School

Antaeus Academy is offering now 12 classes and this is the time to enroll for these summer sessions!
If you’re interested in any of the classes below, visit http://antaeus.org/arts-education/academy/academy-3/ and click on the “Enroll Now” button to use the enrollment form on the website.
If you take more than one class, you can get a “buy one, get one 50% off” discount.
Friends and Colleagues: Harold Pinter & Simon Gray
Moderated by Nike Doukas
Mondays 12-4pm, June 25-August 27 (10 weeks)
$450 (Early Bird Discount $400, due by June 11)
Class Size: 14-16
Harold Pinter and Simon Gray wrote very different kinds of plays: Pinter is terse and mysterious; Gray is verbose and more naturalistic – but they are both darkly comic and subversive. They were great friends and Pinter directed Gray’s perhaps most popular play, Butley. In this class, the class will focus on the plays of Pinter (Betrayal, Lovers, The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, etc) but also take a look at some by Gray: Butley, Otherwise Engaged, Quartermaine’s Terms, and others. Both men are dazzling masters of language who demonstrate those skills with vastly different approaches. Prepare to be thrilled by the experience of interpreting their work.
Myth, Superstition & the Blues: The Poetry of August Wilson
Moderated by Gregg Daniel
Mondays 7-11pm, June 11-July 16 (6 weeks)
$310 (Early Bird Discount $280, due by May 28)
Class Size: 14-16
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson is arguably one of the great playwrights of the 20th century. His ambitious ten-part play series known as “The Century Cycle” chronicles the African American experience during each decade of the 20th century. His work has garnered a Tony Award as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.
In this workshop, the class will examine the themes, sources and personal history that make the playwright’s work so resonant. Through scene and monologue work, you will delve into the musicality, rhythm, prose and poetry which distinguishes Wilson’s text. As Wilson stated, “the more my characters talk, the more I find out about them.”
This class is open to students of all ethnicities, races and backgrounds.
An Amuse-Bouche of Masters: A Scene Study/Technique Class
Moderated by Daniel Blinkoff
Tuesdays 2-6pm, June 12-August 14 (10 weeks)
$450 (Early Bird Discount $400, due by May 29)
Class Size: 14-16
This 10-week Intensive will focus on Chekhov, Stanislavski, and Earle Gister’s technique of acting developed at The Yale School of Drama. Whether you have a lot of experience with any of these innovators of the theatre, or none at all, it doesn’t matter. Your curiosity and passion is all that is required. Just like the Master’s Program at Yale, this class will start exactly where you are and work from there. With a main focus on Chekhov’s plays and short stories, the class will focus on The Moscow Art Theatre’s approach to Chekhov, examining Stanislavski’s scene analysis while combining it with the exercises that The Moscow Art Theatre utilizes in interpreting Chekhov’s plays so the actor is no longer thinking about the play but experiencing it in a kinesthetic physical manner. Once this is established, Earle Gister’s technique of acting will be introduced as an aid in releasing the work. Through this scene study, focusing on Chekhov and then possibly bridging out towards more modern texts, the class will experience the common threads between all of these master teachers and how they resonate in all different kinds of texts. This class is an opportunity to strip away our own misconceptions with these three masters of the theatre and to experience their approaches in a positive and beneficial way that we can use today.
Mind the (Gender) Gap
Moderated by John Sloan
Tuesdays 7-11, June 5-August 21 (12 weeks)
$550 (Early Bird Discount $500, due by May 24)
Class Size: 16-18
Every word a woman writes changes the story of the world, revises the official version.–Carolyn See
In the 21st century, female playwrights are taking center stage (and creating some of our favorite television shows too). But for so many years, the work of female playwrights hasn’t been given the attention it deserves. In this class the company will focus their scene study work on plays written by women from all over the world, from the earliest days of the theater to the rich and varied works of contemporary times. Through the exploration of what dramaturg Susan Jonas called “the other canon,” the class will challenge our assumptions, expand our horizons, enrich our craft, and add depth to our experience as actors and as people.
The Dive In: Othello
Moderated by Elizabeth Swain
Tuesdays 1-5, July 3-31 (5 weeks)
Tuition: $280 (Early Bird Rate $250, due no later than June 19)
Class Size: 14-16
How well do you really know this play? Through deep textual analysis, set against knowledge of Shakespeare’s times, the class will dig and dive and gain more understanding of Shakespeare’s meanings. In the long held Antaean tradition the actors will read the play together, playing any parts they choose. Occasionally the class participants might stage a scene to clarify (he did intend the plays for performance!) but the intention is to gain a new understanding of Shakespeare’s text through extended table work, readying them all for a production. The final class will include a reading of the play, all participants alternating roles.
A Holistic Look at Dialects: UK Edition
Moderated by Lauren Lovett-Cohen
Wednesdays 1-4, July 11-August 29 (8 weeks)
Tuition: $310 (Early Bird Rate $280, due no later than June 27)
Class Size: 14-16
It’s 2018, and thankfully there are more and more TV/Film/Web and theater projects that include roles from all over the world. The idea of a Standard American dialect or RP or the “correct” way to speak is giving way to the specificity of the who/what/where and the history of each character.
Join Antaeus for this class where they open up a new way of looking at dialects — with a concentration on the UK for this round — to give you the tools for getting more work in today’s projects. There will be monologues and scene work from various plays penned by British authors from the turn of the 20th century through today.
Shakespeare: Making the Bard’s Words Your Words
Moderated by Rob Nagle
Wednesdays 7-11, June 6-August 29* (12 weeks)
$550 (Early Bird Discount $500, due by May 25)
Class Size: 16-18
*no class the week of July 4
Why is Shakespeare such a challenge to so many, not only to perform, but also to comprehend? Could it be that we get caught up in the academic, an analytic study of the text through reading it, and then find ourselves neglecting the characters, the people we are attempting to bring to life. In this class, through action and scene study, participants will find a way to use the scansion and the poetry to make them bolder actors — and in so doing, participants will find his words coming out of their mouths as conversational and current, but not casual or contemporary.
Fitzmaurice Voicework
Moderated by Scott Ferrara
Thursdays 1-5pm, July 19-September 6 (8 weeks)
$350 (Early Bird Discount $300, due by June 7)
Class Size: 14-16
Whether you work in theatre, film or television, all mediums of our craft call for vocal strength, flexibility, and specificity. This class uses a holistic approach to body/mind/ voice work, to help the participant explore the dynamics between body, breath, voice, imagination, language, and presence.This approach liberates the mind, body and voice by strengthening the connection between what the participants are feeling and what they’re expressing. By integrating physical exercises with mental focus, the class will bring the full richness of the actors’ experiences to their work. By strengthening the “support” for the participants voice, the class will also add more variety to the expression of the performers use of it, be that in pitch, volume, singing – all without straining the voice or vocal chords. And then the class will combine Classical Text with the voice work, further developing the awareness, trust and freedom with the actors’ breathing, body, feelings, imagination, and voice and add more vibrancy and presence in performance.
Shaw, Wilde & Coward
Moderated by Kitty Swink
Thursdays 7-11, June 7-August 30* (12 weeks)
$550 (Early Bird Discount $500, due by May 19)
Class Size: 14-16
*no class on July 12
“This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.” Oscar Wilde
This class will engage participants in the wit, craft and social commentary of three of the English language’s most celebrated playwrights, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and Noel Coward. Participants will learn to contextualize their times, manners and behaviors, and using scene work they will embrace truthfulness, imagination, concentration and living in the actor’s body while performing biting satire and high comedy. The powerful combination of technical expertise and emotional truth brings each of the playwrights to life and makes the participants understand why these three have been performed for more than a century. Open to actors of all ages.
Shakespeare 2.0
Moderated by Armin Shimerman
Saturdays 10am-2pm, June 9-July 28 (8 weeks)
$400 (Early Bird Discount $350, due by May 24)
Class Size: 14-16
This class is a further exploration of Shakespearean acting skills for people who have already studied with Armin at Antaeus. This class will further intensify the actor’s awareness of the text and how to clearly communicate that to an audience. To enroll, participants must apply and be approved.
Real, Safe, and Kicka**: Stage Violence for Actors
Moderated by Ned Mochel
Saturdays 10am-2pm, July 7-August 25 (8 weeks)
Tuition: $350 (Early Bird Rate $300, due no later than June 22)
Class Size: 14-16
This class focuses on an exciting, new approach toward stage violence in the American theater that’s rougher, tougher, and more realistic. This is not your traditional stage combat class; this class prepares the modern actor to engage in a more realistic, intense style of stage action.
Ned Mochel has been building stage violence for over 25 years. His violence design has been showcased in plays at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, on and off Broadway in NYC, Geffen Playhouse, as well as at Antaeus Theatre Company. He’s been changing the way audiences perceive stage violence one production at a time. If you’ve been immersed in stage action in the past or if you’re interested in diving in for the first time, this is the class for you. It’s a rough, tough, fun approach–an experience you’ll never forget. Learn how to make it real, stay safe, and kick ass. From hand to hand fighting and gun work to detailed sword training, you’ll find yourself building new skills to set you apart from the others. This is new cutting edge stage action and it’s happening at Antaeus.
Shakespeare: Getting Started – WAIT LIST ONLY
Moderated by Armin Shimerman
Wednesdays 1-5pm, June 13-August 8* (8 weeks)
$400 (Early Bird Discount $350, due by May 30)
Class Size: 14-16
*no class the week of July 4
This class is designed for those who have never studied Shakespeare with Armin before. It will include monologue/scene study and a thorough approach to acting, understanding, and communicating through language, history, religion, social mores, and – the Rosetta stone to performing Shakespeare – Elizabethan rhetoric. Any fear of performing/reading Shakespeare will be cured. You may laugh as well.