The Craft of Acting
Kim Tobin has brought to Houston the kind of actortraining that you find in NYCor LA. Weenthusiastically send her any of our clients whoare looking to take their acting skills to the nextlevel.Houston is lucky to have her!
Jenny Bosby George
Pastorini-Bosby Talent,Inc.
3013 Fountainview #240
Houston,Texas 77057
Please respond ASAP regarding whether you would like a spot in the class. You will need to send me a check for $100.00 as a deposit, or you can send the entire amount.
Please Note: Because I held spots for number of students in my last session - without a deposit - who did not show up or canceled before the start date, I cannot reserve anyone a spot in the class without full payment or a $100.00 deposit.
You must cancel 72 hours prior to the first class to be refunded the entire class fee. Cancellations less than 72 hours prior to the first class will result in the forfeiture of your $100.00 deposit.
Online Payment option coming soon!
- ADULT CRAFT OF ACTING
Date: Six consecutive Saturday's from Beginning Saturday, July 12th, 2008,
and ending Saturday August 16th, 2008. Instructor: KimTobin
2:00pm to 5:00pm
Cost: $325.00
At: Stages Repertory Theatre-
About The Classes
Meisner:
The Meisner technique is, in my experience, the best approach to teaching actors the emotional trigger mechanisms of their instrument. Meisner said that the goal as an actor is to "have a real experience in imaginary circumstances." This technique is invaluable in helping to train actors to understand how the reactions occurring in their bodies or their instrument, in any given theatrical situation help inform and further enrich the scene's intentions.
The goal of Meisner's technique can only be realized if we train ourselves to always put our attention on our environment and what we are trying to get from other actors when we are working. , your job when you are acting is to take everything personally, and to judge the other actor. This is in direct opposition to how we behave in everyday life. In life we "turn the other check, let things go, don't judge other people." That is DEATH for an actor – it is boring!
In my experience teaching this technique, it is amazing how many students I stop and say, for example, "you hate her right now – why didn't you say that?" And their response is: "I didn't want to hurt his feelings!" or, "that's not a nice thing to say." Exactly the attitudes that lead to uninteresting performance of the high-stakes situations that are portrayed in most theatrical writing.)
Summary of Class Goals:
1. To learn basic Meisner exercises.
2. To apply these exercises to high-conflict improvisational scenarios.
3. To recognize when "polite" behavior undercuts this work.
Script Analysis
I am astounded at how many actors I encounter whom I ask the simple question in scene work: "what are you trying to achieve in the scene?" and they don't know AND haven't even thought about it. This is lack of training not lack of ability.
For this class I pick a play that everyone reads prior to the first class.
I like to suggest that analyzing a script is like building a house – you must do it in order. You cannot put up walls (characters objectives) until you have a foundation (the overall story goal). Once that is finished, you can start to decorate the walls and furnish the house (tactics and obstacles).
Summary of Class Goals:
1. Learn to define the overall given circumstances; one must work within the confines of the story.
2. Learn to identify the intent of the story and each character's responsibility to the overall story.
I assign the various characters to different students for analysis. I like to try and have two people on each character when possible so that there will be some differences of opinion about objective, and so that we can then break down why one choice is better than another, according to textual clues.
3. Learn to break down each scene into beats of action. Identify objectives, obstacles, and tactics within each beat.
4. Recognize how to apply all of the above to the preparation of a role.