The Actor’s Technique: Nuts and Bolts
F05, S06, F06, S07, S08
Dina Janis, Jennifer Rohn, Kirk Jackson
The craft of acting will be the main focus of this class. Through physical and vocal warm-up exercises, sensory exploration, improvisation, scene work, and extensive reading, students will be asked to develop an awareness of their own unique instrument as actors and to learn to trust their inner impulses where this is concerned. Extensive out-of-class preparation of specific exercises as well as rehearsal with scene partners will constitute the bulk of expected work. Students can expect this to amount to six hours of required rehearsal time per week. In addition, students will read several plays throughout the term, as well as weekly theory handouts. The writings, exercises, and work of such theater artists as Anne Bogart, Constantin Stanislavski, Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen, and Jerzy Grotowski among others will be researched and discussed in class. Some showing of class exploration in Drama Forum throughout the term is likely.