These classes are open to all, and will provide benefit to actors at every stage of experience – from those just starting out to seasoned professionals. The workshop is invaluable for film makers who want to learn more about the acting process and how to direct actors.

Carole has had actors, non-actors, dancers, sculptors, painters, opera singers, welders, and waitresses, moms, among many others in her classes.

Enrollment is generally restricted to those 16 years of age and over.

Storytelling

This workshop offers an opportunity to learn a practical approach to storytelling where you can learn to express yourself in a highly personal art form. It will give you the tools to tell your own unique and special stories. Everybody has a story to tell!

You’ll find new ways to shape your story, as well as how to apply the elements of storytelling, reshaping it so you can communicate in a fresh and compelling way.

The workshops will be given in a venue to be determined. If you want more information, you can e.mail me at carolezucker@gmail.com.

Script interpretation and Text Analysis

“In your choice is your talent.” ─Stella Adler

THE TECHNIQUE
http://www.stellaadler.com/about/

Students of the great American acting teacher: Marlon Brando, Mark Ruffalo, Benicio del Toro, Robert de Niro, Kevin Costner, Warren Beatty and Harvey Keitel.
This workshop is based on the teachings of Adler. Adler’s great strength was her ability to interpret and analyze the text and subtext in a play.

The workshop deals with transforming experience into art through the imagination. To know the thoughts is to feel and experience the idea of the play; the choices that are made by the playwright, the director and the actor that reveal character. The truth of a realistic character must be in the actor. It is not something they “act”; it is something they experience.

Among the topics under discussion will be: Structure, characterization, use of dialogue, plotting, adaptation and performance.

We read one play each week (all are included in a Dropbox format,) and then in class, we will watch a film based on the play. Carole will give an introduction to the playwright and the social world s/he inhabits. Scenes will be shown from other versions of the same play with different actors to see how each actor interprets the same scene. (For example, we will view the original filmed version of Death of a Salesman, then watch the same scenes as acted by Dustin Hoffman and Brian Dennehy.)

Playwrights include: Tennessee Williams, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, Chekhov, Shakespeare, among others.

Private Coaching

Private coaching is available in a one on one basis, or in a small group. Please contact me at carolezucker@gmail.com to schedule an appointment:

• to work on audition material
• to explore new material
• to investigate fresh choices

Scene Study

“Soul: that which is in us, that is most human.”

THE TECHNIQUE
http://hbstudio.org/about/
The Scene Study class focuses on techniques developed by the legendary Uta Hagen at the HB Studios in New York, whose students have include: Claire Danes, Matthew Broderick, Jessica Lange, Steve McQueen, Robert de Niro and Al Pacino.

The workshop includes exercises concerning important actors’ questions, such as: Who Am I?; What Are My Circumstances?; What Are My Relationships?; What Do I Want?; What’s In My Way?; and What Do I Do To Get What I Want? Each of these questions is explored through a series of exercises designed to give a deeper reality to your character. The exercises are prepared outside of class and performed and critiqued during the class. The focus of the workshop is the actors’ objectives (“I want”) and obstacles to that objective (“what prevents me from getting what I want? Who is for me and against me?”).

Students keep a notebook about their character; they will add to the notebook as they think about their character, and read and re-read the play, and rehearse with their partner. Scenes will be given out early in the workshop, and you are expected to memorize your scene and to work with your partner outside of class.

Students rehearse your scene during class, and are directed by the instructor. Students are encouraged to carefully observe other students during the rehearsal and direction process. The scenes will be put up in the final class.
Experience: Welcome, but not necessary.

Meisner Technique

“Acting is not an imitation of life, but a greater truth.”

THE TECHNIQUE
http://neighborhoodplayhouse.org/about

Some of the alumni of The Neighborhood Playhouse are: Robert Duvall, Allison Janney, Dylan McDermott, Diane Keaton, Jeff Goldblum, James Caan and David Mamet.

Meisner created a technique that develops the actor’s instincts, sharpens their sensitivities, and enriches the actor’s most important tool, their imagination. The technique begins with “the repetition exercise,” a deceptively simple improvisatory exercise based on listening and responding to your partner “in the moment.” In each class, different elements, circumstances, character and location, and the performance of various “activities” (such as handling objects,) are added to the basic structure of the exercise.

Meisner work is an excellent technique for increasing an actor’s spontaneity, essential to actors working in any medium — film, theater, and television. Students do not need to be actors to take this workshop, but they must be willing to be “present” in every sense of the word. Each class begins with a stress release exercise.

Experience: not necessary