I prefer to work with no more than 35 students who have expressed a genuine interest in acting or performing. To me, the most can be achieved in sessions lasting between 2 and 3 hours. It is even more enjoyable and educational when adults and kids participate together.
The needs and reactions of each group differ as does the level of acting experience. So rather than present a pre-designed program, I vary my approach to reach people on their own level.
Usually we begin with physical warm-ups incorporating martial arts, yoga and dance movement. Next, basic self-expression exercises from one of the fundamental texts of acting: Viola Spolin, Nellie McCaslin, Keith Johnstone. Often, we concentrate on the breath and voice, since these are frequently overlooked (or under-emphasized) due to time constraints in school classes.
Reacting and awareness of others are fundamentals of the acting craft, and there are numerous exercises and theatre games (from "mirror" work to story building to body surfing) that can help each student become less self conscious, and more at ease with other individual and group goals.
The following are explored: looking, searching, discovering, listening, responding, negotiating, taking a stand. These ACTIONS help the student Work With Others to build a character, and accomplish tasks on stage that lead to an experience with theatrical reality.
With more accomplished students, class members will use improvisation in short scenes built on specific situations to test and refine this new awareness. The workshop usually ends with a wonderful exercise/improvisation about "Truth on the Stage: Or How to Create Belief in a World of Lies!"
My objective is to familiarize class participants with some of the tools of the acting profession, to give each opportunities to use some of these tools, and then to allow them to build on that base. (All this with as much joy and humor as possible!!) If the workshop can incrementally broaden the imagination or the skill base of one or a dozen students, I will consider the time a success.
