In this course, students will learn the basics of acting for stage. Each class will start with an acting warm-up, which consists of some vocal and physical movements that help the voice and the body get ready to be expressive. As a professional and working actor, I have lots to share when it comes to how to approach acting for the first time, and will teach by giving plenty of examples and opportunities for students to practice speaking text, improvising, and reacting to one another. There is no previous experience necessary, just a curiosity for acting. 

The class will be structured as follows:

Week 1 - Monologues
Students will be given a short monologue that they will "cold read", which is just to give them a sense of what it's like to have a text and read it out loud. We will then discuss the best ways that text can be read and acted out - what is "too much"? what is "not enough"? These monologues will then need to be memorized by the next class, so we will also talk about the best strategies to memorize a text. 

Week 2 - Monologue Performance
Students will perform their monologues from the previous week and be given feedback based on the Liz Lerman feedback method, which we will also discuss in class before they perform. Both I and the students will give feedback to everyone. We will then create pairings for partner scenes for the following week.

Week 3 - Scenes 
Students will be given a scene that will be performed between two people. (In the case of an odd number of students, one scene will be three people.) Before rehearsing their scene in breakout rooms, we will talk about how best to really ask questions as they come up in the text, how best to respond naturally and authentically, and how best to be generous to your scene partner. Students will then rehearse in breakout rooms. If time allows, they will perform their scenes once before memorizing them.

Week 4 - Scene Performance
Students will perform their scenes from the previous week and be given feedback based on the Liz Lerman feedback method, which we will also discuss in class before they perform. Both I and the students will give feedback to everyone. We will close out class with a general feedback and Q&A session.