I walk my students through the acting process in a way that any age group or experience level can understand. The main three questions I have my students answer are:
1) What does my character want? 
2) What is in the way/preventing them from getting what they want?
3) How do they overcome the obstacle?

These questions are the foundation of building any character and from there we will dive deeper into the script, like a detective, to gather specific clues so that we can understand our character's circumstance and goals. After the detective work is done, that's when the fun/work begins! Next we focus on memorizing our material. I love to use the metaphor of learning a song...first you hear it...then you start humming along....after a little while you remember the words and the melody...once that work is complete you can sing that song from a place inside of you where you personally connect to the meaning. That is our goal as an actor, it is our responsibility to connect to the meaning so that our audience can as well.

The classes are structured as such:
Week 1 - Detective Work: We read the scene and I walk my students through the "Actors Checklist". Exploration is the name of the game for Week 1.
Week 2 - Memorization: I require that my students are fully memorized by Week 2. We will then run the scene and I will give each student individual direction and specific things to work on.
Week 3 - Diving Deeper: After memorization is complete we then start linking the scene to our own personal emotions. I point out specific places in the scene and we find out where it resonates emotionally within each student.
Week 4 - Performance: By this time each student will be dialed in and should find freedom within the performance of their scene. I will give my students suggestions on books to read and send them off into the work with a deeper knowledge of the craft.