The Young Actor's Studio

In my Saturday classes I focused completly on how to create the past life or the character and your real life together into the script. I had students work specifically on entrances into their room after a normal day of school or work. Next I gave the the same entrance after an event. E.g. getting mugged after going home, or getting expelled etc. The students were asked to decide what they would use to make the scene come alive. You have to make the choice yourself. You can use a real life thing that you've lived through or part of a real life thing and add a story to it. Or, you may just understand it and need to do nothing more. I helped the students to learn to prepare before they enter and to simply continue the life on stage or on screen. It was an amazing example of how to work. In the Sunday teen class I focused on voice work- we did the grand canyon excercise and giberish. Next we did a relaxation and sensory warm up of walking around the space, and then using place with different story lines. I also continued working on improvisations that incorporate physical activity into the work. Students did an improv of an after funeral party. All had different relationships at the reception but all had to eat chips, drink soda, or cheese with crackers while they did the scene. The point was to show how the activities acutally #1, contribute to behavior and #2 take your mind off of trying for the emotion and because of that everything happens on cue. The scene work went well and I'm very proud of a lot of the progress and the emtional honesty of the classes.

-Jeff Alan-Lee