ADULT ACTING CLASSES

Hal Landon Jr., right, works with students in his 'Acting for the Camera' class.

Fall Session: September 22 - November 12, 2008

Welcome to SCR's nationally-acclaimed Theatre Conservatory Adult Program with acting and playwriting classes, taught by top professionals in their field.

Create a program to suit your individual pace and interests, choosing from exciting classes designed for both the career-minded professional and those interested in personal growth and development.

SCR's Adult Program is held in the theatre's state-of-the-art Education Center, which has been specially designed to meet the study and performance needs of students. Training takes place in classrooms and on stages at the heart of a dynamic theatre environment located in the Folino Theatre Center near South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa just an hour away from Los Angeles' film and television industry.

Tuition: $295 Per eight-week class. Enroll no later than September 12, 2008 and receive a $10 discount. Enroll for a 2nd class and receive a $30 discount.

For more information or to enroll, please call at 714-708-5577 or e-mail us education@scr.org

CLASSES OFFERED

Fundamentals of Acting: Act I Basic Skills
Mondays, 7 - 10 p.m. September 22 - November 10, 2008
Tuesdays, 7 - 10 p.m. September 23 - November 11, 2008
Learn the fundamentals through exercises in the basic skills of improvisation, communication and monologues. Recommended for newcomers to acting or as a refresher course.
Tom Shelton, Instructor Mondays
Tuesday Instructor to be Announced

Fundamentals of Acting: Act II Scene Study
Tuesdays, 7 - 10 p.m. September 23 - November 11, 2008
Take the next step in the study and performance of scenes and monologues, with emphasis on making strong, imaginative choices rooted in character and text. Prerequisite: The completion of any beginning acting class.
Hisa Takakuwa, Instructor/Education Director

Fundamentals of Acting: Act III Advanced Scene Study and Characterization
This class will be offered in our Winter Session beginning January 12, 2009
Delve deeper into technique, performance and the ability to create a character, with emphasis on action, objective and communication. Prerequisite: Completion of two semesters of actor training.
Instructor to be Announced

Improvisation I
Tuesdays, 7 - 10 p.m. September 23 - November 11, 2008
Focus in this fast paced, fun workshop on acting, characterization, creativity and spontaneity through improvised scenes and theatre games. Emphasis on thinking faster, making stronger choices and increasing confidence.
Chris Best, Instructor

Advanced Improvisation
Look for this class in a future session.
Continue the challenge and creative freedom of improvisation. Advanced Improvisation pushes students to think faster, make stronger choices, and trust their acting instincts. For those who have taken improv here or elsewhere and want to be challenged.
Greg Atkins, Instructor

Actors Workshop
Mondays, 7 - 10 p.m. September 22 - November 10, 2008
Develop specific areas of advanced acting technique through individual instruction on relaxation in performance, scene work, characterization and script analysis. Enjoy the benefits of private coaching in a group environment. For the first time this class culminates in an optional performance project in the Nicholas Theatre. Prerequisite: Minimum 1 year of acting training or production history and a prepared monologue.
Karen Hensel, Instructor/Adult Conservatory Director

Acting for the Camera
Mondays, 7 - 10 p.m. September 22 - November 10, 2008
Make the adjustment between stage demands and on-camera techniques with videotaped, critiqued performances; includes head shot discussions and resumé preparation. Enrollment limited. Prerequisite: At least one year of actor training.
Jill Newton, Instructor

Intermediate and Advanced Playwrighting
Mondays, 7 -10 p.m. September 29 – November 17, 2008
This class is a must for aspiring playwrights who have mastered the basics of writing for the stage but have yet to break the barrier of professional theater productions. The essential ingredient in storytelling for the stage is eliciting the emotional response of the audience. By examining some of classical and recent plays’ most brilliant moments, Cecilia Fannon will show you fresh ways to tap into emotion on every page of your script, giving it depth, payoff, and polish.
Cecilia Fannon, Instructor

Playwriting
Look for this class in a future session
Learn the craft of playwriting—for beginning as well as more experienced writers of all background and inspirations (those who have taken playwriting classes and those who never have written anything!)  Students write a new draft of a short play, aided by in-class writing exercises, basic concepts of structure, feedback from classmates and an informal reading festival by outside actors at the end of class. Students also read published plays and discuss the practicalities of getting their play produced.
Scott Horstein, Instructor

INSIDE THE SEASON : Special Class for Playgoers
Get to the heart of the play in this comprehensive new class the second Saturday morning of every SCR Segerstrom and Argyros Stage show. Guest artists join the lively two-hour interactive discussion about the production process.
Linda Baity, Instructor

STAFF OF INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS
Our faculty is made up of working professional actors. In most cases, faculty remains consistent, but cannot be guaranteed.

Karen Hensel, Adult Conservatory Director
An award-winning actor, director and writer, Hensel has been associated with South Coast Repertory for 29 years. She has taught at Santa Clara University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and performed at SCR, the Old Globe Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, L.A. Stage, Westwood Playhouse and on Broadway. Among her film and TV roles is the continuing role of Doris Collins on CBS's "The Young and the Restless."

Greg Atkins
Atkins has taught at SCR for over 20 years. Author of the popular improvisation handbook IMPROV!, he has directed and performed with improv groups across the U.S. He has written and directed for the Walt Disney Company, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and was a consultant on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”

Chris Best
Best is a veteran performer, with extensive television, film and stage experience. He has worked with LA’s Second City. He appeared for the three year run of “Specific Hospital”, the Zephyr Theatre’s acclaimed improvisation soap opera. He appeared as a regular on MTV’s “Andy Dick Show” and he was in the VHI Pilot “Faking the Band”. Chris is currently working on the development of a new reality show for the producers of “The Simple Life.” He has also worked with Disney on their “Finding Nemo” exhibit. He is an experienced improvisation teacher for adults for the past 15 years. Additionally, he uses his improvisation to train psychiatrists in interviewing and patient assessments.

Cecilia Fannon
is a playwright, screenwriter, director, and producer. She has taught playwriting at SCR for many years. Her upcoming production of BOO!, live Halloween radio dramas, happens the last two weekends in October, 2008, in Santa Ana.

Hisa Takakuwa, Conservatory Director
is a classically trained actor, director and educator. She has worked at many theatrical institutions around the country including the California Institute of the Arts, the Sundance Children’s Theatre, The Music Center on Tour and the Indiana Repertory Theatre. At SCR she has appeared in The Man Who Came to Dinner, and in fourteen seasons of A Christmas Carol and Education Touring Productions. She is the Director of SCR’s Theatre Conservatory and directed many of the Players productions including Snow Angel, Time Again in OZ and Metamorphoses. She is also resident artist at the classical repertory company A Noise Within where she has appeared in many productions including The Triumph of Love, The Comedy of Errors, The Misanthrope, Another Part of the Forest, The Seagull and Our Town. She also directed productions of Henry V, Twelfth Night and Shooting Stars at the Actors Co-op theatre. She holds a BA from Smith College and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts.

Scott Horstein
is a dramaturg and director based in Los Angeles. Mr. Horstein is 2004 winner of the LMDA Elliott Hayes Award in Dramaturgy, and was formerly Manager of Play Development at Cornerstone Theater Company and Literary Director of the Black Dahlia Theater. He personally dramaturged for Arthur Miller on his penultimate play Resurrection Blues at the Old Globe. Directing credits include workshops and readings of The Sudden and Peculiar Nearness of the Moon by Velina Hasu Houston (Black Dahlia, West Coast Ensemble); Throes of Pathos by Jin Yoo-Kim (East West Players); and Días Y Flores by Oliver Mayer (Black Dahlia, Rio Hondo College, Tropico de Nopal). Regional dramaturgy credits include Hamlet, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure, Resurrection Blues, Pentecost, Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Orson's Shadow (Old Globe); Finn in the Underworld (Berkeley Rep); The Philanderer (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Shadow of Himself (Denver Center Theater New Play Summit); The Piano Teacher (SCR's Pacific Playwrights Festival), among many others. Mr. Horstein taught dramaturgy at UCSD from 2003-2005, and has translated Marivaux's The Game of Love and Chance. Member, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA); MFA in Dramaturgy from UCSD.

Hal Landon Jr.
An SCR Founding Artist, Landon has appeared at the Mark Taper Forum in Leander Stillwell, and in leading roles at other resident theaters. His film and TV credits include Trespass, Pacific Heights, Almost an Angel, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, Playing by Heart, "Ellen," "Frasier" and "Ruby Ridge." His hundreds of SCR roles include Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, which he created and performed in all 27 annual productions, and Morgan in the recent production of Safe in Hell and Antigone.

Jill Newton
Newton was the Casting Director for "The Young and the Restless" and helped to start up the cast of" The Bold and the Beautiful" for it’s debut. During her 16 years with Y&R, she cast several commercials and theatrical productions, the highlight of which was for Buddy Ebsen’s production of Cabaret Dada. Throughout her casting career, she taught workshops and seminars and throughout the country and now enjoys imparting her extensive knowledge at SCR.

Tom Shelton
Shelton has taught acting in SCR’s Young Conservatory, at St. Margaret’s School in San Juan Capistrano, at the Pasadena Playhouse and at Westridge School in Pasadena; where as a member of the drama faculty for six years he helped to design and greatly expand their theatrical curriculum. At Occidental College he co-taught a class called The Singing Actor and was a co-founder of the Children’s Musical Theatre Workshop, a summer intensive that taught all aspects of musical theatre performance. Tom studied acting at Occidental College, at HB Studios in New York and here at SCR as a member of the Professional Conservatory, class of 1980. As a member of Thornbrake Theatre, a New York based troupe of actors, he helped to create, through improvisation, the play The Man Who Shot The Man Who Shot Jesse James, which has been produced professionally nationwide. Tom has a broad background in the musical theatre, as a pianist, award-winning composer and performer. He has been an audition accompanist, singing coach and musical director, most recently of The Threepenny Opera at Mt. San Antonio College. Tom’s first professional job as an actor was in a production of The Fantasticks in 1976 and he has worked steadily since then on stages throughout Southern California as well as in New York and across the country.

Greg Ungar
Ungar received his MFA and PhD from the University of California, Irvine. A writer, actor, and director, Greg has worked at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, MADtv, Improv Olympic, and the Comedy Central Stage in Hollywood. Greg currently teaches dramatic literature, acting, voice and speech at UC Irvine and South Coast Repertory.

Call (714) 708-5577 to enroll! Or e-mail us at education@scr.org

EDUCATION STAFF:

Hisa Takakuwa, Conservatory Director
Karen Hensel, Adult Conservatory Director
Holly Van Holt, Conservatory Manager
Janis Morrissette, Conservatory Associate
Rachel Garrard, Conservatory Assistant
Lisa Ackerman, Conservatory Assistant
Nicole Gross, Conservatory Assistant