Method acting

This class is designed to introduce the actor to SAH systematic acting technique known throughout the world as the Method. Students train in this technique to develop the actor’s ability to respond with real behavior to imaginary stimuli. This Three hour class consists of two parts: work on one’s self and work on the character.

The first part of each class begins with SAH relaxation technique and moves to his sequence of sensory exercises which train the actor’s concentration, ability to respond to imaginary objects, and organic expression. The relaxation exercise is done each week to ensure that the physical and mental tension within the body, which inhibits the actor, diminishes throughout the duration of the course. The sensory exercise starts with the actor’s ability to recreate objects which s/he encounters every day. The exercises become more complicated when additional objects of concentration are added and when the frequency with which the actor encounters the objects of concentration diminishes. Besides our online classes right through adult students can learn theater history and theory d elas acting techniques .

The second part of each class is devoted to improvisation, scene work, and monologues where students apply what they have learned in the exercise work and online class to fulfill the demands of a play and the creation of a role.

The Acting Workshop System of the Hispanic Acting Society (AWS-SAH) is not only one of the most complete and competitive systems, but is also the biggest one in the nation, with sections in Chicago, Orlando, Naples, Houston and Miami. This system has a group of internationally recognized and well respected professors. Among them we have our Director; Miguel Sahid, who in 2013 was selected along with other 42 in the world to receive the Federico Garcia Lorca Award, given by the King and Queen of Spain in the City of Granada. To learn more about our professors and instructors click the Instructors page.

Elective classes

The SAH is constantly growing. As we seek to meet the actors’ needs, new classes are designed and added to our curriculum. Please note that classes may change due to student enrollment, the session and faculty availability. The following is a general template of elective classes that are frequently offered at Strasberg. Please check the class schedule for our most current offerings.

Acting electives

AUDITION
MONOLOGUE
WORKING WITH THE DIRECTOR
Creating your own work
IMPROVISATION
SCRIPT ANALYSIS
SCENE STUDY
BUILDING A CHARACTER
AUDITION

This class is designed to prepare the method actor for auditioning in a variety of casting situations. Students will learn to refine their type in addition to learning the basics of marketing through head shots, resumes, and finding an agent. Students will be introduced to a variety of techniques and audition materials suitable for specific types of work such as plays, movies, soap opera, commercials and more. Students will develop a thorough understanding of the casting process from answering a casting call, to taking direction at the audition, through the call back, and ultimately, the offer of a part.

MONOLOGUE

This course is designed to assist the actor with finding the best individual monologues suited to them. The actors will work on several 1 minute and 2 minute audition monologues (the standard audition time) during the 12-week course. We will explore classical and contemporary monologues, learn how to break the monologues into beats, analyze the text, and block them. In addition, audition outfits and photos and resumes will be covered. The actor will leave the class prepared with audition monologues to get the job.

WORKING WITH THE DIRECTOR

This course gives the student the practical experience of working with a director and developing a scene through analysis, rehearsal, and performance. In conjunction with the director, students will examine subtext, do character work, and ultimately build a truthful performance-ready scene.

Creating your own work

Creating Your Own Work teaches the fundamentals of working with a group and creating original work. Writing exercises, acting exercises and improvisation are used to create and develop characters, ideas and stories. This is a class intended to fulfill our immediate needs as artists and hone skills necessary for creating original work – skills that will last a lifetime.

IMPROVISATION
Improvisation provides students with a powerful acting tool that helps explore material on a spontaneous and collaborative level. Students delve into a diverse range of unscripted scenes aimed to stimulate the imagination and engage the impulses of discovery.
SCRIPT ANALYSIS

This class focuses on text, beats, behavior, and the playwright’s intentions through examination, context, research, and subtext. Students will learn how to analyze scenes and scripts, find and notate beats, understand a character’s action and make informed choices based on the psychological, emotional, physical and environmental aspects of the character and script.

SCENE STUDY

The study of scenic structure. What is the nature of a dramatic scene? Script interpretation is of the first importance. How does the actor determine what a particular scene is asking him to do, in terms of character and situation? What process must the actor go through to fulfill these requirements, in a living way? SAH exercise work and improvisational techniques will be woven into the step-by-step process of working on a scene.

BUILDING A CHARACTER

Students will develop a solid base and technique from which to build a character by utilizing Method exercises including the Painting Exercise, Animal Exercise, Need Exercise, Emotional Memory Exercise, Private Moment for the Character and Improvisation. Students will learn how to make informed and creative choices that serve the play by stimulating the imagination in the continual search for the subtext and the character’s logical behavior. Rehearsal procedures will be explained and practiced. Students will gain the tools to better engage their impulses and imaginations to analyze text thoroughly and accurately resulting in the ability to create rich and believable characters.

Film and tv electives

ACTING ON CAMERA
ADVANCED FILM
ACTING FOR FILM/TV
ACTING SOAP OPERA
ACTING ON CAMERA

This is conducted as an immersion course that gives the student practical experience in the acting techniques required by most narrative Feature Films and Television Series that are shot like Features. These are correctly known as “Single-Camera” productions as distinct from “Multi-Camera” Studio productions.

ADVANCED FILM

Designed to give the actor the experience of building a character on camera. Actors will be a assigned a role in a screenplay. They will rehearse and shoot all the scenes in the screenplay for that character. Since the actor takes the script home with them they can prepare for each shoot day the way they would in the real world.

ACTING FOR FILM/TV

This course is designed to help the students understand and master the demands made on them in the film and TV mediums. The class is developed to be practical and relevant and will guide the student in utilizing their technique for an on-camera performance. Because of class size there’s a possibility that not everyone will act in front of the camera each week. But students who are interested will have the opportunity to handle the camera and film scenes. Others will have the opportunity to direct (under supervision) in order to understand the dynamic between actor and director.

ACTING SOAP OPERA

….CONTENIDO DISPONIBLE DENTRO DE POCO….

Dance and movement

BALLET
MUSICAL TEATHER
JAZZ
TAP DANCE
BALLET

Class is an open level open gender ballet class. Everyone from the new beginner to the experienced dancer is welcome and will be challenged according to their experience. Class covers ballet terminology/vocabulary, technique, turnout, feet, balance, posture, carriage of the arms, barre, center and across the floor work, jumps, leaps, turns, and class etiquette. Strong emphasis is placed on structural alignment so that dancers can work correctly without causing injury (as well as learning how to work with an injury without doing further damage). Level is geared toward median level of the group and exercises are designed with the members of each specific class in mind. While the class is based in traditional classical ballet, a strong emphasis is placed on the actor/dancer integrating the acting training.

MUSICAL TEATHER

Musical Theatre Scene Class is designed to teach the actor how to blend the three disciplines of acting, singing and dancing into a seamless act of storytelling, focusing on personifying the character through these disciplines. This class teaches the student how to work in an ensemble: learning at least three group numbers with relative ease. There is a performance at the end of the semester therefore the class lessons will mostly be treated as rehearsals for the performance. The musical scenes selected (duets, trios and quartets) will be taken out of the context of a variety of shows and presented in a musical evening with an audience.

JAZZ

This class will introduce or re-introduce Jazz Dance to beginners or those who have had some experience with Jazz, but no real training. Each class will start with a warm-up designed to stretch, align, strengthen, isolate, and create awareness of the body. The class will move through a series of exercises across the floor, building in complexity. Students will learn mini combinations of dances in basic Jazz styles throughout the session, while learning and building on one longer combination simultaneously.

TAP DANCE

This class will introduce or re-introduce Jazz Dance to beginners or those who have had some experience with Jazz, but no real training. Each class will start with a warm-up designed to stretch, align, strengthen, isolate, and create awareness of the body. The class will move through a series of exercises across the floor, building in complexity. Students will learn mini combinations of dances in basic Jazz styles throughout the session, while learning and building on one longer combination simultaneously.

VOCAL

SINGING I
SINGING II
SPEACH I (ACCENT REDUCTION)
VOCAL PRODUCTION
SINGING I

The purpose of this course is two-fold: to begin the introduction and habituation of voice technique through relaxation, alignment, respiration, phonation, support, registration, resonation, and articulation; and to build the individual’s songbook containing musical theatre repertoire. Additionally, a daily warm-up routine will be developed and habituated. The songbooks, developed by the students in conjunction with the teacher, will continue to grow and augment over the coming semesters so that it covers a vast range of audition needs. The aim is to create a body of work that will prepare the student for the demands of the musical theatre industry.

SINGING II

The purpose of this course is twofold: to continue the process of voice technique begun in Singing 1, including relaxation, alignment, respiration, phonation, support, registration, resonation, and articulation; and to build the individual’s songbook containing musical theatre repertoire. Additionally, a daily warm-up routine will be developed and habituated. The songbooks, developed by the students in conjunction with the teacher, will continue to grow and augment over the coming semesters so that it covers a vast range of audition needs. The aim is to create a body of work that will prepare the student for the demands of the musical theatre industry.

SPEACH I (ACCENT REDUCTION)

The purpose of this class is to first address the underlying accent issues the student has. In order to do so, the student must be able to speak English understandably with their given accent. Students will learn the basic differences between Theatre Standard American English and General American English in addition to fundamental concepts like voice and unvoiced consonants, vowel and consonant combinations, consonant and consonant combinations, vowel and vowel combinations, American English intonation, general word stress, phrasing, etc. This class is formatted around students reading and performing excerpts, corrections being given, and questions being addressed. Additionally, the students will learn the International Phonetic Alphabet to ensure that the student is speaking with proper intonation. Conversational correction is also utilized as there is an inextricable link between knowledge of grammar and idioms and the student’s ability to concentrate on accent reduction.

VOCAL PRODUCTION

This course endeavors to impart a vocal technique that is open, free, flexible, lively and possessing an extensive and colorful range. Vocal production is a dynamic vocal technique specifically designed to compliment the work of the Method actor. The goal of the course is to develop an open and embodied instrument and provide the artist with an effective “neutral,” allowing for optimal exploration of human emotion and physical expression. This class begins its training process in the recognition and release of constricting, tension-related habits that impede the full, free, flexible, and expressive use of the vocal instrument. This release and recognition is achieved through exploration and exercises in relaxation, alignment, respiration, phonation, support, registration, resonation, and articulation.