Fall 2024
III. The Actor’s Gym: Flex Your Acting Muscle
Level: committed actors BY INVITATION
Tuesdays 19:30 - 22:30, August 27 - December 15
location: Schöneberger Ufer 59, Berlin-TIERGARTEN
FEE: €600 (15 rehearsals + 3 Performances)
Even actors at the top of their game understand that developing their craft is a lifelong journey. It requires passion, sweat, and the occasional tear. The Actor’s Gym is a place for actors at all stages of their careers to continue perfecting their craft in a rigorous, supportive, and fun environment.
The Gym is rooted in the principle that actors of all levels can always learn from each other. Our community is diverse. Some of you are already established in the acting profession. Others took their first classes at The Acting Muscle and are hungry to keep developing their craft. What all members of The Actor’s Gym share is a desire to practice, grow as artists, and connect with a dynamic and supportive creative community.
The Gym offers participants an intensive, rehearsal-like setting to prepare a repertoire of scenes and monologues for public performance. Whenever possible, we will produce a cohesive theatrical work based on a single dramatic text. In other words, we’ll put on a play. At this level, you are expected to arrive at your first rehearsal having independently explored your script and applied the tools of analysis and dramatic imagination. You should know your script backwards and forwards, having mined it for clues about who your character is, what they want, and how they relate to other characters in the play.
“ I went to a drama school that had a very naturalistic approach, so we always focused a lot on intention but not so much on the words themselves. Adam showed me that words—their sounds, their meaning—can already carry so much and it can be so delicious to explore that for a stage character. ”
You will exercise the fundamentals, formulating your character’s super-objective in the play and his or her objective in the scene you are rehearsing. You will break your scenes down into beats and identify the actions you play to achieve your objective. Both independently and in class, you will develop your physical and vocal characterization and imagine the physical universe of the play and how you relate to it. In short, you will embody a professional actor coming into a rehearsal process prepared to contribute insight, ingenuity, and playfulness to support the ensemble in working towards a shared goal.
“There are plenty of courses out there charging insane amounts of money for a one or two day workshop, and I doubt that they have a fraction of what you get in these classes. Namely, experience working intensively with other actors on real scenes, doing real work.”
The course is structured as a series of rehearsals that culminate in a public performance for an invited audience. Each ensemble consists of four to eight actors performing multiple scenes and monologues. You should expect to work at least two hours per week outside of class, and notify the instructor of any planned absences before the course begins.
Instructors: Adam Ludwig, Chiara Von Galli
The course will be conducted in English. Students are encouraged to contribute ideas or ask questions in German or French. Copies of readings, assigned scenes, and plays will be provided.