Master Scene Study Workshop

Seattle, like most theatre towns, has a wide variety of skill levels and stage experience in our local talent pool.

Professional artists who have "paid their dues," need a place to work among peers in a professional atmosphere and with reliable partners. Professionals more often than not must accept roles that neither challenge them nor stretch their talents although it pays the bills and defines them as working professionals.

This Master Scene Study creates a safe and supportive studio where actors may explore roles they may not get cast in, risk choices without affecting their reputations, and experiment with creative muscles rarely used. The atmosphere is of serious fun but not "casual play."  Critiques and adjustments are given with embracing equally actors’ successes and failures;  no creative artist can have the former without the latter. And no actor sets out to fail,  though welcomes each stumble as the experience of growth.   Our collaborative goal is to lift stagecraft and actors' talent to universal art.

Personally, I have an active revulsion towards “guru” teachers, as well as those who champion tearing you down in order to "build you up."  My definition for effective training is for you to absorb the techniques and inspirations that create confidence as independently strong and prepared to get more work outside of the studio without needing me.

It is my belief that working on great roles creates great actors in the spirit of "you are what you eat."   9/12 actors are encouraged to challenge themselves with scenes (or monologues) from scripts of value, thematic size, and theatricality.

I will have studied every play you choose; it’s my job.  Anything from Sophocles to Nottage, I only ask it have significance.  Critique and guidance are based on the actors’ interpretation of the largest and most universal theme(s) of these plays.  Starting work there easily tapers the hundreds of potential action and character choices to a few viewpoints that marry both the play's themes and the actor's individual understanding of life.  Next, the scene is broken down into the specific and playable actions that make this abstract theme, or "ruling idea"—as Stanislavsky called it—an engaging and profound performance.

I will not direct you through my interpretation, but coach you to discover your own, strengthen them, immerse yourself into that truth, releasing the passion of your soul.

          •Master Class: Wednesdays 7:00-9:00


          •12 performing Actors maximum


          •Ongoing

           •Suggested fee: $120 per month