Somatic
Scene Study

It means we train mind and body together. Most acting training separates them.

The first hour of every class is psychophysical work — a gym for your mind-body actor-self. It's all about release: letting go of the physical tension that holds you back, opening your breath, strengthening the mind-body connection.

Start breathing and your impulses come alive. Move your body and your emotions flow.

Then you bring that into the scene, and you've got range, emotional access, and real responsiveness to your partner.

Like a violinist's scales or a dancer's barre, it also gives you something to train between jobs.

Wednesday night is multilevel, so there's a range of skillsets. The cross-pollination of experience levels creates a space where it feels really safe for more experienced actors to take big risks, and actors newer to the craft benefit from the immersion in high-level craft.

Tuesday night is an invite-only advanced group of working actors.

No. No prior experience with these specific tools is required.

You'll learn them as we go.

Actors with sensitivity, curiosity and commitment tend to integrate the work quickly, whatever they trained in before.

And if you have studied Meisner — come ready to meet this version for the first time.

No. It's built in.

Most studios sell movement and voice as separate classes, on a separate night, for separate money. I've never understood that. As an actor, you need to do it all at the same time!

This is an embodied technique class meshed with a scene study. You will develop movement and voice skills that directly connect to your instincts. It's all about using your voice and body as you explore character, work off of your partner, and explore your emotional and imaginative range.

One class. That's the whole point.

There's an interview, and sometimes an audition. It's a conversation more than a test. I want to know what you're working on, what's frustrating you, and whether this is the right room for you.

Sometimes I point people somewhere else, and that's a good outcome too.

No. It's month-to-month.

My hope is that you commit to a minimum of three months and evaluate from there, because this work doesn't show itself in three weeks and you need time to land in the room.

After that, some actors stay for years and build a creative family. Others come and go as work allows.

Yes. It's part of why this format exists.

The Group Theater actors who started the ongoing scene study in the 1930s were doing it for exactly this — they wanted a room away from the industry where they could stretch past their type and change how they got cast.

Casting is a response to what you can demonstrably do. If the only material you've worked on is material you'd already get seen for, that's the range you have on offer. In here I can hand you a scene nobody would call you in for, and you get to find out whether it's in you.

Michael Chekhov work is especially good for this. It's built for transformation — stepping into a life vastly different from your own, with your imagination activated through the body.

Everyone works every class.

That's the part people don't expect. The first hour is intensive psychophysical training and you're in all of it, every single week, whether or not your scene goes up. It sharpens your skillset, keeps you in shape, and gives you a nuanced relationship to the tools so you can apply them in auditions, rehearsals and on set.

Scenes are separate. There's room for two or three a week, you sign up, and how often you go up depends partly on your rehearsal bandwidth and partly on what the group needs that month.

Some people want to go up again and again with the same scene and really live in it. That's a good instinct — if you want to be working more than the sheet allows, tell me and we'll strategize.

It's a collaboration, and it starts with a conversation. I want to know your artistic dreams and your frustrations, and I want to know your career ambitions.

If an actor is like a gymnast, the text is like a particular apparatus. Do you need the balance beam? The uneven bars? The vault?

For your first scene I'll ask what you want to work on, then assign something based on my gut about what would stretch you. After that it gets much more collaborative — bring me scenes, bring me challenges, tell me what you're chasing.

Then keep coming anyway.

Scenes are rehearsed outside of class, so bringing work in depends on what's going on in your life. Some months you'll have the time and some months you won't. That's the shape of an actor's life, and I built the class around it.

The psychophysical training happens whether or not you have a scene ready, and you will still grow. When the bandwidth comes back, dig into rehearsal.

You leave, and you come back. That's how it's meant to work.

Class is month-to-month for exactly this reason. Most people stay for the consistency, then book a show, step out, and come back when it closes. I've watched actors cycle through that for years.

I require two weeks' notice, so your scene partner isn't stranded and someone waiting can take the spot.

Note on returning: the class usually runs near capacity, so I can't promise your spot will be open the month you're back. I will always try.

It happens constantly. Everyone in that room is juggling auditions, callbacks and jobs.

Most of the time you find another week. If a partnership stops working because your schedules won't line up, tell me and I'll reassign you.

Serious, playful, warm, and built to help you trust yourself.

A lot of acting teachers take a guru or power position. I'm profoundly not interested in that. You're an artist and you need agency in your own work, so I want to know what you need, what feels good, and where you want something different.

That extends to your body. You listen to what it needs and you honor it, and I will never override that.

People also learn differently. If sitting and watching a scene works for you, good. If you'd rather stand at the back and physically feel your way through what's happening, do that instead.