“It changed my teaching. It changed my life…the experience and generosity of the Hagen Teacher’s Lab teachers were extraordinary.” – Flori Doyle, Board of Directors, New York State Theatre Education Association
Immerse yourself in Uta Hagen’s approach to acting and teaching
Meet & Greet: Sun, Aug 4, 2024, 12-3pm
Lab Sessions: Mon – Fri, Aug 5 – 9, 2023, 9:30am-5pm
Wrap-Up: Fri, Aug 9, 5-6pm
Location: HB Studio, 120 Bank Street, NYC
Application deadline: Accepted on a Rolling Basis. Priority Deadline: June 4.
Registration deadline: July 2
Interested in observing? See “Audits” below.
Faculty
Program Director & Scene Study: Mark Nelson
Program Founder & Acting Technique: Carol Rosenfeld
Voice Warm Up: Dianna Cortez
Held annually at HB Studio since 2014
The Uta Hagen Institute’s Hagen Teacher’s Lab 1 is an intensive, five-day program where artists and educators from around the world come to continue their professional development. The program is designed to serve teachers, future teachers, and professional actors who wish to explore and expand their understanding and experience of Uta Hagen’s approach to acting and teaching.
In the artistic home where Uta Hagen taught her legendary professional classes for more than 50 years
Experience the depth and value of Uta Hagen’s Object Exercises and Scene Study process. Led by HB Studio faculty who trained directly with Uta Hagen, we will explore the infinite potential of the exercises in the actor’s practice, and apply the same rigorous values to scene work. Through participation and discussion, we see the individual talent revealed and released through this approach. As an actor, you will be asked to prepare an exercise and rehearse a scene. As a teacher, you will consider how to empower each actor’s discovery through clear, specific guidance.
The extremely practical exercises found in Uta Hagen’s world-famous books, Respect for Acting and A Challenge for the Actor, probe the depths and heights of human behavior.
They offer the actor a structure for lifelong practice exploring the dynamic interaction between sensory/emotional experience and the creative imagination. They hone the actor’s ability to actively live through the circumstances of the play and the character’s dilemma. When the work becomes a part of the actor’s process, unpremeditated truthful behavior replaces cliché and easy sentiment in performance. The actor grows to honor an authentic, present and intuitively responsive self in the role while making imaginative choices that serve the play.
Upon registration, you will be given guidelines on how to prepare for the workshop. Rehearsal outside class is required.
“…An organic transference of oneself to the role, the development of a new “I” who is alive in the world of the play, involves a creative process which is not a willy-nilly, loose way of working that depends solely on intuitive or elusive inspiration. On the contrary, it is a process which, however slow and painstaking, can be structured in an orderly way over which the actor has control, although no part of it is mechanical… It is a true challenge of one’s diligence and one’s talent. This process is to me like the drafting of a musical score in which the actor composes the character’s theme, orchestrates it, defines the phrases, individual beats, and the arrangement of the notes he will eventually play with spontaneity at each performance, putting to use his finely honed inner and outer techniques.” – Uta Hagen, A Challenge for the Actor © 1991, by Uta Hagen, All Rights Reserved.
Tuition: $850.00
Required Texts: Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen and Acting and Living in Discovery by Carol Rosenfeld
Daily Schedule:
• 9:30am-10:25am Vocal Warm-up
• 10:30am-1:00pm Technique
• 1:00pm-2:00pm Lunch
• 2:00pm-4:30pm Scene Study
• 4:30pm-5pm Discussion
AUDITS:
If you are interested in auditing (observing) one or two sessions of the Hagen Teacher’s Lab, you may request to do so at the link below. Approved auditors are allowed to audit up to two days. Audits cost $45 per day.