December 13, 14, 16, 18 & 20 | $475:
- Meet & Greet: 4-6pm, Sun, Dec 13
- Lab Sessions: 10am – 4pm, Mon, Wed, Fri & Sun, Dec 14, 16, 18 & 20
- Wrap-Up: 4-5:30pm, Sun, Dec 20
FACULTY
Program Director & Acting Technique: Carol Rosenfeld
Scene Study: Mark Nelson
Voice Warm Up: Theresa McElwee
This December, HB Studio will offer its strategically modified, four-day version of the Hagen Teacher’s Lab, to be held online over Zoom.
Founded at HB Studio where Uta Hagen taught her legendary professional classes for more than 50 years, The Hagen Teacher’ Lab provides a forum for artists and educators from around the world to continue their professional development and explore and expand their understanding and experience of Hagen’s approach to acting and teaching. This year, it will be a virtual retreat, a coming-together to share our online teaching successes and frustrations. It will also be an exploration of how Hagen’s acting exercises are opportune for online and distance learning, providing a rich home-practice for the solo actor and student.
¨(….), I came on the idea of working by myself at home to devise corrective exercises for all of the problems I was having by exploring personal behavior under a variety of circumstances. (…) in order to lay down guidelines and give a form to the exercises, I decided first to define and then to re-create two seemingly routine minutes of life when alone at home, two minutes spent in the execution of a simple task in pursuit of normal objective.¨ – A Challenge for the Actor, Uta Hagen
This is how Uta Hagen describes the origin of what have now become her world-renowned acting exercises. She was inspired by her own wish to create a practice that she could undertake solo, that was also physically immersive and behavioral, not just textual. This gave her a way to keep continuity in her work whether she was actively employed or not, and a methodical and deep way to prepare for a role, keeping it live and fluid and open, long before she came to work with her colleagues in the rehearsal room.
Given the current circumstances the theater community is experiencing, with so much work interrupted, Uta Hagen’s exercises provide an oasis of grounded and embodied physical solo practice that can then be shared and assessed with colleagues in the Zoom space.
Breaks and Guided Warm-Ups will be offered throughout the day, to step away from the screen, refresh, breathe, ground and recenter in our bodies.
Required Texts:
A Challenge for the Actor by Uta Hagen
Angels in America, Part I – Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner
Daily Schedule:
•10am- 10:30am: Voice Warm-up
•10:35am- 12:05pm: Acting Technique
•12:05am- 12:55pm: Lunch
•12:55pm-1:25pm: Voice Warm-up
•1:30pm– 3pm: Script Analysis & Scenes
Learn More about the Hagen Teachers Lab Online