​Kathleen Butler

Group classes in New York City

A 4-hour per week, 12-week scene study and monologue class dedicated to the American Playwrights of the 20th and 21st century for intermediate and advanced actors (by audition/meeting only).  Price: $300

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This class is designed to keep you “in the game” by challenging you to grow and relish being an actor.  It will give you a safe and supportive environment, and you will have a lot of fun in the process.

​Time will be set aside each week for monologue work so that each student will have at least one set of contrasting monologues at the end of 12 weeks.

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Scene work will follow a professional rehearsal schedule as closely as possible:

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• Week 1:  Production talk  (period, setting theme, set, costume, character elements)  followed by the “first reading” of the piece paying close attention to connecting with  partner and lifting the playwright’s words off the page.​
• Week 2:   An “at table” reading incorporating what actors have discovered through rehearsal followed by in depth character work, an examination of the structure of the scene, the arc of the play and the pace and language of the text.
• Week 3:  Actors are now on their feet.  Text will be memorized and actors have devised blocking and use of props or costume elements that will help them bring their characters and scene alive.  Notes will be given to refine, deepen and push them forward giving adjustment where needed.
• Week 4:  A full performance of the scene with notes and discussion to follow.

At the end of the semester, actors will have the option to showcase their best work to invited members of the profession and other guests.  Their good work should be rewarded and shared.  Performance is, of course, not the end but just the beginning.  It is what an actor does.