Whether you’re a seasoned professional or newer to the craft, all actors are challenged with finding connection to their character, while simultaneously building and working with another actor doing the same. This class is about using physical exercises and character study to discover and deepen your process as an actor. Over the course of five weeks, you’ll ground yourself in the physical as a way into scene work, allowing you to give over to both your character and to the act of collaboration and discovery with your scene partner.

This class might be for you if you:

• Are an experienced actor looking to re-establish your relationship to the physical space and refresh your approach to character development.

• Are newer to the craft and want to ground yourself in physicality in order to deepen your process.

• Want to be a better scene partner and creative collaborator.

In this class you will:

• Begin each class with physical exercises based upon some of  Michael Chekhov’s techniques to connect to your physical body in space and how it relates to other bodies. These exercises will specifically relate to your assigned characters.

• Then move from the physical into character work, particularly grounding yourself in the character's circumstances and the challenge of relating to those circumstances without having experienced them.

• Do scene work each week from a play in the Primary Stages cannon—such as Theresa Rebeck’s Dig, God Said This by Leah Nanako Winkler, and Exit Strategy by Ike Holter—chosen by Mary based on the actors in class. By selecting one play to focus on, all actors in the room will be grounded in the circumstances and contexts of their scenes within the story of the play.

• Meet with your scene partner outside of class, in person or on Zoom. Mary understands that finding time outside of class is difficult, and you’ll talk about how to maximize the little time you have – even just taking the time to go over lines together will help you better know the scenes.

By the end of this class you will:

• A deeper experience of character and body work together, and the tools to use them in tandem to fully give over to any character.

• The ability to feel the presence you take up on stage, to recognize it, and understand how to ground yourself in it. 

• A better understanding of yourself as an actor, your own unique process, and the art of acting as a collaborative act.