2008-07-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

TECHNIQUE/SCENE STUDY CLASS

Taught by

Sammi Gavich

Founder and Artistic Director of New York City's

Working Girls Productions

All Levels

On-going Classes

Individualized Attention

Guaranteed Work Each Week

For more information

Call 845-613-7142

Email: thedramaclass@yahoo.com

What To Expect

THE BASICS: Learn the basics or, for more experienced actors, brush up on the fundamentals. This class is based on Uta Hagen's A Challenge For the Actor. Using Ms. Hagen's exercises the actor learns a way of working and a means to make creative choices and what is learned is then applied to scene work. Outside rehearsal is required.

SCENE WORK: Actors will be assigned short one-act or 10-minute plays and will work on them in class in a “rehearsal” format. Instead of being given a scene and then sent home to work on it alone or with your partner ‑‑ where a lot of time is wasted “directing” yourselves ‑‑ the directing will be left to the instructor. I will give you the tools to do your “personal” work on your own and how to bring that work into class (rehearsal) with your partner – much like the work you would be doing when working on a full production.

By working on assigned play or monologues, you will learn the foundation for building a character from first read-through, to character exploration and discovery, and to full presentation in class. You will learn how to develop a strong sense of place, how to work with your partner not against him and the importance of listening on stage. You will take all the components of what you have already learned from various teachers and disciplines ‑‑ as well as the knowledge gained from your performance experience ‑‑ and I will simply "guide" you toward making the most interesting choices that you can.

"...behavior is the key...doing is the operative word. Acting is doing. The great misconceptions is that it's about saying things--that it's about the way you read lines....In fact, the last thing that happens in performance is speech. Everything else comes first, and is the real part of the iceberg. It holds everything up. Acting is doing something... and the emotion sometimes expresses itself verbally. It's (emotion) the last thing in a chain of events. And it's very hard to convince people that that's where the search always has to be: for the behavior..." Backstage West interview, Feb. 12, 1998, with Director Sydney Pollack,

Day: Wednesday

Time: 7:30 pm

Class Fee: $60/Month

Level: All Levels

Call 845-613-7142 or email thedramaclass@yahoo.com

Teaching Philosophy

I believe that creativity can best be nourished in a positive atmosphere. An atmosphere not laden with competitiveness. A place where an actor can make choices without fear of "doing it wrong;" a place where the joy that brought the actor to the stage to begin with is encouraged and integrated into the work. I want the actor to learn to love the process not just the outcome.

Background

I have been teaching and coaching actors for 18 years in New York City. I am originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and was a Theater Arts major at San Jose State University as well as part of a special theater program developed by Stanford University. In New York I studied with Dana Zeller Alexis and Stephen Strimpell.

My professional acting career began with such parts as Kitty in Time of Your Life; Laura in The Glass Menagerie; Stella in Streetcar Named Desire and Martha in The Children's Hour. I was a member of the Palo Alto-based Bureau of Western Mythology where I performed such parts as Barbara Allen in Dark of the Moon and Joan of Arc in Chamber Music. In San Francisco I studied at ACT and was a member of the first year company of StageGroup Theater headed by The Group Theater's Wendell Phillips.

Since moving to NYC in the early 1980's, I have appeared Off-Broadway in Taken in Marriage and Julianne Bernstein's original work, Take a Letter, Love Peg, where I originated the role of "Mom."

In 1994 I founded and am the Artistic Director of NYC's Working Girls Productions. A company I formed to fill the void for women who were "no longer 21" to have a place to develop and perform their work. At WGP I produced and acted in The Mother Daughter Dance; directed the first installment of the New York Premier trilogy My Nam, (Tears of Rage); acted in the second installment (Mimi's Guide) and produced the third installment (May) written by Doris Baizley. The following season I produced and acted in Could Angels Be Blessed. Aside from WGP I have directed 'Night Mother and Conversations With a Parrot at the New York City Workshop; Lee Blessing's Two Rooms in Nyack and Something of a Dreamer at Shades Rep. I have studied directing at Ensemble Studio Theater.

What Others Have to Say . . .

"As an actress, Sammi knows the frustrations and blocks that plague actors and inhibit them from bringing a character to life, and she knows how to work through them."
-- Michael Wilson, Actor

"Sammi has learned to speak to actors; to help them create on stage; to turn classroom technique into a living, breathing person. With a keen eye and a gentle hand, Sammi helped guide me into building a vision of the character, not simply a safe rendition."
-- C. Sherman, Actress

"As a producer and Artistic Director, Sammi provided a work environment which enabled me to function as a professional."
-- Charles Reiner, Actor

The Drama Class