From Marlon Brando to Mark Ruffalo, Merly Streep to Salma Hayek and a current crop of young, up and coming actors, the imagination based Stella Adler Technique is embraced by a who's who of stage, film and television actors. Stella Adler offers fun, fast paced, youth workshops for the 'non-actor' and actor alike. Workshops that expand the imagination and encourage growth and learning in life.
Student Youth imagination workshops
Imagi- nation is the key to learning
$25/student*
Improvisation Workshop
An active, creative, highly energized workshop that encourages team building and interrelating. Through fast paced, imaginative theatre games, improv exercises and role playing, participants will learn to leap past limiting personal boundaries, while heightening their listening skills and encouraging a new sense of self. And it is soooooo much fun!
Shaunnie Smith
Faculty Include:
Shaunnie is a native of Southern California. She has trained with UCLA's Theater Actors Apprenticeship Program, Charles Conrad Studio, The Casting Break and Barbara Beneville's Just Breathe. Theatre credits include Oedi, Father of the Bride and You Can't Take It With You. In television, Shaunnie has appeared in Comedy Central's Strip Mall, as well as commercially. When she joined the Hauska Comedy Troupe, she discovered her love for Improv. With Hauska, she had the privilege of performing at The Comedy Store and The Ice House. Shaunnie continues Improv performing with the Turning Point Improv Players under the direction of Pat Dade.
Gregory Hoyt
Gregory Hoyt is an actor, improviser, producer and teacher with many TV and Film credits to his name including J. Edgar, Rampage, Patriots Day, Surviving Theater 9, The Adult Swim Golf Special, The Millionaires Unit, Heroes, Hart of Dixie, Greek and Campus Ladies. "Surviving Theater 9" was selected to World Premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. In 2017 Gregory originated the role of Seth Laurie in the World Premiere of "The Engine of Our Ruin" by Jason Wells at the Victory Theatre with the L.A. Times saying: "Gregory Hoyt stands out as a naif diplomatic assistant who is more stoned than savvy." He has also recently completed a successful run as Hollywood in the hit show "Tom Gun Live" at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles. Gregory has starred in over 70 National / International Commercials & has performed in hundreds of Improv shows throughout the country. He has appeared onstage in Los Angeles at the Elephant Theater, the Groundlings Theater, UCB Franklin, The Victory Theater, The Ahmanson Theater and the META Theater. Gregory has a B.A. in Theater from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Rick Peters is a working actor, writer, and teacher. His childhood and education include years in London, England and Melbourne, Australia. He began acting on stage at the age of 8, and has been a professional actor since 1991, and a teacher at the Stella Adler Academy and Theatre – Los Angeles. Rick enjoyed the good fortune of working with Stella Adler in her master class, as well as years studying with Joanne Linville, Milton Justice, and Tim McNeil at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre – Los Angeles, and Richard Greene at the Coronet Theater.Rick’s television career includes work as a series regular on a number of television series, as well as recurring work on the shows Dexter, Masters of Sex, and numerous guest star credits which include most of the shows in the NCIS family.
Chris Thornton
Christopher Thornton is an actor, writer, and Alumnus of Stella Adler – Los Angeles. Theatre performances include: Off-Broadway’s Pyretown by John Belluso; The World Premiere of Pyretown at the Geva Theatre in Rochester, NY; The World Premiere of The Body of Bourne at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles; Lion or This Corpse Will Not Stop Burning at the Lillian Theatre in LA; Up the Hill; Me and My Friend; I’m a Professional; The World Premiere of Small Days by Timothy McNeil; Vaclav Havel’s Private View; London Calling; Misalliance; Waiting for Godot (Drama Logue Award); Three Sisters; C.P. Taylor’s Good, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Romeo and Juliet; American Buffalo; Zastrozzi; Sheperd’s Play; The Skin of Our Teeth; The Poor Itch at The Public Theatre in New York; Going to a Place Where You Already Are by Bekah Brunstetter at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa; and The Men by Tom Fontana, workshop at Primary Stages in NYC. Television credits include NBC’s My Name is Earl, Fox’s Unhitched, Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Homefront, Players, and Just One of the Girls. He has had recurring roles on Family Law, Lifetime’s Any Day Now, and ABC’s Alias. He filmed pilots for ABC, FOX, and Comedy Central. Recent television work includes Magnum P.I., Santa Clarita Diet, Speechless, Grey’s Anatomy, Battle Creek, Lie to Me, and Brothers & Sisters. Films include Universal Pictures’ State of Play, Pretty Persuasion, Bug, and Welcome to California, Sympathy for Delicious, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, directed by Gus Van Sant, and Anything, written and directed by Timothy McNeil. Christopher wrote the original screenplay Sympathy for Delicious, (directed by Mark Ruffalo, starring Orlando Bloom, Juliette Lewis, Laura Linney, and Mark Ruffalo), which was an official selection in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
Rick Peters
Acting Workshop
A fun, on-your-feet way for students to begin to play with some of the basic tools of creating an interesting character. Participants will connect the dots from physical movement, to mannerisms, to behavior and even profession- all the way to the full life of their own imaginary person. They will interact with their fellow students imaginary characters in an imaginary place. In this workshop, students use their imaginations to create the story of a character and learn to communicate that story to others.
An on-your-feet workshop. Behind the mask you are free to create exciting and surprising, larger-than-life personalities. Because the mask hides the self, students are able to delve deep into untapped creative potential. Focusing on spontaneous expression, play and transformation, this workshop will engage in a series of performance exercises and games that explore the concerts of organic development of character and learn to communicate that story to others.
Mask Workshop
Jade Gordon is a founding member of the Los Angeles based art collective, My Barbarian. With the group, she has performed and exhibited worldwide. Holding an M.A. in Applied Theater Arts from the University of Southern California, Jade teaches Theater History, Mask Performance Techniques, and facilitates the Community Outreach Program at Stella Adler. In addition, she is an adjunct faculty member in the School of Theater at CalArts, has led Theater of the Oppressed workshops for senior citizens and students in Los Angeles and for artists internationally, and has studied at the Center for the Theater of the Oppressed in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Some of her professional acting credits include TV’s That 70s Show and films, Grace of My Heart, Things Behind Sun, and Sugar Town for which she was nominated for an IFC Independent Spirit Award for “best debut performance” in 1999.
Tim Kopacz
Jade Gordon
Tim Kopacz has been a voice and speech teacher since 2014, when he first starting taking private clients in New England. He has served as a private teacher for actors and professionals alike who desire to take a conscious approach to their speech patterns, as well as the dialect consultant for full theatrical productions. He is a classically trained actor, having earned an MFA in Acting from Brown University, including three years of voice and speech under the tutelage of Thom Jones.
Learning and growth as a human being are synonymous
Kennedy has been teaching for over twenty years in major acting programs in both New York and Los Angeles. In New York, he taught at the Stella Adler Studio, New York University, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Marymount Manhattan College. Kennedy’s Movement teaching is informed by his long-time association with Fay Simpson, founder of the Lucid Body technique. Aside from having originally been her student and having assisted her classes and workshops over the years, he has also been a performer in her company, the Impact Theatre, performing in a duet with Ms. Simpson in the critically acclaimed ‘Triptych’. Kennedy’s teaching is also influenced by the Skinner Release Technique, the LeCoq Technique, the Michael Chekov Technique and Clown Work, as well as his extensive experience with Voice Techniques for Actors. Kennedy has a background in Classical Acting, having been a core company member of the highly regarded Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre in New York City, where he performed in the plays of Euripides, Shakespeare and Moliere as well as the plays of contemporary Masters such as Brecht and Beckett. More recently, he was a founding member of the movement theatre company, the Gravity Project. His most recent performance was titled Red Bush Blossoms, a solo piece based on the poem Transcription for Organ Music, by Alan Ginsberg. Besides teaching at Stella Adler-LA, Kennedy is a Lecturer in the Acting Department at California State University, Fullerton where he teaches Voice, Speech and Movement. His teaching training includes a certification as a Yoga Instructor, having received his certification from the Jivamukti Yoga Center and he is also a certified Associate of Fitzmaurice Voicework.
A physical, fun and creative workshop that helps students approach the nature of a character. Acting comes from action. This workshop explores the core of a character through exercises. Strong characters demand strong choices. The real, natural, unedited and raw energy of animals provides us with authentic and organic choices, which leads to truthful actions and reactions. Acting is an experience full of unexpected surprises that can be discovered and explored by beginning with the animals and their movement patterns.
Kennedy Brown
Movement for character Workshop
Caitlin Apparcel
Caitlin Apparcel is from Fresno, CA and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Theater and Minor in American Studies from California State Fullerton before studying at Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre-Los Angeles. At Stella Adler, Caitlin apprenticed under Kennedy Brown and began teaching Group Warm-up. After being introduced to the Lucid Body Movement work, in 2008, Caitlin met Lucid Body creator Fay Simpson, in 2009. Having discovered a passion for Lucid Body, Caitlin traveled to New York to work with Fay Simpson directly and received her Lucid Body Teacher Certification. Recently, Caitlin had the privilege of teaching at the first annual National Winter Actors Retreat in Colorado. Caitlin also works as an actor and director in LA theatre with works including, Ten Times Two: The Eternal Courtship, Been So Long and Titus Andronicus.
Celebrity Q&A Session
*Prices of workshops are based on groups of 15 or more with two complimentary entries for every 15 paid entries . These 90 minute workshops can be expanded upon and other workshops added depending on your needs and the availability of our professional instructors. Additional fees may apply.
This rare, once in a lifetime opportunity for students to interact with respected members of the Entertainment Industry in a relaxed setting. This speaker will discuss the imaginative creative process. Students will be encouraged to interview the celebrity speaker, creating a conversation between student and professional.
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$75/student*
Subject to availability
Film industry
StellaAdlerAcademy
Stella Adler-Los Angeles
@stellaadler
6773 Hollywood Blvd, 2nd Fl Hollywood, CA 90028 323-465-4446 www.stellaadler-la.com
Contact
Stella Adler Academy of Acting
Wendy Taylor-Smith 323-465-4446 wendy@stellaadler-la.com