Scene Study Classes
Think of Scene Study as the actor's gym – a must for every performer
Scene Study classes at Michael Howard Studios are composed of select actors conducted under the careful guidance of one of the Studio's professional instructors. The group classes meet the same day every week, on a month-to-month basis.
Each week, actors present scenes that they've selected and rehearsed. Scenes are chosen from stage, film, and TV. It's a chance for you to work on the kinds of roles you want to book and play, as well as to expand your skill set in a supportive and encouraging environment.
After performing your scene in front of the class, you receive constructive feedback and callback notes. You continue to rehearse outside of class with your scene partner, then bring it back in to perform again. The work is intense yet gratifying, building processes and honing techniques that you will apply to your professional work.
Scene Study is unique to American acting training and is the continuity of the actor. Many actors work professionally and come back to the same class over a period of years. The friendships and connections that you make in Scene Study are invaluable and often lifelong.
CADY McCLAIN
Three-time Emmy© Award-winning actor Cady McClain leads "The Actor's Journey: Transforming Technique into Art." This comprehensive course integrates foundational techniques and an imagination-based method with the renowned Michael Howard methodology which she studied for eight years. A groundbreaking performer who made history as the first actress to win three Emmys© for three different characters (her first while in Michael’s class), McClain brings four decades of experience across film, television, and theater to help students live courageously, fully, and freely on stage or in front of the camera. Drawing from her rich career in performance (where she continues to work professionally), McClain guides students in developing their personalized acting toolkit through imagination and sensory work, voice and body exercises, script analysis, and character development. Students learn to confidently and joyously apply these skills across diverse performance scenarios to become the actors they dream of being.
Mondays
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
$275/Month
Now interviewing students
Class size limited
MARK COHEN
This scene-study class offers a welcoming space and a practical approach drawing from many techniques – Meisner, Adler, Chekhov, physical theatre, and more. - as I partner with you to deepen your sense of craft.
My core belief is that every actor is a unique, unrepeatable experiment in human being, and therefore each needs specific and careful individual attention offered with full support and respect. There is no single way of working that serves everyone equally.
I agree with Leonardo da Vinci: “Success lies in a relentless return to the basics.” With unbounded curiosity as our guide, we return again and again to the fundamentals – not as an exercise in repetition, but to ask: How can we play more freely? How can we go deeper?
This is a class in which material is carefully chosen for each actor according to their particular needs and possibilities. The goal is not simply to practice what already comes naturally, but to identify gaps, challenge habits, and fuel profounder, more fully-engaged expression.
Together, we build each actor a way of working that avoids complacency and expands your creative capabilities. The focus on individual needs is as essential as the on-your-feet work that it enriches.
Tuesdays
3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
$285/Month
Now interviewing students
Class size limited
ELLIE HEYMAN
Ellie Heyman is a Drama League award-winning director and somatic acting teacher who closes the gap between training and real world application. She has directed and/or coached countless incredible actors including: Glenn Close, John Cameron Mitchell, Paul Dano, Linda Emond, Vella Lovell, Patti Lupone, Larry Owens, Sara Lindsey, Andrew Rannells, Jessica Rothe, Brian Tyree Henry, and more. Ellie’s approach unifies an actor’s mind and body through an integration of Meisner, Michael Chekhov, and mind/body release work.* This class prepares you to walk on stage/set connected to your gut instincts, sharp thoughts, and full emotional range, even in high pressure circumstances. Ellie chooses and casts each scene to address the actor’s individual challenges, utilizing theater, film and television scripts. The environment is supportive and a place where playfulness and exploration meets rigor and ambition. We come together to do brave work.
*If you have experience with these techniques, please be open to surprise! Ellie offers a very specific and unique version. It may be quite different.
Wednesdays
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
$295/Month
Now interviewing students
Class size limited
NOEL MacDUFFIE
This class is an opportunity to help you to develop your personal toolbox in a relaxed and friendly environment. We will explore character motivation and carefully examine the context of the play. We will also investigate actions and inter-character dynamics as a means to ground the work, and to expand the possibilities of the scenes.
As a bridge to the larger work, we will consider what the scene is for and what your character needs to accomplish. This allows us to understand more about a character by understanding their role in the larger world of the play. This context can be generational, economic, historical or a combination of all these elements. Exploring these roles helps provide a better sense of the stakes and tensions between the characters.
Participants of all levels are supported as they explore and invent to find more in the scenes and more in themselves. Noel MacDuffie is a freelance director with a background in narrative choreography.
Thursdays
3:00 PM - 5:30 PM
$275/Month
Now interviewing students
Class size limited
BACK-POCKET SHAKESPEARE
w/ Michael Colby Jones
MCJ makes Shakespeare feel like your own language! Having earned his diploma in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA, the training ground for Benedict Cumberbatch, Ruth Wilson, John Lithgow, David Oyelowo, Natascha McElhone) and achieving certification as a Registered Rodenburg Teacher in the inaugural class of Patsy Rodenburg’s Master Teacher program wherein he acquired expertise in Rodenburg’s techniques in voice, speech, presence, and heightened text, MCJ brings a unique blend of techniques to the works of William Shakespeare.
Under MCJ’s tutelage Shakespeare becomes more approachable and his blend of modern and classical acting techniques makes the text jump into action. By using his approach to work the heightened text your work with contemporary texts will open up, making it feel richer and more deeply connected to you as an actor, with more ease. MCJ guides material selection - scenes and soliloquies - to make sure you’re getting the most out of the class and building your skillset to make Shakespeare feel like your own thoughts and heartbeat. Come find your most grounded poetic actor-self!
By fearing the attempt."
Thursdays
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
$295/Month
Now interviewing students
Class size limited
STEPHEN REICH
Stephen has taught scene study and voiceover technique for all ages for Michael Howard Studios since 2019. Stephen's class is held on Zoom to open access to those that prefer it, and will aim to help actors of all levels understand how to approach scene study and audition technique from a script analysis and performance basis to make the work 'pop', incorporating notions of character, type, and industry know how while helping actors get comfortable with the new age of remote virtual acting and auditioning.
ZOOM CLASS
Tuesdays
5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
$265/Month
Now interviewing students
Class size limited
GABRIELLE BERBERICH
Gabrielle is a casting director, writer, and producer for film and television, as well as the owner of Michael Howard Studios. She follows up her immensely popular Acting for Film & Television Workshop with this ongoing Scene Study Class. Through scene work and text analysis, this class will focus on the passionate pursuit of artistic growth and evolution of today's actor in the American Theatre, including stage, film, and television. In addition, it will serve to assist actors in the craft of acting as a business. Together, this class will have the occasion to draw from the insight and experience of industry guests, including working actors, directors, producers, agents, and managers.
Wednesdays
3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
$350/Month
Now interviewing students for January class
Class size limited