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In This Issue
Renovation Work
Special Workshop: Character Studies with Tony Vellela
Dael Orlandersmith: Solo Performance Playwriting
Financial Planning Workshops
Shakespeare Jumpstart I & II
Performance: CHEKHOV'S PARTY
Performances: THE QUESTION HOUSE
Performances: THE ISLAND
Village Street Fair
Save the Provincetown Playhouse
Production Volunteers Needed
Faculty News
Spring Faculty Roster!
Spring 2008, Week 6   May 8-14, 2008
Dear HB Friends and Family,

Welcome Back, and thank you for your patience during our renovation week.

Spring classes resume on Thursday, May 8.
Spring Classes run through June 25.
Registration is ongoing.
Spring class information is online!

Summer registration begins June 3.
Spring Upgrades
Heat and Air Conditioning
Our new system is in place, but some work will continue for the coming weeks and through the summer. Please pardon our appearance and some ongoing disruptions as we work to get this project completed.

Our thanks to George Bassolino of George Bassolino Plumbing, his foreman Vincent, and their crew; David Kay of Quality Control Mechanical, his foreman Igor, and their crew; Tom Healey of Gotham Electric, and his crew; contractor Errol Dyer and his assistant Mark; engineer Kenneth Delves, and architect Richard Ferrara of DeLaCour and Ferrara. A great deal was accomplished in a very short space of time, and when all is done, HB should be a warmer, cooler, airier, and more efficiently heated, cooled, and ventilated place because of it.

Thanks, too, to the HB staff for managing all the preparation and cleanup, and to all the very generous volunteers who showed up to help us clear the spaces and put everything back for classes.
Special Workshop!
CHARACTER STUDIES: Amanda's Children
with PBS Producer Tony Vellela
Saturday and Sunday
May 17 and 18
3pm to 5pm
Class Fee: $34

For Actors, Playwrights, and Directors
Hone your skills for researching and analyzing a role!

Using his experience as an award-winning playwright, journalist, theatre critic, and as writer/producer of the PBS series "Character Studies," Mr. Vellela shows how to examine a script in detail, providing tools and insight for discovering the playwright's backstory for its characters and their internal agendas. 

This special two-part workshop will use Laura and Tom from Tennessee Williams' classic THE GLASS MENAGERIE as examples, exploring why they are who they are, their relationships with the other two characters in the play and to each other. Character Studies will expand your ability to make personal choices in creating a role, to scour the text for clues about behavior, motivation and action. Actors, directors and writers will discover methods to employ to make each character real, three-dimensional and alive. Students should have read the play twice.

Tony Vellela is the writer/producer of the PBS series "Character Studies," [www.characterstudies.net].  His award-winning play ADMISSIONS which received three New York productions all directed by Austin Pendleton, won the Best Play Award at the New York International Fringe Festival, and was published by Playscripts. He has also served as a Broadway critic and theatre reporter for several publications and is the resident critic at dramabookshop.com.
Returning this month!
Dael Orlandermith's
Solo Performance Workshop
4 Tuesdays
10am to 12pm
May 13 thru June 3
Class Fee: $68

For people who lean toward performing AND writing. Most of us have stories to tell; what makes a personal story dramatic? This class challenges the solo performer to discover and craft the dramatic structure of the solo play, not just what is on the stage, but what is on the page; with emphasis on imagination, characterization, story, and plot. Limited enrollment.

Dael Orlandersmith won an OBIE Award for BEAUTY'S DAUGHTER, which she wrote and starred in at American Place Theatre.  She toured extensively with the Nuyorican Poets Café (Real Live Poetry) throughout the US, Europe and Australia.  Her play, MONSTER, premiered at New York Theatre Workshop in November 1996.

THE GIMMICK, commissioned by the McCarter Theatre, premiered on their Second Stage on Stage and went on to great acclaim at the Long Wharf Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop.  YELLOWMAN was commissioned by and premiered at the McCarter in a co-production with the Wilma and Long Wharf Theatres. Vintage Books and Dramatists Play Service published YELLOWMAN and a collection of earlier work. She was a Pulitzer Prize Award finalist and Drama Desk Award Nominee as an actress in and for YELLOWMAN which premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2002. She was a Susan Smith Blackburn Award Finalist with THE GIMMICK in '99 and won for YELLOWMAN.  She is the recipient of a NYFA Grant,The Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Guggenheim and The 2005 Pen/Laura Pels Foundation Award for a playwright in mid-career. In 2006 Dael won a Lucille Lortel Playwrights Fellowship.

She's currently completing a new commission for the Mark Taper Forum called BONES and just premiered a new work in collaboration with David Cale at Long Wharf called THE BLUE ALBUM.
Free Workshop!
Financial Planning for Performers
with David Sharp
Saturday, May 31st from 2:30 to 4:30pm
2:30 to 4:30 pm
Free of charge

Dancer/choreographer/finance whiz David Sharp returns with a free workshop on Financial Planning for Performers. How to save, invest, and build financial security on a limited and changeable income.

Open to newcomers as well as those who have attended David's previous workshops, the May 31st session will explore the ins and outs of mutual funds. Come join us and take charge of your financial future!

David will be holding additional follow-up workshops throughout the year to check in on your financial progress and focus in on different topics-- mark your calendars!

September 6: Government-issued bonds
December 6: Buying individual stocks
Special Workshops!
SHAKESPEARE JUMPSTART RETURNS
with Christopher Martin
Jumpstart I
Two Sundays, June 1 and 8
Class Fee $42

Jumpstart II
Two Sundays, June 15 and 22
Class Fee $42

Playing Shakespeare is ultimately the same as playing any role in contemporary drama--truth. But how does the actor come to terms with a truth based in another time, another place, another language, and still be at peace with his sense of truth?

A hands-on workshop covering the nuts and bolts an actor needs to attack the plays with confidence, eliminating such mysteries as First Folio and quarto texts, iambic pentameter, scansion, soliloquy, shared lines, half-lines, direct address, end-stops, end-jam, breath, pause, punctuation... and how to simply embrace the theatrics of Shakespeare as a shared (and truthful) experience.

Jump-Start II is a continuation of the work at play in Jump-Start I, moving into scenes and soliloquies, and how the literary devices of rhyme, alliteration, assonance, etc. help guide the actor both to the author's and the actor's intentions.

Performances
CHEKHOV'S PARTY
Short stories by Anton Chekhov
presented by Aleksey Burago

May 10th at 8pm
1st floor studio, 120 Bank Street

Admission free of charge
No reservations required
First come, first served
Performances
THE QUESTION HOUSE
by Tara Dairman
Saturday/Sunday
May 17 and 18 @ 8pm
First Floor Studio

An HB Ensemble Workshop project
Directed by Catherine Siracusa

with Snezhana Chernova, Nick DeSimone, Pascal Escriout, Howard Green*, Catherine Kjome*, Cam Kornman*, and Tom Tinelli

No reservations needed, first come, first served.

*Member, Actors Equity Association.
Performances
THE ISLAND
by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona

Saturday/Sunday
May 17 and 18
Second Floor Studio

An HB Studio Workshop project
Directed by Laura Esterman
with Luis Carlos LaLombana and L.B.Williams*

Free of charge
No reservations, first come, first served.

*member, Actors Equity Association
Street Fair!
Visit the HB Studio Booth at this year's
Ye Olde Village Fair
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Bedford, Barrow and Commerce Streets
Call to Action!
Help Save the Provincetown Playhouse
New York University recently unveiled the latest phase of their "NYU 2031" Plan, which includes plans to demolish the historic Provincetown Playhouse and Apartments at 133-139 MacDougal Street.

The Provincetown Playhouse is one of the most important sites in the history of 20th century American theater -- a launching pad for works of Eugene O'Neill, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edward Albee, John Guare, Sam Shepherd, Charles Busch, and David Mamet, among others. The apartments over the theater have housed many well-known artists over the years who wished to be near this center of cultural vitality. When NYU bought the building and then renovated it, they touted the Playhouse's rich history and their honor in owning and re-opening it.

Our friends at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation have issued a call to the theater community to help save the Provincetown Playhouse from demolition. Here's what you can do to help.
  • Write to NYU President John Sexton urging him to reconsider plans to demolish the Provincetown Playhouse, and to reduce the University's plans for growth in the neighborhood -- go to www.gvshp.org/ProvincetownLtr.htm for sample letters and contact information.

  • Attend the Community Board #2 public hearing on NYU's plans for the Provincetown Playhouse on Wednesday, May 28th at 6:30 pm at the Caring Community, 20 Washington Square North; NYU will present their plans, and the public will be given an opportunity to respond.
For more information on the Provincetown Playhouse and the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, please visit http://www.gvshp.org
Volunteers Needed
HB Ensemble Production Assistance
We are seeking help gathering props and equipment for the HB Ensemble production of Don DeLillo's VALPARAISO. The prop list includes a variety of video and sound equipment, as the play examines the role of the media and the impact of media exposure in our increasingly wired and messaged culture. Equipment may be old, recycled, or in some cases non-functional! A very special thanks to all the generous techies who have responded so far!

Among the items we are currently seeking:

Elaborate Audio-Taping Device (non-functional)
Video Camera on a Tripod (non-functional)
Microphone fixed to a Boom (non-functional)
Compact Voice Recorder (non-functional)
Handheld Video Camera (non-functional)
4 Lapel Microphones (non-functional)
Pocket sized Radio with earphones (non-functional)
Cordless Microphone (non-functional)
Exercise Bike

If you are able to help coordinate our search, have any of the items we are seeking, or can put us in contact with someone who can help, please contact Edith Meeks, emeeks@hbstudio.org.
HB Faculty News
Congratulations! to Eric Michael Gillett, who was honored as Outstanding Director award at the 2008 Manhattan Assocation of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC) Awards.

George Bartenieff appears in Edward Albee's AMERICAN DREAM and THE SANDBOX, directed by Edward Albee at the Cherry Lane Theatre, extended through May 17.

Arthur French appears in Stephen Adly Guirgis' THE LITTLE FLOWER OF EAST ORANGE, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. A co-production of the LAByrinth Theater Company and The Public Theatre, extended through May 4.

Rasa Allan Kazlas directs THE LETTER, a one-act by Chuck Rose, for the Emerging Artists Theatre. Featuring HB Ensemble member Shaun Wilson, with Marc Castle and Cash Tilton. At The Roy Arias Theatre Center, 3000 W. 43rd St., 5th Fl, April 16 thru May 4.

Mark Blum appears in Elaine May's new play ROGER IS DEAD with Marlo Thomas at the George Street Playhouse, April 8 to May 11.

Stephen DeRosa will appear in THE GERSHWINS' AN AMERICAN IN PARIS at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, April 26 to June 1.
HB Spring Faculty
Visit our web site for class details!

Acting
Peter Arcese (Text Analysis)
George Bartenieff (Shakespeare)
Michael Beckett (Technique, Scene Study)
Mark Blum (Acting with Camera)
Jim Boerlin (Technique, Scene Study)
Aleksey Burago (Actor/Director Workshop, Chekhov)
Snezhana Chernova (Acting-Physical Technique) NEW!
Joseph Daly (Technique, Scene Study)
Rosemary De Angelis (Technique & Scene Study)
Laura Esterman (Advanced Scene Study)
Carol Goodheart (Advanced Sense Memory Technique,
  Scene Study: Mamet & Pinter)
Sam Groom (Acting with Camera)
Anne Jackson (Advanced Scene Study)
Jeanne Kaplan (Technique, Scene Study)
Rasa Allan Kazlas (Improvisation, Technique & Scene Study)
Karen Ludwig (Acting with Camera, Rehearsal in Action)
Marion McCorry (Technique & Scene Study)
Edward Morehouse (Technique, Scene Study, Text Analysis)
Carol Morley (Technique & Scene Study)
Sanford Morris (Technique & Scene Study/Monologues, Basic Technique)
Rochelle Oliver (Technique, Intermediate/Advanced Scene Study)
Austin Pendleton (Advanced Scene Study,
  Tennessee Williams Scene Study)
Carol Rosenfeld (Technique, Scene Study)
Lorraine Serabian (Technique & Scene Study)
Trudy Steibl (Technique & Scene Study)
Tony Vellela (Character Studies) NEW Special Workshop!
Amy Wright (Performance Lab)

Directing
Aleksey Burago
Jack Hofsiss NEW!

Improv
Rasa Allan Kazlas (Improv, Improv for Actors)
John Monteith (Improv)
John Monteith & Suzanne Rand (Performance Improv)

Movement & Body Work
Martha Bernard (Alexander Technique)
Michael Blake (Movement Workshop)
Robin Christian-McNair (Feldenkrais Method)
Joseph Daly (Fencing)
Jim May (Dance Technique, Movement Workshop)
Stefanie Proessl (Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method)
Nathalie Paoli / Siri Sat Kaur (Kundalini Yoga)
Nancy Strom (T'ai Chi)
Fred Timm (Movement for Actors)

Musical Theatre
Martha Bernard (Singing)
John Bowen (Singing)
Philip Carroll (Music Reading & Vocal Technique)
Helen Gallagher (Musical Performance)
Eric Michael Gillett (Musical Theatre Acting)
Dan Manjovi (Singing, Musicianship II, Building Repertoire,
  Song Presentation)
Carol Morley (Approaching the Song/Aria as Scene)
Ann McCormack (American Musical Theatre)
Lorraine Serabian (Musical Theatre Presentation)

Professional Development
Eric Michael Gillett & Guests (Actors' Survival Series)

Speech & Speaking Voice
Ruth Berkowitz (Speech, Dialects, Recitation of Shakespeare,
  Better English for Everyone)
Robin Christian-McNair (Speech, Linklater Voice, Feldenkrais Voice)
Fernando Gambaroni (English for Actors)
Lenore Harris (Speech, Voice, Monologues & Public Speaking)
Penelope Kreitzer (Voice)
Ilse Pfeifer (Voice)
Amanda Quaid (Speech, Dialects)

Writing
Donna de Matteo (Playwriting)
Tracey Jackson (Screenwriting) RETURNING!
Julie McKee (Playwriting/Screenwriting Workshop)
Dael Orlandersmith (Solo Performance Playwriting) NEW!
David Spencer (Musical Theatre Libretto I and II)

Young People's Classes
Ruth Berkowitz (Speech, all ages)
Marlene Mancini (Acting, ages 9-14 and 14-17)
Ann McCormack (Musical Theatre, ages 12-17)
Trudy Steibl (Acting, ages 13-17)
Claudia Terry (Acting, ages 9-14; Playwriting, ages 13-17)
HB Studio began in 1945 and aims for a meaningful dramatic expression of the times and country in which we live. To help establish a theatre of experimentation based on classic tradition, the Studio is dedicated to the development of individual artists, who may actively contribute to a theatre of national character. Conceived as an artistic and working home, it offers an outlet for practice and growth for the professional theatre artist, and an opportunity for the young to establish roots in their intended craft. The Studio's guiding principle is creative freedom, which has as its logical consequence responsibility to a noble art.

212.675.2370
www.hbstudio.org
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