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Acting Classes
Class Details:
What: Shakespeare Scene Study
Dates: Intro workshop December 17th, then Wednesdays and Sundays in January
Times: Saturdays 1:00-3:00PM, Wednesdays 5:30-7:30
Price: $25 per class
Requirements: Full COVID vaccination
SHAKESPEARE SCENE STUDY
with Jim Maxwell
FREE introductory workshop December 17th!
Words from Jim about the class:
We'll have a free introductory class on December 17th, choose short scenes, skip a week to learn the scenes, then bring them into class. We'll take a run at them. Then we'll open a window into the structure of the scene. We'll go to the basics without considerations or concerns about the period of the play or the language, without concern for the fact that it's Shakespeare. We'll work on a structure common to all dramatic theater: relationship of the characters, circumstances and intentions.
After exploring the structure we'll pay attention to the language. Words come last, they are loaded with intention but we should first be very clear and specific about what the intention is. When we understand that the words, exactly in the order and in the way they are written, are a means to an end and not the end itself we will have the priorities in the right place. In Shakespeare that understanding is very important to effective performance. So the goal is to clarify our approach to a Shakespeare scene so that we'll be more comfortable and assured in our development of the role. As always, the class will be a safe place where you can explore the material without fear of failure. There is no such thing as failure in an acting class.
Jim returns to his home ground, acting and teaching. From country disc jockey in Lansing, Michigan while getting an undergraduate degree in radio and television from Michigan State, doing some acting in the theater department, he went on to an MFA in acting at Penn State, where he had the good fortune to train with two brilliant teachers, Richard Edelman and Manuel Duque, both of whom were assistants to Sanford Meisner in the early days of Meisner's highly influential work with actors at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. While headquartered in New York in the following years, Jim traveled to regional theaters around the country and continued classes with Richard, Manuel, and with Michael Shurtleff. Favorite roles include Treplev in The Sea Gull, Horatio in Hamlet, Bluntschli in Arms & The Man, Tom in The Glass Menagerie, Austin in True West, and Marlowe in She Stoops To Conquer. For livelihood and family, also for the challenge of it, Jim went to
Meet the Instructor!
Vermont Law School. He clerked for Justice Ernest W. Gibson III at the Vermont Supreme Court, served as deputy state's attorney for Windham County and stayed with the law in private practice. Through these years he has continued teaching whenever possible, locally and teaming with Richard Edelman for workshops in New York and California. In the past few summers he has played the Father in Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice, various roles in Mother Courage, and Tartuffe, all directed by Karla Baldwin for Apron Theater at Next Stage in Putney. He appears as Bill Blakely in Bryan Santiago's short film Grafton, gold award winner for Best TV Pilot at the International New York Film Festival for 2021.