Spring 2024 Class Schedule:
L I V E I N T H E M O M E N T
6-week Scene Study Intensive
Monday Night Michael Chekhov Technique
Online: Stanislavski’s Cognitive Analysis
6-week Scene Study Intensive:
“Gesture in Action”
One scene. One partner. Six weeks of intensive work on Konstantin Stanislavski’s Active analysis. Come live in the moment.
This in-person weekly scene study intensive for the professional actor meets on Monday nights for 6 sessions.
The work is grounded in the belief that all acting is psychophysical and plays out at the intersection of the actor’s imagination and body.
The class incorporates the methodologies of Konstantin Stanislavski, Michael Chekhov, Warren Robertson, and others.
The focus is on releasing the actor’s fullest potential and creative individuality via the techniques of Playing Action, Psychological Gesture, and the rehearsal process of Active Analysis.
Consecutive Mondays January 29 - March 4, 2024 from 7:00-10:00 PM
By audition or previous students only || Limited to 12 people
Email: hugh@hughogorman.com to set up an audition appointment. Former students of Mr. O’Gorman need not audition.
Tuition: $450 one time payment (due before the first class)
Location: MiMoDa Studio (entrance through Paper Or Plastik Cafe), 5774 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90019
Contact Hugh O’Gorman to request to enroll in the class:
Monday Night Michael Chekhov Technique Training: “Transformation & Text”
This ongoing, in-person training focuses on the essential, core elements of Michael Chekhov’s psychophysical acting technique, whom Stanislavski considered to be his most “brilliant pupil”. The work is grounded in the belief that all acting is psychophysical and plays out at the intersection of the actor’s imagination and body.
The particular focus of this session will be on characterization, transformation, and text. In other words, how is the role different from the daily self? How does one transform to meet the imaginary given circumstances of the character? Chekhov’s technique will be employed on your feet to create character and applied to text. All participants in this class must come prepared with a specific role to work on, as well as a memorized monologue or scene from a script.
The class meets Monday nights for 8 sessions over two months.
Consecutive Mondays April 8 - May 27, 2024 from 7:00-10:00 PM
By Audition Only || Ongoing Monthly Enrollment Available
Email: hugh@hughogorman.com to set up an audition appointment. Former students of Mr. O’Gorman need not audition.
Tuition: 4 Consecutive Classes - $300 (4/8 - 4/29; 5/6 - 5/27);
Auditing is available only through the Curiosity Group.
Location: MiMoDa Studio (entrance through Paper Or Plastik Cafe), 5774 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90019
Contact Hugh O’Gorman to request to enroll in the class:
Stanislavski’s Cognitive Analysis (Online)
Over the final stretch of his career, Konstantin Stanislavski, along with his former student and colleague at the Moscow Art Theatre, the director Maria Knebel, developed a multi-pronged, holistic acting process called ‘Active Analysis’. It is comprised of two parts” 1) Cognitive Analysis and 2) Physical Analysis. This 6-week online PraXis Acting Studio class with Hugh O’Gorman is a deep investigation into part one, Cognitive Analysis.
“To evaluate the facts means finding a key to the secrets of the character’s spiritual life hidden under the facts and the text.” -Konstantin Stanislavski
At the most fundamental level, actors need to be able to read a script for its dramatic action, as playing action is what you will eventually do in performance. More specifically, as action is embedded in events, actors need to read a script for the specific event in each scene. Therefore, in your own acting you need to become ‘event detectives’, actively investigating and discovering clues for how to discover the events which you will eventually act in performance. As action is at the heart of every event, when you identify the events of any script, you also reveal its dramatic action. The work will prepare you for rehearsal, what Stanislavski himself called “Mental Analysis”. It is comprised mostly of tools that will assist in how to read a script and prepare your role alone, including some psychophysical exercises you can do before you meet with your scene partner. A thorough vetting of the Cognitive Analysis is absolutely necessary before you get to the Physical Analysis. In fact, what you are able to do and accomplish in the physical work will depend on how much effort you have put into the cognitive aspects.
What I can confidently say about the process presented here is that it is reliable, repeatable, and time-tested in the real world by working professional actors and student actors alike. It will lead to success in your work. And again, by success, I specifically mean performing to your fullest potential with the least amount of interference, exacting precision, and long-term repeatability. This process gets results. The track record is strong. Playable action is the result.
“Creative feeling is guided along the pathways prepared by mental analysis. The actor should observe this sequence during Active Analysis.” -Maria Knebel
This online class meets for 6 weekly sessions via Zoom and is structured into three parts. The first part is comprised of the introduction of Stanislavski and Knebel’s vocabulary for Cognitive Analysis; part two is the application of the technique via analysis of a variety of short stories; the class concludes with the analysis of two full dramatic texts.
Consecutive Fridays April 12 - May 17, 2024 from 10 AM to 12 PM Pacific Time
Email: hugh@hughogorman.com
Tuition: $360 one-time payment
Location: Online via Zoom
Contact Hugh O’Gorman to request to enroll in the class:
“Hugh brings to every class he teaches his care, his particular insight, and his passion. The actors he sends to me always impress me with their training, their poise, and their inherent professionalism. I recommend him without reservation for any class he teaches.”
— Deborah Barylski: Emmy award-winning casting director