Seydways Master Class: Los Angeles

Seydways Master Class: Los Angeles

Seydways Master Classes are exclusively for professional actors. They are designed to be on-going professional acting studios. Class size is limited to 10 students to maintain the intimacy and flexibility of in-depth acting exploration. These classes are designed to equip the actor with the tools, technique and training required to be successful in today’s acting profession. Based on his professional experience as a director and a teacher working with thousands of actors over the last 35 years, Richard Seyd has created specific techniques to help actors overcome the most common obstacles associated with the profession of acting. Our classes are built on a foundation of four goals:

The Trigger Approach & Scene Study

The nature of this work is very intimate, personal yet practical. The trigger approach is a technique originally developed as a way of breaking down text, thought by thought, to enable the actor to live more authentically and spontaneously in the moment during performance. The Trigger Approach is practiced and inhabited in traditional scene study through published text. It is designed to give the actor a working methodology for achieving the performance state of being effortlessly “in the moment”.

To find out more about The Trigger Approach, please read this insightful article written by Richard Seyd for Backstage West: How To Be “In The Moment” Without Really Trying. Also available for viewing is the Being in the Moment free online seminar, a series of videos in which Richard discusses how actors can be in the moment without really trying.

Character Memory Work

When studying scene work, Richard also instructs each class to utilize his approach for Character Memory Work. This technique is applicable to all components of professional acting: scene study, cold reading, auditioning, on-camera, and performance and script analysis.

Stretch Work

In support of The Trigger Approach and Character Memory Work, the Seydways Master Class works to incorporate Richard’s Stretch Work.

Stretch Work focuses on expanding your range as an actor. The actor and the teacher first agree on what areas of their work need to be strengthened. All actors have natural strengths and weaknesses. Through very highly structured improvisational work, the teacher focuses the actor on his or her own problem areas. Through this work, over time, the weaknesses themselves become strengths, enabling the actor to approach their work with more confidence and become more fully rounded as an actor. It is a profoundly effective way to continue growing as an actor. To find out more about Stretch Work, please read this interview with Richard Seyd featured in Backstage West: Stretch Work: An Interview with Richard Seyd.

Audition Technique

In the Seydways Master Class, we are afforded the luxury for individual audition coaching in any given class. Any student who would like to have audition preparation work incorporated into any class just needs to let Richard know as class begins. In addition to individual audition coaching, Richard rotates through the following aspects for professional acting training: co-starring, on-camera technique, commercial acting, script analysis, audition technique, character choice, scene mapping, relaxation and actor preparation.

When working on audition skills, the classes focus on cold readings, finding and preparing monologues that show your full range, and developing a marketing strategy for yourself as an actor, including dealing with casting directors, agents, photos, resumes, etc. Actors need a specific and repeatable technique for reading from scripts in high pressure audition situations. Time is also dedicated in finding appropriate monologue material, as well editing and getting pieces up on their feet. Underlying all of these approaches is the idea of empowering actors to place themselves in a peak state so they can consistently show up with their best work.

To find out more about Audition Technique, please read this article written by Richard Seyd and Bobby Weinapple for Callboard Magazine: Auditioning: Prepared Readings and Controlling the Time.

Class Details

Two scheduling options:

Thurs. 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM
Sat. 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM