Bruce Hermann Acting

I am incredibly grateful to have a teacher who makes me so eager to come to class each week. Bruce has a remarkable ability to figure out how both actor and character see the world and then guides each actor to a personal understanding of what that character is doing. I do not know if I will ever find a teacher with a clearer grasp of technique, a greater passion for sparking my creativity, or a deeper understanding of me as an actor.

He seeks the truth in every moment, and he makes his students want to settle for nothing less.

-Kristen Hilkert

Class Schedule

Ongoing:

Scene-study workshop. Saturdays, 12pm - 3pm
Cost: $175 per 4 classes

Starting September 5, 2006:

Begining Meisner Class, Tuesday-Thursday, 7pm - 10pm
Class scheduled from September to May.
Cost: $300 per 8 classes

Starting September 6, 2006:

Scene-study workshop. Wednesdays, 7pm - 10pm
Cost: $175 per 4 classes

Contact Bruce to interview for classes.

About the Classes

Beginning Meisner Class:

This class is the classic first year of Meisner exercise work, organically exploring acting as a genuine human experience. Rather than approaching the work of the actor as a process of generating pretense and behavior based loosely on human truth, I insist on the actor embracing and honoring the real experience of the moment. The ability to do this requires a concentrated foundational training and the actor must first master the fundamental techniques of concentration of attention, relaxation, freeing the imagination, honing observation skills, and releasing physical and vocal tension inherently present in the body.

Through a series of exercises the actors investigate objectives, overcome obstacles, and utilize moment to moment actions in order to get what they need. The exercise work eventually leads to working with scripts, always insisting on retaining the improvisational nature of great acting work. Every step of the way I emphasize the importance of genuine talking and listening and of responding to stimuli from the surrounding environment. While taking each actor into the work through an understanding of physical action, I also present the actor with exercises designed to free the emotional life present in each of us. By the end of this training, I hope to see an actor living truthfully at each moment, fully immersed in the world of the script and able to genuinely talk and listen, operating impulsively and spontaneously in response to the other actors.

Acting is not about having a great personality, or wearing the right clothes. It is a craft. A craft that reveals humanity in response. Your humanity. It is an art of revelation. The first year of the work is akin to peeling away the layers of an onion. So all that is left is you and your acting. No one can teach you how to act, but spontaneity, impulsiveness. and responsiveness can be developed. Your real acting is in response. My hope is that this work may allow you to be ready, willing, and able to allow the unexpected to occur, moment after unanticipated moment. Acting is living (life!) truthfully in an imaginary circumstance. The purpose of this work is to bring you to life.

Scene-Study Workshop:

The other class will be a scene-study workshop starting September 6, 2006. After developing a foundational understanding of themselves as an acting instruments, actors are ready to investigate and utilize intellectual skills which will allow them to interpret and effectively analyze scripts. This class continues a life-long cultivation of process; each actor developing his/her way of working. Identifying and trusting that which is instinctive, making deeply personal choices, understanding the necessity of homework, and creating and implementing a work-ethic that will be effective in the marketplace. This is the class where each actor develops their chops and the confidence that goes with those chops.