Mulholland Academy Scene Study & Performance Class

I was given this group to teach through an acting program in a school in Amsterdam. They had been together for a year and were somewhat of a mixed bag as they studied acting on the side. They all have busy lives, jobs, families and differed wildly in their age range, acting experience and backgrounds. I was challenged at first because I wasn't sure where to begin with such a different group of people but I could sense in them the thirst for deep acting knowledge. Instead of going through scripts to stage and analyze scenes as they had been doing for a while; I decided to deconstruct what a scene is in its essence and guide them through the creation process in a fun way so as to ignite the fire in their bellies and release their inner child. After 6 weeks these wonderful and talented people had taken an enormous leap into the unknown and come out whole and fearless. The scenes and monologues they created from scratch were unimaginable when we first met and it's wonderful to see such significant development and understanding of self as an actor/actress. I learned a lot from needing to adapt and try new things and I'm grateful to have spent beautiful vulnerably creative moments with these students.