#stageacting

There’s something about this shot from Dog Day Afternoon onstage that just hits.

Jon Bernthal standing out there like a live wire — jaw tight, chest heaving, body practically vibrating with rage and desperation — like Sonny’s about to tear the whole street open with one more shout.

And the way the scene is framed?

The building behind him, the harsh lights, the crowd watching… it feels like the exact moment everything spirals and there’s no going back.

Bernthal brings this raw, dangerous energy to Sonny that feels so real it’s almost uncomfortable — the kind of performance where you can practically feel the tension in the room. like the audience forgets they’re watching a play and suddenly they’re standing on the sidewalk outside the bank with him.

Theater like this doesn’t feel polished.

Thank you, Shashin Studio - Clément Samson , you always had the eye to catch the best of my stage performances XD

What will I do without you? 9-9

Love you bro! ❤️

Acting Classes

Only the imaginative, risk-taking, transformational actor can inhabit new emotional, physical and vocal territory. Therefore, the goal is to expand the self to encompass the character, not to contract the character to the limited self.

And so, training in the theatre is all about opening and revealing. Even “technique” or skill classes of quality should have as their goal the releasing of the heart, mind, and soul of the actor. For, in the end, true creativity and a singular vision can only come from the deepest sources of personal intuition and impulse. And an artist of vision will ultimately have a greater impact than an artist of competence. To achieve these goals, students are encouraged to approach their work boldly and with a spirited sense of play. They are trained to be in the habit of experimenting and working without fear. Only risk-taking will lead to those rewards. After all, revising the insignificant or the habit is an empty exercise.

Passion and commitment are not only required of the professional. A student’s commitment is at least as important as his/her talent level. We’ve all seen first-year conservatory students with great facility who are either too unmotivated or unfocused to follow-through on their promise. The committed student, on the other hand, discovers that hard work, perseverance and the love of a challenge will lead to a life of earned rewards.

Finally, it is my task to train the student to think and create independently of his teacher. Therefore, we do not concentrate on temporary results, but on the power of the working process. If I can impart the tools of the trade to my students and those students can employ those tools to create wondrous things from the richest part of his or her experience and imagination, I will know that I have done my job.

I provide many acting classes including actor improvisation, acting with the camera, auditioning on camera, multi-scene study, character masks, and more. To learn more about all my actor workshops and classes, contact me today!

Welcome to The Frisch Approach, your ultimate acting school in Santa Barbara, CA. As actors and serious adults, our work is specific, constructive and imagination-based. These actor workshops are designed for students to transform and grow class by class. To achieve these goals, students are encouraged to approach their work boldly and with a spirited sense of play. They are trained to be in the habit of experimenting and working without fear. Only by taking risks can an actor fully create and inhabit a dynamic character.

_“Peter is responsible for creating the kind of actor I am today. He taught me how to truly take risks in my work, invest authentically in my characters, and expect nothing but professionalism. The method Peter taught is still one that I use today – he gave me the tools to access, emotionally and intellectually, very dense material. He allowed me to see that there is always a way that is deeper and truer than you first imagine.” _

- Julianne Moore, Academy Award, Best Actress 2015

With a thorough knowledge of the field, the master teacher emphasizes the complementary nature of proven techniques and is not tempted by competitive, isolationist dogma. Numerous approaches have valuable components – Stanislavsky, Meisner, Chekov, Strasberg, Adler, Grotowski, the classicists – all have made innovative contributions to the field. The job is to show students how these components interrelate and when techniques can best be employed. An actor has mastered the acting craft when he thinks of all techniques as tools, learns how and when to employ them, understanding and integrating their use in daily work. Thorough knowledge of the craft and a clear, working process also enables the actor to remain “director-proof,” not subject to the whims or torments of the bad or inexperienced director.

I offer many acting classes including:

Actor Improvisation

On-Camera Acting

Character Masks

Dirty Acting

The Working Actors Lab

The Actors Emotional Preparation

Sounding Shakespeare

Classic Lab

Shapeshifting

Audition Coaching

Physical and Vocal Adjustments

And More!

I have directed 160 productions in the New York and regional theatre produced 150 hours of network television in LA. I’ve been Artistic Director at Equity theatres, and Head of Drama at the prestigious Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, and on the conservatory faculty at Carnegie, The Juilliard School, Harvard, and Boston Universities.

Critical precision is fundamental to the best of teaching. Any leader in the arts should be measured by their ability to see and their facility to say and guide with accuracy. The arts are especially prone to vagueness and subjectivity and so it is imperative to make sure the program is clear, the progression sensible, the values clearly established, and that any criticism is based on specific, established criteria. If you'd like to learn more about all of my acting workshops and classes, contact me today at The Frisch Approach.